First Posted: 3/14/2015
It was very early this season in Delphos that Harry Sullins voiced his opinion that if you are a member of your bowling association that you really need to roll in the tournaments. I remember that we even promoted that view on this page.
Old Harry would have been very happy with the members of the LBA-USBC as 64 teams or 128 members entered the final event of this season, The LBA-USBC Doubles. It appears that a good percentage of our bowlers felt the same as the veteran kegler.
“It is sometimes hard to get people to bowl, and this tournament helps get the people out. Sometimes it is not about bowling and winning, it is about getting out and having fun. This tournament does that as it gives you the chance to bowl with friends, maybe even somebody that you do not bowl with in season,” claimed tournament director Jr. Johnson.
He add, “Most of the bowlers felt that although it may be fun to win that it is even more fun to win with a friend.”
The tournament was split into two groups, actual and handicap. Even though I do not know all the participants, it certainly did appear that everybody was getting along like they were friends (at least when the day started) and seemed to be having fun.
Josh Adams and Thomas Dalton had a lot of fun early, as Dalton exploded out of the gate with the front 10 and a 289 game. They would ultimately lose in the stepladder to Dan Stratton and Nathan Davis and finished third on the day.
The victory over Adams and Dalton earned the two of them a match against Brian Sharp and Derek Dukes in the finals.
There cannot be many teams in the history of the LBA that are any tougher to go up against – Austin/Courtney; Ambroza/Miller; Boyed and anybody comes to mind – than the Sharp and Dukes and Saturday evening was not an exception.
Stratton and Davis had been solid all day, but the match with this deadly team was simply too much of the resistible force not being able to take down an immovable object. Sharp and Dukes, who had hung out as friends do (with all their friends), prevailed in the one-game match, 428-345.
Taylor Booth and Jason Moneer finished fourth, being eliminated by Stratton and Davis. The balance of the round of eight were Shelley Ambroza and Kari Miller, Kraig and Kody Perrine, Ian Wittkamp and Jimmie Ebeling and Jon Burden and Tom Judy.
In the handicap or B division, there was also a lot of fun and for most of the evening, a lot of solid scoring.
Jeff Smith and Josh Boltz claimed the title with a final match tally of 448 to the score of 402 of Dan Baughan and Shawn Kunkleman. It was good to see an old friend of the family in Baughan roll well.
Eric Ball and Rick Perrin would finish in third, followed by Kayl Aller and Jeff Zeigler, Rob Fletcher and Monty Stubbs, Michael Ball and Weston Hawk, Wally Neal and Deb Laudick and finally Carl Hambleton and Scott Conley.
Johnson gave a lot of love to those who came out to compete and a vote of thanks to Westgate as well as the board of directors of the LBA.
Our attention will now turn to the youth in our community with the Jessica Sanford Memorial Singles tournament that will be rolled next weekend. You can find entry blanks for this event at each of the member lanes of the LBA.
Jessica was the daughter of Chris and Jon Sanford. She is remembered for the passion that she had for the game. It is a passion that is shared by many of the youth in our area. The tournament is bowled each year to not only keep her memory alive but to stress the importance of growing the game for the youth in our community.
The event will be held this season at Southgate Lanes with shifts at 3 and 7 p.m. Saturday, March 21. The second round will begin on Sunday at 11 a.m.
Two apologies are due from last Sunday. It was Eddie Rhine and not Louie Rhine that rolled the perfect game at 20th.
The other would be that Julia Riepenhoff will be at Shawnee last season, as she was this season, Sorry Julia, mom and dad as well as Shawnee.
