Wow! What an incredible week and weekend of events. We had two events this weekend for the Thanksgiving Day Holiday. One was the 40 frame tournament and the other was our traditional format. There were so many story lines that it would be too much for one page to summarize both events, so if you want to read about the 40 frame event results you can click here. The events as a total drew 137 entries; we had 91 in our standard event and 46 entries in the 40 frame event. The two events combined paid out over $6,300.00! The standard event paid out $3,840.00 in the main event and 24 entries in the sweeper combined with high game pots paid out another $681.00. We want to thank the SFT AHT family for coming out and making this another incredible weekend! We had over 70 different members come out this weekend for all of our events! The family is definitely getting big!
The bowlers bowled on a 39ft modified house pattern that was pretty tough but playable. There was a lot of talk before the event that the scores were going to be high because it was at a high scoring center. It was very clear early on that it wasn’t going to be high scoring at all. The pattern played very well and was the perfect kind of condition for a big event like this. Players of all styles and skill levels had reaction, and players could play all over the lane.
The first thing I want to do is welcome this weekend’s newest members to the club. Travis Hammond, Mike Barcus, Susan O’hara, Blake Beaudion, Nathan Smith, Chris Strehl, Aubree McKay, Matt Davison, Bruce Irwin, Dwayne Brooks, George Degenhardt, Micki Bushnell, and Tyler Demaline have joined the ever expanding SFT AHT community. I hope you all enjoyed your experience with the club, and we look forward to seeing you again. A special congrats to Mike Barcus and Travis Hammond who made the quarter finals in their first try ever with the SFT AHT.
This weekend was capped off with our ever popular $100 per game side pot squad, Where Ron Gonzales won a side pot and Bo Copeland won an unprecedented 2 side pots to take home $200! Congrats to both of you!
We also had some fun with the raffles; first we drew names to give away free economy parlays. If we drew the bowler’s name, they got to go up and throw a ball, if they struck, they got a free economy parlay. It was an exciting way to end all of the qualifying and Ben Dewberry and Bo Copeland ended up winning Free Economy Parlays! The winner of the big raffle items were Ben Spencer, who won a $15.00 iTunes gift card, and Charlie Light who ended up winning the Track high performance 912T bowling ball. Congrats to all of the raffle winners!
The event was coming to a close as always going into the 3rd game of the quarter finals round. There would be 3 bowlers in each division advancing to the next round. However, this weekend the 3rd game was a crazy one. Both divisions had the same 3 names leading for the first 2 games. However, in both divisions there was some serious moving around the game 3 and people snuck in with either big games, or by keeping their head above water.
Ben Spencer, was in the cut the first 2 games but 2 misses on makeable spares left him with a 189 his last game and in the position to fall out of the top 3. David Kurlan who started off in last place after the 1st game, came roaring back with games of 258 and 231 scratch to leap over Ben and put him in the A Division finals. The B Division was an even more exciting finish. Tim Bryden came out of the gate huge with 208 and 236 which put him firmly atop the leader board and in full control. However, a really bad finish in a 140 game put the big lead he had in a vulnerable position. Brian Cail was able to grind it out game by game and shot 172 his final game to just sneak around Tim by 4 pins and put himself in the B Division finals. Brian was really taking advantage of opportunities at this tournament, as he was the divisional insurance cut on Sunday, to advance to the quarter finals. He barely snuck by then, and barely snuck by again in the semifinals. Never bowling huge games, but keeping himself out of trouble and taking advantage of opprotunities when he got them.
Both of the divisional final matches didn’t leave a lot to the imagination. Both were a little close half way through but no one could really put enough pressure on the leaders to cause any excitement. The A division champion was Ron Gonzales and the B Division champion was Brian Cail. The championship match however was VERY EXCITING!
The match was very close back and forth but Ron Gonzales got out to an early lead with a three bagger. Going into the 10th frame Brian had a strike in the 9th. Ron was the first to finish and had 225 with handicap. Brian needed a double in the 10th to win, and based on his scoring throughout the day the odds were not in his favor. Brian showed that it was his first title match and that there were some nerves by going Brooklyn on his first shot. However, like he did the rest of the day, he was going to need to take advantage of an opportunity. Again, he did just that by throwing a perfect shot on his second ball and striking when he needed it most. He not only “threw it for the cheese”, but he got bragging rights, the big check, and $1,500.00 in his path to his first title. Congrats Brian! Happy for you buddy! Ron Gonzales took home $750.00 and had a very impressive weekend. He cashed twice in the 40 frame game and finished 3rd in that event. Then followed that up with a $100 side pot win and 2nd Place in our major event. Congrats to you Ron, and great bowling this weekend!
Thanks to everyone that came out, and we look forward to seeing you all at our event next weekend at Let It Roll Bowl. It will feature all of the stuff you guys love, divisional bowling, guaranteed 1st and 2nd place prizes, economy parlays, divisional insurance, senior and women’s division and much more! See you next weekend!
