Bowlers mourn passing of local bowling royalty, Lil Johnson

It is with a heavy heart and much grief that we share with you the passing of long time friend, coach and bowler extraordinaire, Lil Johnson.

Mrs. Johnson spent the most part of the last 35 years bowling, determined to be the best that was humanly possible and achieved many goals along the way.

She was inducted into the State Bowling Hall of Fame, and the Local bowling Hall of Fame and earned bowler of the year honors multiple years.

In addition, Mrs. Johnson won state and local Queen’s tournaments, accumulated a nice collection of 300 games and 800 series’ and did a stint on the Professional Women’s Bowlers Association.

We could go on and on about all that she accomplished in her years on the lanes but she would most be known for her eagerness to help others bowl better and score higher.

Even though Lil was helpful and coached many adults over the years, her heart was with youth bowlers and whenever possible, you would find Coach Lil at the lanes during youth league play and spending hours after league honing youth bowler’s skills, many of whom are accomplished adult league bowlers today.

Lil was also a team player and the first to start signing bowlers up for local tournaments, bowling in several squads just to get more entries and to show her support.

We are going to miss Coach Lil on Saturday mornings during youth league and her absent will be felt as local and state tournament flyers start to circulate but I like to think that someone needed a high roller for a teammate in heaven and Lil was called up to take the spot.

Rest in peace my friend, until we meet again.

Leshikar Wins Po-Boy #3

Po-Boy tournament director Richard was definitely feeling the love as 56 bowlers showed up to bowl in the third event of the series.

The bad news of course is that more than half walked in just 30 minutes prior to the tournament start time so there was a slight delay in getting started.

Highlighting this week’s event was a three way tie for the 16 spot between Vanda Edmondson, Craig Foster and Andrew Jones, requiring a nine and 10 frame roll-off.

Craig Foster earned the go ahead and qualifying with a 424 for his two games with handicap.

The remaining field of qualifiers was Blaine McKinney, 428, Dave Yett, 428, Tony Faustner, 433, Trevor Miller, 435 and John Fortner, 440.

Defending champion Steve Lindsay qualified in tenth with 447 followed by Carter Croft, 448, Mikey York, 449, Kellan Hill, 451, Maria Garcia, 451, Robert Hempel, 464, Michael Pierson, 466, Steve O’Harris, 470, Zach Leshikar, 506 and Derek Bennett, 515.

Scratch side pot winners were Leshikar with 268 and O’Harris, 257, for game one and Pierson, 247 and Lindsay, 245 for game two.

The top 16 qualifiers advanced to a single elimination bracket, high vs. low.

Making the top eight and guaranteeing some return for their trouble were Bennett over Foster, York over Croft, Hempel over Miller, Faustner over Pierson, O’Harris over Yett, Fortner over Garcia, Lindsay over Hill and Leshikar over McKinney.

Bennett went on, beating York 280-221 and Hempel advanced over Faustner, 218-203.

Fortner won over O’Harris, 218-205 and Leshikar moved by Lindsay, 264-215.

The rest of the rounds were very close matches as we find Bennett beating Hempel 191-181 and Leshikar not letting up and beating Fortner 259-226 to advance to the title match.

Scores show a fight to the finish with Leshikar coming out the victor, 236-229.

The Po-Boy tournament will be held at 7 p.m., Monday nights at Thunderbird Lanes throughout the summer months. Early sign ups are encouraged and a signup sheet is now posted.

League News

Kellan Hill topped the honor roll with a 698 from the Rowdy Bunch league where he rolled 246, 234 and 218 for the men’s high last week.

Sue Avis, recovering from a week on the Nationals trail, was happy to be on home lanes where she put together the ladies high set last week of 623 in the Entertainers senior league on games of 204, 226 and 193.

And posting games of 222, 215 and 223, Sage Rush was the youth bowler of the week with a 660 set from the Summer HotShot Legends league at Thunderbird Lanes.

No-Tap News

Bert ‘BBB’ Payton of Chickasha took first place in the Senior No-Tap Colorama at Thunderbird Lanes last Friday afternoon, scoring 264, 242 and 245 for an 871 with handicap.

Steve Jester got second with 844 and Herb Scott took third with an 841.

Diane Frame won on the women’s side with 787, followed by Sue Avis with 779.

Payton summed up a 751 scratch series for first in the Scratch singles, followed again by Steve Jester, 742 and then Teri Jester with 739 for third.

Mystery doubles winners were Teri Jester/Bert Payton, 559, Bonnie Ledford/Gene Augustine Jr., 566 and Bill Kaplan/Roy Johnson, 548.

There were a lot of Strike Pot ticket winners including Herb Scott, Bill Kaplan, James Middleton, Steve Jester, James Halstead, John Fortner and Roy Johnson but there were no winners in the special challenge shots.

Join senior bowlers age 50 and above every Friday afternoon starting at 1pm at Thunderbird Lanes for this 9-pin No-Tap Color Pin fun event.