House tournaments keep bowlers active

There hasn’t been much in the way of league activity the last couple of weeks but bowlers turned out in full force to support the Roy Olson Memorial Event and the first of the Po-Boy tournaments that will run for the next several weeks.

What was originally slated for a field of 48 bowlers soon grew to a packed house of 70 participants to support the Roy Olson Memorial tournament that was held at Thunderbird Lanes on Sunday June 4th.

The event, sponsored by Gwen McIntosh and Ike Beeks from Just for K-9’s and Kitty 2, was organized as a remembrance to Roy for his love of the game of bowling and his love for animals.

K-9’s and Kitty 2 put up $600 (half to the prize fund and half to the cause) as well as another $200 that started the 50/50 drawing.

Bowlers had a great time, sharing laughs and tears and raised in excess of $1,000 in Roy’s name that went to the youth bowling program at Thunderbird Lanes and to the Elgin Animal Rescue organization.

A special thanks to the Olson Family, who donated two bowling balls, Sue and Jeff Avis ($50 Mike’s Sports Grill gift card), Kathi Keithley (handmade lap quilt), numerous gifts from K-9’s and Kitty 2, the participants and everyone involved in making this a successful event.

The tournament was split into two divisions, 175 and below and 176 and above and included handi-cap at 90 percent of 220.

There were more bowlers in the lower average division, allowing for nine places. The higher average division paid five places.

Handicap winners were as follows

175 and Below: Luther Gary, 853, Cle Cox, Laura Brown, 831, Roy Johnson, 802, John Lewis, 787, Willy Strong, 785, Azalea Brookshire, 781, James Halstead, 774 and Diane Frame, 773.

176 and Above: Sam Bowman, 861, Marshall Miller, 859, Lil Johnson, 818, Tony Mendoza, 817 and Danny Carson, 809.

Tony Mendoza ended the tournament with the events high game of the day of 290.

As is the norm, a scratch side pot was available as an option for both divisions. Those winners were as follows.

175 and Below: Roy Johnson, 625, James Halstead, 621, Eugene Augustine III, 595, Gary Sammons, 583 and Robert Lansberry, 580.

176 and Above: Sam Bowman, 789, Marshall Miller, 778, Mike McLester, 767, Richard Jacoby, 743.

Randy Standridge and Christa Mendoza each won a bowling ball, Jason Keithley won the 50/50, and Maria Garcia won the quilt and the gift card.

Some lucky person won a collector’s edition Buck knife and a designer series chess set and Sam Bowman wagged home a 50lb bag of dog food.

This tournament was such a success for all concerned, talk of it coming back next year around this same time, Memorial Day, are already in the works. Stay Tuned,

Po-Boy Tournament: One Down, Eight to Go

You cannot tell me that bowlers weren’t ready for the Po-Boy to return as forty-two of them shoed up for the first of the series of nine events slated for the coming weeks.

The top sixteen after two game of qualifying advance to the single elimination, high/low bracket.

Making the first cut were, Antoine Murphy 587, Billy Smith 554, Kyle Morris 546, Ty Smith 538, Ryan Thomas 523, Danny Carson 513, Marshall Miller 512, Laura Brown 498, James Halstead 495, Mark Hill 484, DJ Pyfer 478, Lil Johnson 473, Barry Morris 473, Kellan Hill 471, Duncan McDonald 469 and Ken Knoff 463.

First bowled sixteenth, 2nd bowled fifteenth and so on to field qualifiers in the round of 16.

Advancement to the top eight went as follows.

Murphy beat Knoff 225-200; McDonald beat B. Smith 255-235, K. Morris won by one pin against K. Hill 246-245, T. Smith won over B. Morris and Thomas won over Johnson in a 9th-10th frame roll off after a tying score of 235.

Pyfer beat Carson 205-202, M. Hill beat Miller, 237-205 and Halstead won over Brown, 218-205.

In the round of eight, Murphy advanced over Halstead 239-218, T. Smith won over Thomas, 258-235, K. Morris got the win over Pyfer and M. Hill rolled the tournament high game of 279 for the win over McDonald.

And then there were four.

Youth bowler Ty Smith turned up the heat a little more and rolled 257 scratch (310 with handicap) to beat out Antione ‘Smurf’ Murphy and Kyle Morris put a 259 on the board for the win over Mark Hill to set up for the final round

Smith had a 19 pin advantage over Morris but he had found a line that kept giving as he put together a scratch game of 244. Meanwhile, Morris hammered away and never gave up but when the dust settled, the final score was 297 – 258 and Ty Smith was crowned Champion of the summers first Po-Boy.

The Po-Boy event is held every Monday night starting at 7:00 PM. Bowlers must have a verifiable average to participate or will be entered at 220 scratch.

As always, to keep costs low, the entry fee is only $25 per person.

Senior No-Tap Results

Barry Morris picked up a first place win last Friday during the Sr. No-Tap Colorama at Thunderbird Lanes, posting a 953 with handicap on games of 297, 278 and 267.

Phil Kilmartin neared a perfect series with games of 300, 300 and 296, posting 896 for second place and Sam Bowman went 256, 260 and 264 for a third place 852 total.

Lelani Wiggins took first place for the ladies with an 865, with handicap, on games of 198, 175 and 231 (off a 123 average…pretty impressive!), followed by Kathy Zerbe who rang in with a 786 total for second.

Kilmartin’s 896 took first in scratch singles followed by Morris, 842, and then Bowman with 780.

Same bowlers, just a slight order shift.

Mystery Doubles went as follows.

Gm. 1, 1st – Roy Johnson/Peggy Towne, 590

Gm. 1, 2nd – Barry Morris/Ken Knoff, 577

Gm. 2, 1st – Barry Morris/Ken Knoff, 567

Gm. 2, 2nd – Gene Augustine/Marianne Hartley, 554

Gm. 3, 1st – Lelani Wiggins/Cathy Shuman, 597

Gm. 3, 2nd – Gene Augustine/Marianne Hartley, 547

This week’s strike pot ticket winners list is short and sweet; Phil Kilmartin took all of the very first ticket drawn of the day and Malden Smith won half of the final ticket drawn of the day. Everything in the middle was left for the next time.

It was the same story for the Challenge shots as we watched Cleo Travis bust with twenty-three look-ing for the “21 Jackpot”, Cathy Shuman set out with a strike in “Match Play”, a tough act for any bowler on a different pair of lanes, James Halstead needed 6 and got 7 on the “Pill Draw” while Billy Carrion threw a strike trying to leave a split for “Snake Bite”.

It was reported that Cle Cox got a five count on his Waldo attempt, perhaps he was only four pins away and Robert Lansberry picked off one of the “Make that Spare” 3-5-7-8-10 combo.

There was a lot left on the table folks so join the fun next Friday afternoon at Thunderbird Lanes.

This event is held every Friday afternoon at Thunderbird Lanes; starting at 1PM. Bowlers must be at least 50 years old with a verifiable average to participate.

Biscaino Posts Summers first Honor

A couple of items before we close, we’ve had some youth bowlers do very well in some state tournaments lately. In order to give them the credit they deserve, we will have that information for you next week when there is a little more room and even though we didn’t have a lot in the way of league scores last week, we did get our first Honor Score of the summer.

Congratulations are in order for Jerry Biscaino who posted a 299, 11 in a row while bowling in Thursday night’s Roudy Bunch at Thunderbird lanes.

Jerry strung the front eleven strikes in a row before leaving a stone 10-pin to spoil the fun.

Unfortunately this high score was sandwiched between games of 201 and 193 so the series was only 693 but you take them when you can get them.