Our event this weekend was at Bowlero Christown, and we would see a great turnout considering this was the first time that we have been back to Christown in about 5 years!!! We had 134 total entries (93 qualifying and 41 economy parlays) for this 2-squad event, with a cash ratio of 1 in 3.9 and paying out over $7,900.00 in main and side event prize funds. The players bowled on the 48ft PBA Shark pattern, that I do not think we have bowled on in quite a while. This pattern is a bit different in the fact that it is very long but doesn't use a lot of volume for the length. This creates an odd transition as the lanes as they "dry out" but they dry out in the middle and front part of the lane which causes the ball to hook early, so you have to move left. However, with most patterns you can continue to loop the ball more as they get drier because there are enough boards with no oil on them for the ball to continue hooking. This pattern had oil still on the outsides and down lane quite a bit, so when the ball hooked more you could not simply throw it more to the right (for right handers) because it would hit the out of bounds and would not come back. As the players had to move left, away from the early hook, they still had to keep the same kind of angle they used before. This would result in higher scores as the day went on and as bowlers moved left into the track of the lanes. We would see some pretty high cut scores with most bowlers with Jeff Bandes having the front 10 but would come away with an impressive 282-scratch game. It looked like bowlers would need to shoot 15-20 pins above their average per game to advance to the quarterfinals.
With our return to Christown we had some new bowlers join us for their first event this weekend. We would like to welcome Christopher Wing, Terry Reed, Erik Swanson, Adam Denoyer, Timothy Donovan, Doni Donovan, Richard Stuckenschneider, Micheal Logwood, Mark Hastings, Bob Harris, and Carita Sendaj to the SFT family. We hope you all had a fun time and look forward to seeing you at our next event. We had a few Parlay Power Players this weekend in Richard Armstrong, Nick Tejada, and Logan Spencer, who all would make it to the quarterfinals off their $30.00 economy parlay entry. Logan and Nick event made it all the way to the Finals for a chance to turn their $30 entry into $1,300!!! Congrats to Mark Hastings, Richard Armstrong, Aiden Skaugard, Steve Sanderson, Robert Sanders, Christopher Wing and Audie Atkins for making it to the quarterfinals for the first time or their first time in quite a while. Christopher Wing and Mark Hastings were able to make it to the quarterfinals in their very first event! Also, congrats to Bryan Schultz for winning Momma’s Mystery Pot, with a score of 172, for $500.00! We would have had another winner from the first squad, but both the bowlers that had their number drawn were not in the Momma’s Mystery Pot. Your winner of the free plastic ball raffle, with an option to upgrade to any Track high performance bowling ball for $85.00, was Daniel Milstead.
Since this event was only 2 squads there would be no re-oil before the quarterfinals. The scores for the quarterfinals would continue to be high with Jonathan Ferrell having a chance at a 300 game but a pesky four pin would stand in his way for a 277 game. We would have 26 quarterfinalists with the A Division having 8 bowlers and the B & C Divisions having 9 each. With our 1 in 3 cut ratio, from the quarterfinals to the semi-final round, we would cut to the Top 2 bowlers in the A Division while the B and C Divisions would cut to the Top 3 bowlers. Your leader in the A Division would be Jonathan Ferrell (+159) who would face off against Chris Silva (+110). The B Division would see #1 seed Rene Villa (+162) take on Xavier Altamirano (+157) and Nicholas Tejada (+90). The C Division #1 seed would be parlay power player Logan Spencer (+124) versus Chuck Lucas (+110) and Ken Nelson (+43).
The A Division Semi-Final would be a back-and-forth match between Jonathan and Chris with it all coming down to the ninth and tenth frames. Jonathan would get up in the ninth and would get a ten-pin but would miss the spare to give Chris a chance to take the lead. Chris would finish his ninth with a strike and then would double in the tenth and get eight on the fill to finish at 240. Jonathan would need to match Chris in the tenth to win the match. Jonathan would strike on his first shot and then crush the pocket on his second shot. He would again strike on his fill shot to win the match with a score of 246 to get himself into the Finals.
The B Division Semi-Final round would feature two bowlers from Tucson in Rene Villa and Xavier Altamirano. Both Rene and Xavier travel up to the Phoenix Metro area to compete in our events and were looking at one of them making the Finals but standing in their way was parlay power player Nick Tejada. This match would see Rene and Xavier would put up a good fight with Rene finishing with a 229 game and Xavier coming in with a 205 game. Nick would get lined up, after struggling a bit early, and pop off a 6-bagger to run away with the match and finish with a huge 257 game to secure his spot in the Finals.
The C Division Semi-Final match would a nail biter with everything coming down to the tenth frame. It would feature our other parlay power player Logan Spencer taking on two lefties in Chuck Lucas and Ken Nelson. Chuck and Logan would both open in the ninth frame to open the door to give Ken a chance to catch up. Ken would nine-spare in the tenth and it would come down to the tenth frame. Chuck would finish the tenth with a mark and nine for a score of 199. Logan would be up next and would split leaving the 4-6-7. Logan would not pick up the spare and finish at 224. Ken would need to double in order to win the match. Ken’s first ball was good off his hand and crush the pocket for a strike. His second shot would hit the pocket a bit light leaving a mixer 10-pin which would not pick and would finish at 222 giving Logan the win.
Going into our Finals we would see all three bowlers looking to add to their AHT SFT title count. Both Nick and Logan were looking at turning their $30.00 economy parlay entry into $1,300.00 first place prize. Jonathan Ferrell was looking to add his third title and had been bowling well all day. Nick was looking for his second title within the past year as he had won his first title late last year. Logan was looking to add his fourth title to his resume and had been pretty successful on this pattern all day.
The Finals would start off with all three bowlers looking to get lined up quickly. Logan would start off with a strike while Jonathan and Nick would make spares. Logan would struggle with the right lane and fall behind Nick and Jonathan. Jonathan would also struggle with carry midway through the match. Nick would again get lined up after his first shot and would runaway with the match by putting together an eight bagger. Nick would finish with a huge 284 game to win his second AHT SFT title and $1,300.00 first place prize. Jonathan would finish in second place with a score of 233 for $700.00 while Logan would finish in third place with a score of 193 for $400.00!
Thank you to everyone who came out this weekend to make this event a success. Also, a BIG thank you to Horace Paul for all the work he did in getting us back into this center after a five-year break. The staff at Bowlero Christown did an excellent job and the new renovations looked great from the last time we were here!
We will see you all this coming Saturday for our early bird 2-squad event at Mesa East Bowl! This tournament will be our last of the 2022 Spring Quarterly Circuit (April – June). Do not forget to pre-register if you plan to come out this Saturday as Mesa East Bowl usually has a high turnout.
Hope you all have a wonderful week, and we’ll see you this Saturday!!!
FINALS - Jonathan Ferrell vs. Nick Tejada vs. Logan Spencer
