Charles Balding made his first recorded appearance in Toronto tenpin bowling in 1917. At that time he bowled for Gingello’s team when they defeated the powerful Glidden Varnish team in McCallum trophy challenge match. He was not aware at the time that he was bowling against his future teammates who would become ABC champions four years later.

Again in 1918 his Gingello’s team took on the erstwhile Glidden Varnish team, now known as Saunders, in a McCallum Trophy challenge match. This time his team was defeated.

Just when he joined the Saunders team is not known, but it was sometime after losing the above mentioned match to them, and may have been a of “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em”.

In any event, he was very much with them at the 1921 ABC tournament in Buffalo, New York, when the Saunders team won the ABC championship. He contributed 625 to the 3066 team total, having entered with an average of 186. He was 28 Years old at this time .

Thus, he became another of the 5 Toronto bowlers who were privileged to call themselves ABC Champions.

Charles continued to bowl thru the twenties and at least part of the thirties, appearing in three more McCallum Trophy challenge matches with the Harris Dairy team in 1929, 1931 and 1932. In 1929 this team brought the Trophy back to Toronto by defeating the C. H. Smith Co. team from Windsor. In 1931 his team defended successfully, but lost the Trophy again to a Windsor team in the last McCallum Trophy match ever bowled in Toronto.