We had our last event at Brunswick Zone Glendale which doesn’t hold a lot of tournaments. We want to thank the GM Mike and the staff there for having us! The event drew 103 entries, had 26 cashers, a 1 in 3.9 cash ratio and paid out over $4,500.00! The event also drew out the following new members to join SFT AHT family. Henry DiFlorio, Kami Stewart, Kevin Paige, Chuck Lucas, Rich Moffatt, Elizabeth Maldonado, Robert Clark III, and Lamar Stofko welcome to the club! I hope you all had a great time in your first experience!
All of the players bowled on the 39ft USBC Open Championships oil pattern which yielded fairly low scores. We saw a huge +208 by Ron Gonzales which included front 10 and a 284 scratch. However our cuts for the weekend averaged around +50. The pattern had straight players and players that hooked the ball quite a bit. There was a decent amount of lefties in the quarter finals, although it was hard to tell if their ball reaction was significantly better.
As always we had few parlay power players. Robert Lewis won the Economy Parlay and made it all the way to the A division finals off his $25 investment. Robert did the same thing last weekend for the Memorial day event. Combined he has paid $50 and won over over $500! Nothing like 10 times your money and not even winning a tournament! Great bowling Robert! The other parlay power player was Barry Isler who made it to the quarter finals off of his $25 investment. Congrats to you as well Barry!
Also congrats to Eric Shade, Barry Isler, Kenny Scherf, John Ferrell, and Richard Armenta for making their first quarter finals appearance this weekend. We take a lot of pride in the fact that there are always so many new faces in the quarter finals and winner circle every weekend at SFT AHT. We believe that this is a reflection of a fair averaging system that allows for all players to compete on a fair level. We believe this is one of the key factors in the rapid growth of the club in the last year. Congrats to all of the bowlers above for getting that monkey off their back!
After 8 squads of qualifying and 3 games of quarter finals we were down to our top 8 bowlers out of 103 entries. In the A division, #1 seed Robert Lewis would take on #4 seed Mike Barcus, and #2 Seed Ben Spencer would take on #3 seed Dylan Taylor. Robert would defeat Mike, as Mike kept having troubles on one of the lanes. Ben stepped up in the 10th with the ability to double in the 10th to defeat Dylan, and a strike, nine spare would be a tie. Unfortunately for Ben, he struck and eight spared to lose by 1 pin.
In the B division, there was #1 seed Jeff Brackett vs #4 seed Bo Copeland, and #2 seed Robin Unfricht vs #3 seed Brian Cail. Both of these matches weren’t too close with Jeff and Robin defeated their opponents pretty easily. The 2nd round of the semi-finals had a pretty clear cut winners as well. Robin defeated Jeff, and Dylan defeated Robert.
This led up to a pretty exciting match between two players that are well known and well-liked by a lot of the bowlers in the club. Both players were in their first ever SFT AHT title match. However, the big difference was that Robin was not in the progressive pot, which meant the other quarter finalists would get more money if she won the tournament. It was a pretty good match with Dylan doubling early and staying clean to slowly grind away the handicap difference. Going into the 10th frame a mark would lock it up for Dylan but a 3,6,10 stood between him and the $1,000.00. He missed the spare and gave Robin the opportunity to strike in the 10th to win the match. She wasn’t able to do so and Dylan Taylor won $1,000.00, his first SFT AHT title, bragging rights, and the big check! Great bowling to both players!
One last interesting mentionable was how Dylan won his $1000 by paying nothing! You read that right, nothing! As an avid bowler of the SFTAHT club, Dylan has taken advantage of his membership card each time he has entered with progressive pot. After earning all his punches on his card, he saved his free progressive pot and free entry rewards cards to enter this weekend. What a nice way to end an expense-free weekend and winning your first tournament! If you’re a member, do not forget to ask for your punches!
Our next event is at AMF McRay plaza lanes on June 15th. We will be bowling in the same center and on the same pattern as the ACBA event on June 16th. The ACBA event will be featuring beat the director incentives. We will see you all there!
