The Lions Club Bowl was a favourite gathering place and the scene of some great lacrosse and championship games.

 

October 4, 1952

October 5, 1950

October 15, 1949

From THE ST.CATHARINES STANDARD

MAY 26, 1933

ST.CATHARINES -- Manager Dick Blain of the Port Dalhousie Lakesides
has arranged two smart games for beach and city fans which should
prove interesting. Tomorrow night sees Haldimand Rifles (Oshweken)
stage their 1933 opener at the beachers home stand and some idea of
the strength of the native team (tc edit) for the coming senior
league schedule will be obtained when they trot out in their green
and yellow jerseys against the black and white Lounsbury crew.

Next Wednesday will be their official league opening when they play
host to the Rochester Senecas, champions of New York State, following
the opening of that circuit tonight when St. Catharines Athletics
journey to the Flower City to pry off the lid. Both games are
twilight affairs, going before the fans at 6:45 sharp. With the
Lakeside cushion increased in size this summer and accomodation for
2,000 spectators in the stands, attendance should run well up and
break the mark of the holiday when 1,500 saw the contest. The
Lakesides will practice every night until the official opening.

TC's Comments:

Hard to believe it, but there was once a 2,000 seat lacrosse bowl at
Lakeside Park just yards from the Lake Ontario shoreline.

I know the carousel was moved to it's present location some 20 or 25
years ago after some flooding problems at it's previous location.
Also the big parking lot probably wasn't there in the 30's, so there
would have been room there somewhere.

Tommy Bye, who was an 18-year-old player on the A's '44 Mann Cup
team, told me earlier this year that he remembered as a kid seeing
his father playing boxla down at the bowl at Lakeside Park. That was
the first I had heard of it.

And actually I learned there were a couple of other bowls for minor
lacrosse built in the city. One was at Bartlett Park (Tasker near
Welland Ave) and was the home of the "Alerts" in the city leagues
(bantam to junior), and another was in Western Hill at I think
Lincoln Park (near Chetwood) and was home of the "Shamrocks". I think
if you grew up in this city in those days you pretty much had to play
lacrosse.

I wasn't aware that there used to be a lacrosse facility at the park. If anyone has more information I would love to hear about it. My first experience with lacrosse was at the Lions Club "bowl".
dalhousie@portmemories.com