It was only about 9 days ago that we spoke with Glenfair Lanes and decided we were going to try having the Memorial Day major event. Of course we were worried about a laundry list of things. Some obvious things like concerns around COVID and if we’d even have a large enough turn out worth the time and energy of trying. Boy are we glad we took the risk and the challenge on of having the event. The entire weekend felt like a reconnecting and rekindling of many friendships and social circles. The COVID precautions slowly became a thing in the background and many people began to really enjoy being together again and bowling like they used to.
Not only did it seem special in a lot of sentimental ways, it was very special in a very data driven way too. Like a new entry record kind of special! Our previous record was 277 entries with 185 qualifying entries. This weekends event drew an unprecedented 317 total entries with 226 qualifying entries. We never imagined this great of a turn out! We can’t thank the bowling community enough for all of the help in creating such a great turn out and such a successful event.
The event had 81 cashers, a 1 in 3.9 cash ratio and paid out over $13,000.00 in main and side event prize fund. We even had 33 new bowlers come out and try the event for the first time! The players bowled on a 43ft Patriot oil pattern that was very temperamental. There were some bowlers that seemed to bowl some very high scores, but for the most part the average cut score was in the medium range. The scores were higher on Saturday, but it seemed that with each strip and re-oil, the pattern played truer and truer and got harder and harder, with Monday having the lowest cut scores of the weekend.
The quarter finals was a big one with 60 bowlers on the floor and cutting to the top 6 in each division, but broken up into pairs of 3 people. The top score in a one game match out of the 3 bowlers would be the winner and move on. We had the #1, #3 and #6 seeds on one pair and the #2, #4 and #5 seeds on the other pair.
In the A division, we had #1 seed Bobby Hornacek vs #3 seed Kenneth Lange vs #6 seed Martin Purnell on one pair. The other pair had #2 seed Joey Damon vs #4 seed Dylan Taylor vs #5 seed Jon Mayer. On the first pair we had #3 seed Kenny Lange upset the red-hot Bobby Hornacek who had our high scratch set of the tournament with an impressive 790. On the other pair we had top seed (on the pair) Joey Damon staying very strong. He, like Bobby, had been bowling very well, cashing in the sweeper a few times and winning some side pots.
In the B division, we had #1 seed Josh Anthony vs #3 seed Chris Wheat vs #6 seed William Cleveland. On the other pair we had #2 seed Madison Holman vs #4 seed Gary Jenkins vs #5 seed Ron McDonald. On both pairs the top seed was the winner, which doesn’t happen often. Josh Anthony and Madison Holman would move on to face each in the B division final match.
In the C division, we had #1 seed Dave Lloyd vs #3 seed Tyler Morgan vs #6 seed Luke Sullivan. On the other pair we had #2 seed Jordan Potts vs #4 seed Chris Stafford vs # 5 seed James Rivera. On the first pair, the lowest seed and under dog Luke Sullivan came out with a dominant win. On the other pair, ironically enough, his very good friend Jordan Potts also won by a large margin, setting a battle of big match play scores against two friends that bowl them together.
The division final matches are always fun to watch. When over 300 entries come down to the top 6 bowlers, there is always some pressure in the atmosphere. In the A division match, we had a very impressive performance with Kenny Lange running off the front 11 and bowling a very nice 299 game to defeat Joey Damon. In the B division, we had a very back and forth match, but a big double in the 8th and 9th allowed Madison to get the lead and maintain it to move on. In the C division, Jordan was able to take down his buddy Luke and move on to the final match. Luke was looking to redeem himself from a previous performance that I supposedly “roasted” him for, but was unable to do so.
The final match at our Memorial Day event we use the eliminator format. So the 3 players bowl one game with the low score dropping out and then the final two players bowl one more game to determine the champion. The first game we had Madison heading out to a pretty good size lead and the low man coming down between Kenny and Jordan. Jordan needed to mark in the 10th to be able to move on, and after leaving a very difficult 3-10 split, was unable to pick it up allowing Kenny to move on to the final match.
The final match was a game of hot potatoes with both players having open frames and not being able to put anything together. A late double by Madison gave her the lead and enough to stay in the lead and win with a 198 to 153 final match! To top it off, both Madison and Kenny both didn’t get in the progressive pot, which made the total progressive pot being re-distributed add up to over $1,300, increasing everyone else’s progressive payout by $25.
