This weekend’s event was at Brunswick Kyrene. The event drew 95 total entries (65 qualifying and 30 economy parlay), had 28 cashers, a 1 in 3.4 cash ratio and paid out over $4,400.00 in main and side event prize funds. The players bowled on a 44ft London oil pattern that played a lot tighter on the fresh, but once the pattern broke down, scoring sky rocketed. We haven’t bowled on this pattern before, but the key was to get your ball into a roll and play a little straighter along the track. Those that could do that were able to take advantage of the pattern. We saw the average cut scores for the weekend were pretty high compared to the last couple of tournaments and we even had an honor score. Congrats to Correen Lieber for her nice 300 game! Also congrats to Dan Lanious for winning the Momma’s Mystery Score with a nice 256 game for $500.00! The winner of the free Track plastic bowling ball was Michael Dragon.
We also want to welcome some new bowlers to the SFT AHT Family from this weekend. Bernard Goodman, Brad Blanchette, Michael Cook and Jacob Coay all bowled in their first tournament this weekend! Bernard even made it to the quarterfinals on his first try! We hope you all enjoyed yourself, and we hope to see you again soon! We had only one parlay power player this weekend in Justin Singleton. He was able to turn $25 into a spot in the Finals and a chance at the $1,000.00 first place prize. We also want to congratulate everyone who made it to their first quarterfinals or their first quarter finals in quite a while. Congrats to Bernard Goodman, Zac Bryan, Nicole Smyth and Elizabeth Randall!
The quarterfinalist bowled on the fresh oil pattern and the cut scores were still high with bowlers needing to shoot around +80 to advance to the semi-finals. In the A Division the #1 seed would be Ron Gonzales and he would take on parlay power player Justin Singleton. The B Division #1 seed would be Josh Black having to bowl against Anthony Dang. The C Division #1 seed was Patrick Sheridan versus newcomer Robert Smith, Jr. The advantage of each #1 seed player is that they are able to pick the pair of lanes that they want their match to take place. Also another advantage is that they get to choose the order of which player would start first.
The A Division semi-final match was a great match with Ron and Justin both striking in their 7th, 8th and 9th frames. This would all come down to the final frame. Ron was up first and his ball looked to be good off his hand, but his shot went a little high leaving him with the Greek Church (4-6-7-9-10). He wasn’t able to fill his frame leaving him at 194. Justin was able to step up and strikeout to win the match with a score of 239. The B Division semi-final match was also back and forth with both bowlers struggling to strike. Josh Black was able stay focused and defeat Anthony Dang, 233 to 188. The C Division was fairly close with the match coming down to the final frames. Robert Smith, Jr was able to complete his frames to put pressure on Patrick to fill his tenth frame. Patrick would get up and fill his tenth to advance with a score of 232 to 211.
The final match would see Justin looking for his 2nd SFTAHT title and both Patrick and Josh looking for their first title. All three bowlers would start off trying to get lined up as quickly as possible with Patrick getting an early strike to jump out to a small lead, but a split (2-4-8-10) in the fourth frame would even it up. Justin was able to stay clean early, but chopped a spare in the fourth frame to keep him from taking a lead. Meanwhile Josh was able to stay clean picking up his spares and not forcing any mistakes. A little more than halfway through the match Josh would build a small lead with Justin and Patrick trying to catch up. Justin was able to start a rally with strikes in the 7th and 8th frames, but a split in the 9th (2-4-10) would be his undoing. Patrick also was trying to keep up with Josh, but just couldn’t get any carry, leaving ten pin after ten pin. Going into the final frame Josh would only need to mark to win. His first shot was right on point for a strike giving him his first SFTAHT title and $1,000.00!!! Congrats to Patrick Sheridan on 2nd Place and also to Justin Singleton on 3rd Place!
Thanks to everyone for coming out this weekend to support the event. We look forward to seeing you all next Sunday at AMF Desert Hills! Hope you all have a great week!
