This weekend we were at Glenfair lanes for one of our 1 day events, that have become very successful. This event seemed to be event fot he 1st timers! We had a lot of success from bowlers bowling in their very first tournament this Sunday! The event this weekend drew 77 entries (55 qualifying & 22 economy parlay), had 20 cashers, a 1 in 4 cash ratio and paid out nearly $4,000.00 in maind and side event prizefunds. The event, like many of the one day events had a large enough turn out to increase the prizefund from the advertised guarantees. First was increased from $600 to $700, 2nd from $300 to $500, 3rd from $200 to $400, divisional runner ups got $170 instead of $160 and low to cash in the quarters was increased from $80 to $95. We really weren't sure how the turn outs were going to be for our one day events, especially with having events every single weekend. However, through the first four months, we have increased the prizefund from the advertised guarantees over 90% of the time, and even paid out $1,000.00 for first before.
We want to welcome the following new bowlers to the SFT AHT family. Ken Irving, Jon Celery, Bridgette Sims, Phillip Hanna, Jason Lucas, Maurice Evans, Mickey Hicks, and Jerry Derouin all bowled in their very first SFT AHT event this weekend. As I said before, we had a lot of success out of quite a few new bowlers. Ken Irving won our Track bowling ball raffle. Jon Celery advanced to the quarter finals in his first try, Phillip Hanna won a $100 per game side pot, had a big bracket set and make it to the quarter finals. To top it all of, Bridgette Sims represented the ladies and new bowlers well making it all the way to the semi-finals of the event. She was only a spare away from bowling in the title match in her very first event! We are always raving about how we believe that our handicap system is one of the best and most fair. We have so many first time winners, different winners and fresh faces having success. This event was another great example that even brand new players have a great chance at success at our events!
Our semi-final matches were all really close ones. The A division match was a real grind with both players bowling below average and just trying to close frames. Ron Schloss was taking on Ron Gonzales and Ron Schloss just couldn't put the shots together to close the gap in the handicap and Ron Gonzales won by a small margin. The B division match was between Lynn Arthur and Mike Martinez. Lynn had the chance to strike out to win his match and was unable to do so, which allowed Mike to advance to his 2nd title match. Finally, Bridgette Sims only needed a spare to advance in her match and she missed it to allow Ryan Wright to advance to his 2nd title match.
The final match wasn't too close. Ironically, the only player in the title match that didn't have a title came out of the gates the most consistent and retained it through the match. Ryan Wright won the match by a decent margin with Ron Gonzales taking 2nd and Mike Martinez taking 3rd. Congrats to eveyrone and great bowling!
We look forward to seeing everyone at our next event at Camp Verde at Cliff Castle Casino & Resort! We have the criss cross doubles on Saturday and our one day event on Sunday! See you all there!
