Location:
Our standard event at AMF Chandler drew 96 total entries (59 qualifying entries and 37 economy parlay), had 27 cashers, a 1 in 3.5 cash ratio and paid out over $4,500.00 in main and side event prizes. The players bowled on a custom SFT pattern Warner Blvd. that was 43ft in length and yielded high scoring all weekend. We saw many runs at 300 games, an 800 series, and our highest 3 game total with handicap EVER! That story is an entertaining, yet brutal one that I will save for later!
As always we like to talk about the new friends we made and the bowlers that had some new found success this weekend. We want to welcome Geno Zarcone, Jason Swinney, and James Mcelmurray to the SFT AHT family! They bowled in their first event this weekend, and we hope they enjoyed their first experience with us! Our parlay power players this weekend were Justin Jones, Jason Satterlee and Brian Waugh, so great bowling to those guys! Also congrats to Danny Lowis, Justin Jones, Aaron Yamamoto, Chad Clark, Brian Waugh, and Garrett Stilwell on either making their very first quarter finals this weekend, or making their first quarter finals in quite some time. We are always excited to see new faces having success at our events!
Now to the story you were waiting for. For those of you that may not make it out to the events very often, there has always been, and always will be the debate of “Should I economy parlay, or just qualify?”. There are a handful of stories where bowler’s turned $25 into $1,000.00 thanks to the parlay, and many more where bowlers learned from their affordable parlay experience, bowled another squad and went on to win the tournament. This event’s story, isn’t about either of those scenarios, but instead, about why some people “will never parlay again”.
The always sociable George Dayton, came in to bowl his first squad on Saturday. He had just finished bowling the Mesa Masters that morning, and after a very frustrating performance was already attempting to sell most of his equipment off. It wasn’t even but a few hours later, feeling defeated, he entered the economy parlay. Then, incredibly, he came out of the gates on fire, with games of 259, 290, and 266 for a massive 815 series. This was George’s very first 800 series, and was also our highest 3 game series with handicap, 911, in the history of SFT AHT. While there was a lot of pride in his accomplishment, he had won the parlay, and now…. still needed to qualify. While he still bowled well, a +107 didn’t look promising on a condition that yielded very high scores. In the final squad of the day, he got bumped out of the cut, creating by far the most brutal and entertaining parlay regret ever seen. He bowled over 900 with handicap and didn’t advance. It is important to note, that the parlay has many success stories as well, but George is a regular and we all had fun with his incredible bowling, and incredibly ironic story that he provided for all of us this weekend. Either way, he bowled 800 on a condition that was tougher then a house shot, and nothing can take that achievement away from him. Great bowling George and thanks for being such a good sport about this story!
Our semi-final matches were pretty lop sided wins except for the C division. Lynn Arthur started down in his match against Justin Jones, but had a string of strikes in the end to rally back. Lynn needed to double in the 10th to really force Justin to strike out. Lynn got the first one, but missed in the 2nd. This forced Justin to spare, which he was able to do, to win his very first C division title. The A division champion was Jason Satterlee who defeated Charlie Price and the B division champion was Kyle Abbas who defeated Zack Huglin.
The final match was destined to be a good one. We had new comer Justin Jones who is a no thumber that was improving very quickly from his 134 average, Jason Satterlee who has been on a hot streak and was really finding success with some new equipment, and finally, Kyle Abbas who arguably was the favorite going into the match. Kyle, had just finished 2nd the day before at the Mesa Masters and had been executing at a very high level all weekend. He also was one of the guys scoring the highest through-out the entire event.
The final match started off with opens from Justin, and strikes from Jason and Kyle. In quickly became a great showdown between power lefty Jason, and smooth righty Kyle. It went all the way to the 9th and 10th frame. Jason went first, he nine-spared in the 9th and first shot in the 10th to give Kyle the ability to strike out to beat him. Kyle proved that his poise and physical ability at the Mesa Masters wasn’t a coincidence. He absolutely aced three shots in the 10th frame to win his very first SFT AHT title and $1,000.00! Great bowling to everyone, and thanks to Jason and Kyle for the great finish!
We look forward to seeing everyone at Glenfair lanes next Sunday, the 22nd for a minor event! See you all there!
Final Match: