Handball Tourney Lures 110 Players

The 29th Lilac Open Handball Tournament, which runs today through Sunday at the Spokane Club, has drawn 110 players from the Northwest.

Singles and doubles will be contested, including a pro division.

Former Spokane resident John Robles, now of Seattle, heads the pro bracket. Robles finished the 1994-95 pro circuit ranked No. 6 nationally.

Also entered is John Egerman of Boise, a former pro. And Spokane’s Jay Balkenbush will make his pro debut this weekend.

The Lilac tournament traditionally serves as a tuneup for the pros, whose season runs from December to June.

Matches begin at 5 p.m. today and run through 10. Saturday’s schedule is 9 a.m.-10 p.m., with Sunday’s action beginning at 9 a.m. Championship matches begin at noon.

There is no admission charge.

Bowling

Thirty-one of the area’s top women bowlers, including five former champions, will convene at Colonial Bowl on Sunday for the ninth annual Queens Tournament.

Nine newcomers have increased the field from last year’s total of 22, but defending champion Julie Twiss and 1994 runner-up Julie Heath will continue to be among the favorites.

Other former winners in the field are Gerri Friberg (1993), Sandy Reynolds (‘92), Sandy Hanson (‘90) and Kay Kukuk (‘89).

The winner has her entry paid into the Washington Queens Tournament, May 4-5 in Moses Lake. And Colonial has added $200 to the prize fund. Twiss parlayed her local win into a state title, which earned her a paid spot in the 1996 national Queens tournament.

Bowling begins at 9 a.m. with the finals around noon.

Snowboarding

A new company in Salem, Ore., Goddess Snowboards, is anticipating girls will prefer to ride down the slopes on a snowboard designed for a girl, not a guy.

“They don’t want to look down and see a gun or an ugly color,” said Missy Samiee, who, with her brother, Chris, are owners of the company.

“A lot of girls are kind of sick of buying snowboards designed for guys,” said Chris, 31.

If Missy, 26, and Chris’ predictions are right, they may be carving a niche in an overlooked market.

Snowboarding has exploded in the last decade. It grew from 1.2 million participants in 1992 to 1.8 million in 1994, according to the National Sporting Goods Association.

While 79.1 percent are male, according to the National Ski Areas Association, the growth potential is in female ridership. There are 400,000 female snowboarders in the U.S. That number is expected to increase 25 percent in 1996.

Goddess Snowboards are designed with smaller people in mind. They come in 136- and 145-centimeter lengths and have a narrow waist for smaller feet. They’re also a little more flexible than the average snowboard, but have wood cores and capped edges, signs of high quality, and sell for $440.

The veteran snowboarders drew from personal knowledge when designing the boards.

, DataTimes