Tipton paces local bowlers with 795

Happy New Year’s Eve! Thank you for staying with us for another year of bowling news and highlights throughout our bowling community.

We’ve had our share of ups and downs this year, and scoring has been far from what we were once accustomed to, but tomorrow starts another year. Here’s wishing you all a fantastic 2025 full of strikes, spares, and great times on the lanes.

Making the most of the time left in 2024, we find Brandon Tipton coming within five sticks of posting an 800 series while bowling in the Suburban league before the holiday break. Tipton started with a string of 10 in a row for a 280 game and tacked on a 247 and a 268 to make up the week’s high series of 795. Michael Gillian followed in this league with a 759 that went 246, 266, and 247, and Matt Casey finished with a 701 to round out the Suburban’s top three after starting the night with games of 269 and 247.

Coming in with the second highest set of the week was Richard Jacoby, who led in senior league play with a 779 on games of 289, 249, and 241 while bowling in last Monday’s Socialites.

It isn’t often that I get a story with scores, but on occasion, there are a couple of our local secretaries who put a personal twist on their weekly report and take us inside their league to celebrate their bow-lers.

Gary Sammons, secretary of the Early Birds league at Thunderbird Lanes, often shares a welcome word or two, like last week when he shared the following: “Rick Olson was feeling the holiday spirit as he topped the league charts with a nice 731 series. Olson had games of 267 and 274 before a ‘car-ry-less’ 190 game closed out the set. Robert Copeland also breeched the 700 mark with 714 on games of 211, 247, and 256, while his teammate, Bruce Flack, was not far behind with a 693.”

Finishing up this week’s high rollers list was Dwight Blair of the Friday Night Mixed Roller league at Twin Oaks. Blair rolled 211, 225, and 266 for the league’s only 700 of 702. And on the Goodyear league front, Craig Fain Sr. posted 238, 237, and 225 for 700 on the money.

As we bid a fond farewell to 2024, I would like to thank all of the secretaries who keep league bowl-ing alive and well and thank them for supporting the weekly bowling news by sending in their league scores for publication.

Youth Highlights

Peyton Smith continued to lead TBird Legends youth bowlers with high scores, topping the charts this week with a 645 on games of 190, 246, and 209.

Lee Perry was the HotShots (U12) top scorer, posting a 485 on games of 160, 179, and 146.

Henry Keithley went out with a bang, rolling a super 112 game in the MiniShots bumper division.

No-Tap News

The Christmas edition of the Senior No-Tap Colorama held on Dec. 20th boasted 36 bowlers out for a day of no-tap high scoring fun. When it was all said and done, John Fortner was the bowler at the top of the charts—both of them, in fact. Fortner had no-tap games of 296, 300, and 210 for an 806 scratch high series and an 878 handicap high series. Gary Schmeiding was just a few pins shy of the day’s handicap high set, losing the battle to Fortner with an 876. Herb Scott put a big ol’ no-tap 300 game in the middle of his set to slip into third place with 839.

Teri Jester had her game in check and rolled 243, 278, and 279 for the ladies high series of 821, followed by Vanda Edmondson, who finished up at 773.

Jester had a scratch series of 800 even, which was a second place score behind Fortner. Scott turned in a 719 for third highest of the scratch series competitors.

Mystery doubles winners were John Fortner with Gary Schmeiding in game one with 602, Herb Scott with Bert Payton with 612 in game two, and Randy Travis with Armour Brown bowled a 563 for first place in game three.

Strike pot winners were Vanda Edmondson, Teri Jester, Duane Hurwitz, and John Fortner.

For icing on the cake, Edmondson was the only bowler to win a challenge shot. The last shot of the day and Edmondson had to roll her own destiny by flipping over five cards from a group of ten, with each card representing a pin. The name of the challenge is “Make that Spare” and surprisingly, it gets hit quite often, as it did in this case after the selected #1, #2, #4, #6, and #10 pins were spotted on the deck for easy pickings.

This event is held every Friday afternoon at 1 PM at Thunderbird Lanes and is open to all senior bow-lers aged 50 and above with a verifiable average.