Our final event of the 2013 season was a great one! We had a great turn out, and as always, many story lines! The event drew 106 entries, 26 cashers, a 1 in 4 cash ratio and paid out over $4,500.00! The players bowled on an incredibly difficult 47ft Scorpion pattern, which as some of you may know, is the newest version of this pattern that was used in this year’s World Series of Bowling. The PBA telecast for this pattern comes on December 22nd. There were players that played the pattern straighter, and some played it a bit more inside but no one got their ball right of the 8 board as that was out of bounds for just about everyone. It seemed that the difference maker was just keeping your shots in play to leave easier spares.
As always we want to welcome all of the new bowlers that decided to come out and give us a try at this event. We are about to enter our third season and yet we still are getting new bowlers at every event giving the club a try and improving as bowlers. Kirk Ramsey, Russell Van Leuven, John Ritter, Sam Smalley, Alexis Atkin, and Michael Ziegler Sr. were all brand new to the SFT AHT and we hope they all had a great time at their first event! A special congrats to Alexis for making it to the quarter finals in her first event, also to Mike Ybanez, and Lee White for making their first ever quarter finals. Gary Demeny was also the only bowler this weekend to show the power of the parlay! Turning $25 into a $135 quarter finals check! Congrats to all of you for you accomplishments!
The A division semifinals were a close one with all three players being within 11 pins of each other. A late split by Russ Oviatt and open in the 10th by Aaron Mendoza allowed Hoyt Ward back in the match. A spare in the 10th frame sealed up the A division title for Hoyt and he moved on to be bowl in the title match. The B division finals were between Phil Thompson and John Payan, and after a little back and forth Phil was able to capitalize when he needed to move on to his 3rd title match ever. Although Phil was undefeated in all of his title matches so far, he wasn’t able to keep his record intact. Hoyt was able to convert a few more spares in one of the lowest scoring matches I have ever seen. Hoyt defeated Phil 178 with handicap to 152 to take home his first ever title and $1,000.00. Phil wasn’t in the progressive pot, which combined with additional money from the good turnout, created a great payout for everyone in the quarter finals!
Since this was the last event of the 2013 season, that means all of our point races were decided at the end of this event. A special congrats to Dylan Taylor who has worked incredibly hard all season and has deservedly won the 2013 Player of the Year honors. This seeds him into every quarter finals in the 2014 season. Also congrats to Robin Unfricht for female player of the year, Ron Gonzales for senior player of the year, and Joe Mascio for rookie player of the year. All of these players will receive $100 in SFT AHT credit, a special SFT AHT polo and a trophy. Our member’s only meeting is coming up on December 28th to determine all of our playing rules and guidelines for the 2014 season. Then on Sunday morning our Match Play Invitational will be at 8:30am, and our membership banquet will be later that night. All of the info for all of our year end member events will be posted online in the coming week.
We want to personally thank all of the SFT AHT members for being a part of a great season. It is all of you that keep us so motivated to continue to provide a product that is worthy of the passion you all share for the sport of bowling. See some of you at the events listed above but most of you won’t see us until next year!
