CARMAN BOWLERS' ASSOCIATION HALL OF FAME

CYNDIE SUTHERLAND

From a family with outstanding bowling talent, and with instruction from two of our hall of famers, it should be of little surprise that Cyndie-Lynne McKay would excel at 5 pin bowling.  A four time National Champion, Cyndie was part of an amazing core of boys and girls who won championship titles in the 1960’s and 1970’s.

Cyndie exploded onto the national stage in 1970, when she took the YBC 4 Steps to Stardom National Finals by storm, at the age of 11.  Competing at Dakota Lanes in Winnipeg, she set new records for the Bantam Girls division, as well as many of the overall records for boys and girls of all age groups.  Early on in the event, Cyndie threw triples of 825 and 945, and won 15 of her first 16 matches.  With two days to go, the newspapers declared that the organizers may as well award the first gold medal of the tournament to the little girl from Carman, and they were proven correct.  An RCMP escort met Cyndie back in Carman, along with a welcoming party of school children.  When the Carman 5 Pin Bowl re-opened its doors after the flood of 1970, Cyndie was there to throw out the opening ball.

By 1973, the youth program in Carman featured the finest group of teenage female bowlers in Canada.  They proved this by capturing the Pepsi-Cola High School Championships Girls Team National title.  Coached by Mary Ann Owen and John Harrison, the team consisted of Cyndie-Lynne, her sister Sherri-Lee McKay, Fern Kerr, Gerry Johnston and Theresa O’Brien.  Cyndie led the team, rolling 1056 for 4 games.  One year later, the team repeated the feat for a second National Championship, while Fern captured the Canadian Girls Singles title.  The team rewrote the record books, just as they had done in 1973.

In 1975, Cyndie once again advanced to the National Finals of the Youth Bowling Council 4 Steps to Stardom event.  In the Senior Girls competition, she captured the gold medal, becoming Carman’s only 2 time YBC National Champion.

Her final provincial title was captured in 1986, when Cyndie won the Ladies Singles crown at the Manitoba 5 Pin Bowlers’ Association Open Championships.  Qualifying in second place, she defeated Chris Monchak in her first match, and Chris’ mother Donna in the Manitoba final.  She advanced to the National Finals in Burnaby, British Columbia, where she was coached by her husband Ernie Sutherland.

League Play was perhaps where Cyndie accomplished some of her most impressive feats.  For 10 plus years she held the highest average in Carman, sometimes by a margin of over 25 pins.  With an adult career average well in excess of 250, she held averages over 265 on a number of occasions, still the best in Carman 5 Pin Bowl history.

It is with great pleasure that we honour Mrs. Cyndie Sutherland as an inductee to the Carman Bowlers' Association Hall of Fame.

Welcome to the Online Home of the Carman Bowlers' Association

The Carman Bowlers' Association Hall of Fame was created in 2007 to honor exceptional achievements in the sport of 5 pin bowling in Carman and area.  Our three inaugural members were inducted during the Carman Bowlers Association 25th Anniversary banquet, in front of over 200 bowlers and dignitaries from across Manitoba.