This weekend was another fun one! We had some unforeseen circumstances arise and forced us to change the location of the event last minute. This didn’t hurt our turn out too much as we had 56 total entries, 18 cashers, a 1 in 3.1 cash ratio and paid out over $2,600.00 in our main tournament prize fund. Our side events created another 17 entries in the sweeper and when combined with our high game pots paid out another $436.00! As always, even with a quick location change, I want to thank everyone for spreading the word and still getting a decent turn out under the circumstances.
The pattern they bowled on this weekend was the 43ft Dead Man’s Curve pattern. This was the 2nd time we were bowling on this pattern this season. A common thing that happens to bowlers bowling on a special pattern for the first time is that they assume that that pattern will play the same in every bowling center as it did the first time they bowled on it. However as bowlers continue to bowl on the same pattern numerous times in different houses, they quickly learn that one of the most important things, if not the most important thing, is the lane surface. The characteristics of the lanes are often an overlooked area in the handicap bowling community. Bowling on the same pattern in two different centers helped a lot of the bowlers this weekend see the kind of difference that lane surface can make. The overall scoring pace however was medium to high, as Saturday was in the +60 range but Sunday was in the +90 range. The pattern didn’t ever transition to crazy, but the bowlers did say they found themselves farther left earlier than usual.
As always we want to take a moment to recognize some of our new members and their accomplishments. First off, Joey Kolenc, Kyle Piersol, Billy Pretlove and Kenny Scherf, welcome to the SFT AHT family! I hope you all enjoyed your experience with us this weekend, and we look forward to seeing you in the future. Billy Pretlove actually joined the club at AMF Union Hills, but didn’t bowl the event. This event was the first event he got to show the competitors what he had to offer as competition and he made quite the run in his first event ever. He qualified on Saturday afternoon through the Senior and Women’s division and grinded his way through the quarterfinals. He never shot a real big game, but never shot a real low game. He took himself all the way to the semi’s in his first event ever. Excellent first run, Billy!
The quarter finals was interesting to say the least. The A Division was close among the top with Ron Gonzales and Billy Pretlove battling out for the 2nd spot. Shane led by a decent amount in the quarters and Billy just beat Ron out to get the 2nd spot. The B division had quite possibly the closest race going into the last game that I have ever seen. Every position was less than 5 pins away from each other. There were only 18 pins separating 1st place and last place going into the last game. This meant it was anyone’s game and it turned out to be an exciting finish. The bowlers that knew it were close buckled down and prevailed. Brian Cail bowled 254 scratch his last game and Lynn Arthur grinded out a 207 his last game. They both went around the previous leaders the very last game. It was very exciting finish.
This led us to our semifinals. Both of the matches weren’t too close, Shane Valleau defeated Billy Pretlove for the “A” division title and Brian Cail beat Lynn Arthur for the “B” division title. The match between Brian and Shane was very close, however.
Shane was looking for his 2nd title and Brian was looking to be the first bowler ever to go back to back wins. Shane had the lead by about frame 6. He had doubled and stayed clean, and Brian had a couple opens which meant Shane had made up the handicap difference and had a slight lead. Shane then missed the bucket the next frame which evened the match back up. Brian left and missed the 4, 5 split in the following frame and this gave the lead back to Shane. Going into the 9th and 10th Shane had the lead and was in control of his own destiny. In the 9th he threw a good ball and left a shaker 10 pin. Hey then missed the 10 pin just a little to the left which resulted in an open frame and his lead was gone. Now Shane needed to double to force Brian to double. Shane got the first strike, but the important one was the 2nd one. He threw a good ball but left a flat 10 pin which meant Brian only needed a mark. Brian left a 6 pin on his first ball and covered it up easily to win back to back titles, $1,000, and $2,500 in two weeks! Very impressive! Congrats to both of you!
We are taking this next weekend off to help support the JBT $1,000 tournament at AMF Christown Lanes. It is open to all bowlers, adult or junior as long as you have bowled a JBT at any point and time. If you would like to see if spots are available for this tournament you can email director@bowljbt.com. If I don’t see you all at that event (as I will be bowling it), then I look forward to seeing you at our next event at AMF Tempe Village lanes on December 15th and 16th. This is our last standard format of the 2012 season. Should be a great event!
