It has been several years since Thunderbird Lanes hosted the Valentines Mixed Doubles tournament and the Luck O’ the Irish scotch doubles tournament so this year, a combined effort was drawn up in haste and the Spring Fling was born.
It was short notice this time but plans are to continue this event at this time in the future.
In the meantime, 32 doubles teams filled the event that featured three games of qualifying that included a regular 10-pin game of bowling, a 3-6-9 game, where strikes were given in the 3rd, 6th and 9th frames and finally a game of 9 pin no tap.
All scores, with handicap, determined position standings and the top eight advanced to a two-game block of scotch doubles for the final round.
Scotch is true team work as bowlers must alternate actual balls thrown to complete each game. The top four teams cashed but everyone was a winner and walked away with at least a door prize.
The cut to the top eight went as follows.
Michelle and Robert Morin — 1492, Shelly Burk and Payne Jolly — 1497, Megan Carter and Connor Macdonald – 1503, James Halstead and Andrea Halstead – 1506, Peggy Towne and Sam Bowman – 1509, Amanda and Tyler Price – 1534, Krystal and Robert Meredith – 1558 and Maria Garcia and Rick Olson were top seed with 1585.
Scotch Doubles proved to be quite the test and when the dust cleared, the standings looked a lot different.
Taking first place with games of 170 and 222 and a handicap score of 458 was (super seniors) Peggy Towne and Sam Bowman.
Second place went to Megan Carter (bowling in her first tournament) and Connor Macdonald with 431, followed by the daughter/dad team of Andrea and James Halstead with 430.
And taking the final cashing position with a 422 was Michelle and Robert Morin.
Coming in fifth was the Garcia/Olson team, 416, followed by the Meredith’s, 394 for sixth, the Burk/Jolly team finished in seventh with 391 and former ‘mixed doubles’ champs Amanda and Tyler Price fell into 8th with 366.
League Highlights
Steve Mans saved the best for last and rolled a 763 series on the final night of the His and Hers’. Mans put the set together on games of 278, 227 and 258 to take the number one spot on this week’s honor roll.
Jeff Janssen led in the Suburban league and was a close second to Mans’ honor roll set with 762.
Janssen penciled in games of 237, 246 and 279 for the total that was a far cry from the 700 even posted by Tim Lundquist as the league’s only other 700 series of the night.
Lundquist tacked on a 263 closer to games of 215 and 222 to make up the series.
Chad Perry was on cue with 705 from the Early Birds where he rolled 247, 215 and 243 and John Troutman put the TNT league in the news with a 701 that went 257, 228 and 216.
Shout outs this week go to Heather Scholl for a 536 series that included a 222 game, bowled off a 135 average in the Ladies Night Out league.
Also to Carlene Rutledge who was on hand to fill a spot in the Early Birds and walked out with a career high game of 204 and series of 552, bowled off a 134 average.
Youth Highlights
Congratulations are in order for some of our area youth bowlers as they have been doing some amazing tournament bowling lately, representing Lawton well.
There first stop was the Pepsi Youth Championships where Kalan Hicks took first place in the U12 Boys division and Adonis Coleman was just a couple of steps behind with a 3rd place win.
Ali Biscaino also got a third place win in the Girls U15 standings and Lee Perry finished 4th in the U8 Boys.
This was the first tournament for some of the younger bowlers so by the time the next event came up, they were ready.
The next event was the Oklahoma BPA where DJ Scott walked away with first place and nice scholarship prize in the 6th grade and under boys division.
Bowling off an 89 average, DJ rolled games of 140, 188 and 148 for a 324 scratch/800 handicap series for the win.
And cheering him on and finishing in fourth place was his bowling buddy Lee Perry. Lee was bowling off a 98 average and rolled games of 135, 123 and 127 for 300 scratch/685 handicap.
We are very proud of these young bowlers as they strive to do their best. Our future is in their hands…Congratulations to each and every one.
No-Tap Colorama Results
Ken Knoff took the crown in last Friday’s senior 9-Pin event at Thunderbird Lanes, scoring 214, 277 and 257 for an 889 with the handicap assist.
Second place went to Kevin Pair for an 858 and Robert Lansberry was in the mix with an 834 for third.
Kathy Zerbe took first for the ladies for the second week in a row, posting a 780 for this week’s high set.
There were several bowlers in the winner’s circle for strike pot tickets including Ken Knoff, Roy John-son, Malden Smith, Zari Conway and Charles Norman.
There was a variety of winning pairings in the Mystery Doubles event listed below.
Gm. 1, 1st – James Halstead/Kevin Pair, 653
Gm. 1, 2nd – Robert Lansberry/Cle Cox, 545
Gm. 2, 1st – Ken Knoff/Bobby Lathe, 559
Gm. 2, 2nd – Malden Smith/Kathy Zerbe, 556
Gm. 3, 1st – Sam Bowman/Ron Fortner, 548
Gm. 3, 2nd – Ken Knoff/Bobby Lathe, 532
And a few bowlers saw success on the Special Challenge Shots.
After Charles Norman came up short on his “21” attempt, Kathy Zerbe rolled three nine counts in a row to win the “Match Play” purse.
Peggy Towne got a six count when she needed only four for the “Pill Draw” and Lil Johnson’s luck held out, pun intended, when a rocking 2 pin stood along with the 7 pin to hit pay-dirt for the “Snake Bite” shot.
Malden Smith threw a perfect strike trying to leave the head pin for “Waldo” and this week’s champion ended the day with a “Make That Spare” conversion of the 1-2-3-5-8. It doesn’t get any easier than a cluster right in the middle of the deck.
Bowlers must be at least 50 years old to participate in this weekly event at Thunderbird Lanes. Tournament starts at 1PM. Entrants are asked to sign up by 12:30PM to be assigned requested lanes.
