This weekend’s event was at AMF Desert Hills. The event drew 57 total entries (42 qualifying and 15 economy parlay), had 21 cashers, a 1 in 2.7 cash ratio and paid out over $2,800.00 in main and side event prize funds. The players bowled on a 40ft Kegel Highway to Hell oil pattern which, as the name indicates, wasn't the easiest of patterns. There was plenty of hook, even for 40 feet, which meant players could play all over the lane from straight to inside, to far left. However, this also meant that the pair to pair was very different since players were playing all over the place. The qualifying scores were low all day, the key was being able to make your spares and bowlers just needing to bowl their average to make it to the quarterfinal round.
There weren’t any new bowlers for this tournament. There were quite a bit of other bowling events going on throughout the valley. Congrats to Eric Flick and Bill Brackett on being this event's "Parlay Power Players" turning their $25 into a nice quarterfinals check! The winner of the free Track plastic bowling ball was Nicole Smyth.
The quarterfinals were played on freshly oiled lanes giving the bowlers a slightly different look than what they saw in the third squad. Due to the lower turnout the only Semi-Final match that would have to be played was in the A Division. The other divisions all cut to the top bowler in each division and that bowler would move into the final match automatically. In the A Division, the semi-final match would be between #1 seed Charlie Price (+57) taking on #2 seed Carlos Vejar (+40). Charlie would start off the match with a 3-bagger, much like he finished his last quarterfinal game in which he shot a nice 247 scratch to take the overall lead in the A Division. While Carlos couldn’t get lined up quickly enough and opened with a few splits. Charlie would wind up coasting to a nice 221 scratch game and defeating Carlos, 230 to 135, to move on to the Finals.
The way that Charlie was bowling and the fact that he just had two very strong games, it would be assumed that he was a favorite to win his fifth AHT SFT tournament title. Standing in his way would be B Division #1 seed Brian Schamber, who was looking for his first title, and C Division winner Brian Richardson, looking for his second title in his second title match. Brian Schamber and Brian Richardson would both start off the match with spares. Charlie would start the match just as he had for the previous two games with a double in the first and second frames, giving him an early lead. In the third frame Charlie would leave the baby split (3-10) and chop the 3-pin. This would give both Brian’s a chance to make up some pins. Brian Schamber looked to try to take advantage of Charlie’s open frame, but left splits in the fourth and fifth frames. Brian looked to be a bit fatigued as he had already bowled in the AZ State Master’s qualifying round, of six games earlier in the day, in addition to bowling six more games to get to the Finals.
Brian Richardson remained steady picking up his spares and staying clean through the seventh frame, when he missed a 5-pin. This would give a small window to both Brian Schamber and Charlie Price to try and get back into the match. Brian Schamber would strike in the 8th and 9th frames to put pressure on Brian Richardson, who had just opened in the 9th frame by missing a 3-pin. Charlie was unable to figure out the lane transition and couldn’t put anything together in the final frames finishing at 161. It would all come down to the tenth frame between the Brian’s. Brian Schamber was up first and needed to strike in order to make Brian Richardson mark in the tenth. Brian’s shot looked good, but hung a little and left the 1-2. Brian Schamber would fill out his tenth frame for a 191 game. Brian Richardson would start off his tenth frame with a clutch strike to finish at 216, giving him his 2nd AHT SFT title in only his 2nd Finals appearance and $600.00! Congrats to Brian Schamber on 2nd place and also to Charlie Price on 3rd place.
Thank you for everyone coming out this weekend and supporting the event. We look forward to seeing you all next weekend for our 3-day Labor Day Major event at Brunswick Mesa! Hope you have a great week!
