Our event this weekend was at AMF Union Hills and we had a good turnout for being our first Saturday event of the 2019 Season. We had 95 total entries (67 qualifying & 28 economy parlay) for 3 squads, 28 prize winners and a 1 in 3.4 cash ratio, paying out over $5,700 in main and side event prize funds. The players bowled on the 40ft Dean Man’s Curve oil pattern that was a very difficult pattern to play. Players had trouble playing on the outside of the lane and there wasn’t a lot of margin of error when playing inside. Also, pair to pair were big differences, but once the oil pattern started to break down in the later squads, then scores started to pick up.
We want to welcome Christopher “CJ” Sturgess, Karen Chenowth, Calvin Huggar, Jr. and Jonathan Daggett to the SFT AHT family! We hope you guys all had a good time in your first SFT AHT event. Congrats to Matthew Zweig, Andre Murillo and CJ Sturgess on being this weekend’s parlay power players! Both Matthew and CJ were able to turn their $25 parlay investments into a chance at the $1,000 first place prize! Congrats to Michael Martinez for winning Momma’s Mystery Pot, with a score of 137, for $500.00!!! Also congrats to Brandon Bailey for winning the drawing for a free plastic ball, with an option to upgrade to any high performance Track bowling ball for $85.00!
The quarterfinals were on fresh conditions and it the scores were pretty low, but those that made it to the semi-final round were able to figure out the pattern and score well. The A Division had #1 seed Matthew Zweig (+100) taking on #2 seed Michael Dragon (+81), the B Division would see Brian Richardson (+27) facing off with Eric Carroll (-1) and the C Division would feature Terrence Smythe (+111) taking on newcomer CJ Sturgess (+104). All three semi-final matches would come down to the last few frames. In the A Division, Matthew Zweig was able to double in the ninth and tenth frames to defeat Michael Dragon, 211 to 197. The B Division would go back and forth with both Eric and Brian missing crucial spares throughout the match. It would come down to the tenth frame as Brian would chop his spare forcing Eric to mark and have good fill in the tenth to win. Eric’s first ball in the tenth went a little left of the pocket leaving the 3-6 and Eric’s spare attempt would chop the 3-pin to give the match to Brian, 187 to 174. The C Division would see Terrence Smythe jump out to an early lead, but a chopped spare in the tenth would give CJ a small opening. CJ would get up and throw all three strikes in the tenth frame to narrowly win the match, 212 to 210.
The Final match would feature two Parlay Power Players in Matthew Zweig and CJ Sturgess, both made it to the Finals on just their $25 investment, having a chance at winning $1,000!!! Brian Richardson was looking for his 3rd SFT AHT title in his fourth attempt and Matthew Zweig was looking for his 2nd title as well. This would be CJ Sturgess' first Final match appearance in just his first event!
The match would start off with Matthew and CJ both struggling to find a good line to the pocket. Meanwhile Brian would jump out to an early lead by striking in the second, third and fourth frames. In the fifth frame Brian would miss a spare attempt to give Matthew and CJ and chance to get back in the match. CJ would make a ball change and it proved to be quite effective as he was able to strike in the fifth and sixth frames to put himself back into the match. Matthew would also double in the sixth and seventh to catch back up, but it would be too little too late as he was unable to make up the difference in handicap, finishing the match at 198. CJ would open in the ninth and tenth frames to finish at 218, and putting pressure on Brian to mark and get a good count to win the match. Brian remained calm as he threw all three strikes in the tenth to finish at 233, giving him his 3rd AHT SFT title and $1,000!! Congrats to CJ Sturgess for finishing in 2nd place and Matthew Zweig for 3rd place.
Thank you to everyone that came out to support our Saturday event! We look forward to seeing you all next Sunday, March 31st, at AMF Chandler Lanes for the final tournament of the 2019 Winter Circuit! Hope you all have a great week!
