Our event this weekend was at Brunswick Via Linda lanes. The event had a great turnout with 98 entries (68 qualifying entries and 30 economy parlay), 27 cashers and 1 in 3.4 cash ratio and paid out over $4,500.00 in main and side event prize fund. The players bowled on a very easy 39ft Don Carter oil pattern that had some of the highest scores of the year. High scores normally create two things very exciting bowling because of the striking and also very frustrated competitors. Bowling extremely well, shooting high scores to only miss the cut is one of the most frustrating things a tournament bowler can experience and that definitely happened this week. The average cut scores for the weekend were +82, which may not sound that high, but there were certain players in the field that really matched up well and bowled some huge scores. Congrats to Nicole Smyth, Correen Lieber, Joe Ashley, Zack Huglin, Eric Flick, Mike Fitzgerald, Mike Killgore, Don Kneifel, Bryton Bobbitt, Joe Ashley, and William Kegely who all had sets of +130 or more! That pretty much tells you how high scoring they were for quite a few players. The main reason this happened was because the pattern really allowed players to play it pretty close to a house shot. It was very blended giving plenty of free hook and even some hold in the middle of the lane.
We want to welcome all of the new bowlers who joined us for their first event this weekend. Brian Dimond, Josh Williams, Linda Skinder, Mike Williams, Jack Stewart, Brian Allen, Bill Dimond, and DJ Kneifel all bowled in their first event with us this weekend! A huge thanks to Tony Maresca for spreading the word so much in his home center. Tony has been doing things to try and help grow the sport of bowling for decades now! Congrats to Josh Williams for being the only new bowler to make it all the way to the quarter finals! Also congrats to DJ Kneifel for winning the parlay today in his first event! We also had a parlay power player today in Mike Killgore! He was able to make it all the way to the quarterfinals and even further with his $25 parlay entry.
The quarter finals were a lot like the rest of the event with the scores being extremely high. The division leaders as a whole averaged +141!! That is crazy! We have never seed scores that high this season! It ended with #1 seed William Kegley vs Nicole Smyth in the C division, #1 seed Mike Killgore vs Derek Hamm in the B division, and #1 seed Joe Ashley vs Mike Fitzgerald in the A division. The #1 seeds almost had a clean sweep, as Joe only needed to mark to force any kind of strikes out of Mike. Unfortunately, Joe's shot in the 10th crept a little high leaving a split and giving Mike the chance to fill 20 to win his match. He was able to do that and be the only #2 seed to make it to the final match. William won his match by about 20 pins and Mike Killgore did as well.
The final match was the "exciting" part that I talked about in the intro. All three players were in it from the very beggining and still alive to the very end. It wasn't like they needed a lot of help to be able to win either. It was going to come down to the 10th and pin count. The first two to finish were Mike and William and they had the potential to strike out in the 10th to shut out Fitzgerald. However, if they both struck out, Killgore would win by 1 pin. Mike bowled first and was able to throw the strike. William went next, his ball crept high, but his power and speed was able to trip the 4 and the 6 and give him the strike. Mike wasn't phased by the lucky break, got up and threw another great shot for another strike. Williams next shot was very close to his last one, but left the 4 pin this time giving Mike the win, $1,000.00 and his first ever SFT AHT title. However, the excitement wasn't over as Fitzgerald now had a chance to strike out in the 10th to take 2nd from William. Mike threw a great first shot and the pins responded with a strike. His second shot was a little left, and he knew he needed it to hook. It did a little and mixed them around a bit and he almost rolled the 2 pin forward but wasn't able to which gave him 3rd and William a runner up finish!
Thanks to everyone for coming out to the event this weekend! It was another great one! See you all next weekend at AMF Chandler for a Saturday event!
