Bowling Bytes--7/2/10

~ This Weekend’s GEICO PBA Team Shootout on ESPN at a Glance

~ PBA East Region Leaders Through June 28, 2010

~ PBA Midwest Region Leaders Through June 28, 2010

~ PBA Central Region Leaders Through June 28, 2010

~ Senior Masters Title Convinces Webb to Complete Quest for Senior Player of the Year Honor -- ”As a competitor on the PBA Tour for more than a quarter century, Wayne Webb put together a Hall of Fame career capturing 20 titles including the Tournament of Champions and a Player of the Year crown. But two major titles — the U.S. Open and United States Bowling Congress Masters—eluded him. On June 18, in a marquee matchup of two PBA greats, Webb defeated reigning PBA Player of the Year Walter Ray Williams Jr., 705-628, in the title match to win the USBC Senior Masters at the South Point Hotel and Casino Bowling Center in Las Vegas...Webb, who moved to the Columbus, Ohio area in early April to open Wayne Webb’s Columbus Bowl, had planned to end his season after the Senior Tour’s two majors in Las Vegas to concentrate on his center back home. But after a win in the Senior Columbus Open, a runnerup finish in the season-opening Senior Dayton Classic and a ninth-place finish in the Senior U.S. Open, he’s a leading contender for Senior Player of the Year honors. As a result, he is planning to adjust his schedule so he can compete in the last three events of the season...

~ Memory Lane: The Dave Bolles Story -- “It is October 15, 1989 at Camino Bowl in Mountain View, Calif. Dave Bolles, who has made the finals of a major on the PBA West Region tour and will have a shot at bowling the Tournament of Champions with a top-four finish, curls up in the fetal position on a bench in the bar, ill and falling asleep after telling the tournament director that he is too sick to go on. He has no idea that just a few hours from now he will attain bowling immortality, that this is the week he will tell people about for the rest of his life...”

~ USBC Senior Championships Underway in Reno -- “The 2010 USBC Senior Championships is underway at the National Bowling Stadium and nearly 350 bowlers from 47 states and three Canadian provinces have converged on The Biggest Little City in the World...”

~ Malta Sue Abela, Mark Spiteri to compete in 46th QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup in Zagreb -- “June at the SuperBowl in St. Julian's, Malta, saw the Malta Tenpin Bowling Association's (MTBA) qualifying event for this year’s QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup, which will be held in Zagreb, Croatia between the 15th - 24th of October. The BWC is one of the most prestigious events in the worldwide tenpin bowling calendar, with typically in excess of eighty nations represented by their male and female champions. Malta will be represented by Mark Spiteri and Sue Abela after the duo came through to top their respective divisions with flying colors...”

~ Williams, Jussila overtake qualifying lead in 1st Track Dream-Bowl Palace Open -- “2007 World Ranking Masters champion Stuart Williams (pictured left), England, and Perttu Jussila (right), Finland, led two of the three qualifying squads on Thursday at Dream-Bowl Palace in Unterföhring near Munich, Germany, en route to move into 1, 2 in the overall qualifying standings of the 1st Track Dream-Bowl Palace Open...Among the top 16 are PBA exempt player Chris Loschetter (left) and PBA Hall of Famer Brian Voss (right), both United States. Loschetter, who is still seeking his first PBA title sits in 5th place with 1373 featuring six games between 215 and 245. Voss, who will serve on the Austrian coaching staff in the upcoming Men's World Championship in August, is 14th with 1330 including a 280 high game...”

~ California bowler rolls 300, takes Singles lead at USBC Women’s Championships -- “Krischna Howard (pictured left) of Hawthorne, Calif., rolled the 12th perfect game in the 91-year history of the United States Bowling Congress Women's Championships on her way into the lead in scratch and Diamond Singles on Thursday. The 31-year-old right-hander started singles with a pair of 246 games before rolling 12 consecutive strikes to finish with a 792 scratch series. She received an additional 22 pins of handicap per game, which gave her a final score of 858. Team USA member Tennelle Milligan (right) of Arlington, Texas, previously held the scratch lead with 779, while Shauna Shannon of Albuquerque, N.M., led Diamond Singles with 797...”

Bowling Video of the Day--Brian Voss and the 7-10 Split

You may recall Brian Voss' 7-10 conversion in the position round of the Don and Paula Carter Mixed Doubles tournament earlier this year. But this isn't the first time he's converted the 7-10 at a crucial time. Below is a very similar conversion he made in a position round match of the 2004 U.S. Open against Walter Ray Williams to make the TV finals. No wonder he said after his successful conversion this year that he had gone up on the approach convinced he was going to convert the split.

Bowling Video of the Day--Don and Paula Carter Mixed Doubles

Here is some of the televised finals of the PBA Don and Paula Carter Mixed Doubles tournament held on February 21 of this year.

Older Guys Can Still Bring It

Well, at least one good thing to emerge from the Go RVing tournament so far this week is that two senior bowlers are still in the hunt. Tom Baker and Brian Voss have made their way into the Round of 16. Go geezers! Go!

Duke Bowls Like Duke, and Bohn Like Bohn

You knew it was going to happen. You knew it had to. You knew that the great Norm Duke wasn't going to fly all the way to France to compete in the Brunswick Euro Challenge, bowl only one squad, and end up somewhere in the lower 48 of the top 64 after qualifying where he'd have to jostle with the other 47 to earn his way into the second tier of 16 for single elimination match play. You knew that, as surely as the sun will rise in the morning for at least a few billion more years, Norm Duke would bowl again and raise himself into the top 16 where he'd be able to sit it out until match play begins.

And Duke, being Norm Duke, didn't just sneak onto one of the precarious lower rungs of the top 16 ladder; he catapulted himself into the bedrock security of fifth place yesterday with games of 234-279-259-300-236-207 for 1515 and a 252.50 average. And with his 300 game and optional entry into the "300 Game Pot-Play" bracket, he will compete with everyone else who paid their optional entry and bowled 300 in a special shoot-out after the finals for at least 2,500 Euro. So far, this field consists of Kimmo Lehtonen of Finland and "The King of Swing" and defending Brunswick Euro Challenge champion Mike Fagan.

What's more, PBA hall-of-famer Parker Bohn rose to 10th place on the leaderboard yesterday with a nice series of 1477 and also shot 300, but he didn't pay the 50 Euro required to make himself eligible for the 300 game shootout. I'll bet he's kicking himself over that unfortunate decision.

By the way, fellow hall-of-famer and last year's runner-up to Mike Fagan, Brian Voss, moved into 42nd place. I'm happy to see him hang in there.

Stay tuned for further developments.

Brunswick Euro Challenge Update

Americans Anthony Pepe and Mike Fagan continue to lead the Brunswick Euro Challenge in Saint Maximin, France, but Malaysian Adrian Ang is putting on an amazing show of consistency by amassing the highest score in all three squads in which he's bowled and moving up to sixth place overall by virtue of his latest effort of 258-244-268-245-255-210 for a 1480 series and 246.67 average. Malaysia is a bowling powerhouse, and Ang is considered to be the best male bowler in that country. Look for him and other Malaysian bowlers to continue to put their stamps on this and future world competitions.

Also, look for Mika Koivuniemi, Norm Duke, and Brian Voss to rise higher in the standings. All have bowled one squad today and may well bowl again to move up on the leaderboard. Koivuniemi is 9th, Duke 38th, and Voss, who finished second to Mike Fagan last year, is currently in 147th place. I also see that local-boy-makes-good PJ Haggerty sits comfortably in 21st place at the moment but may try to move up as well. Heck, if you're going to fly all the way to France to bowl in a big tournament, you might as well make the most of it.

Qualifying ends tomorrow, and single elimination match play followed by the stepladder finals take place on Sunday.

UPDATE TO UPDATE

No sooner had I posted the information above when I saw that another squad had concluded and that Osku Palermaa, the two-handed sensation from Finland, has moved into third place. He had bowled an earlier squad to sit in 96th place, but that would have left him out of match play. Now he's guaranteed to make the cut, and those of us who have seen him bowl on American TV, such as last Sunday, know that he's a force to be reckoned with. It's too bad Jason Belmonte isn't there too, and healthy.

The Brunswick Euro Challenge This Week

As much as we in the USA tend to focus on the PBA Tour, there's a lot of great bowling going on in the world outside the PBA and the USA. A lot of it takes place in Europe.

For instance, there's a European Bowling Tour (EBT) and a big EBT tournament happening right now at the Brunswick Euro Challenge in a bowling center near Paris. Since there's no PBA Tour tournament this week, some PBA stars will be participating in this tournament along with hundreds of top bowlers from Europe and elsewhere.

Mike Fagan, who has made it to the final match of this tournament the past two years, beat Brian Voss for the championship last year. You can watch a high quality video of that match by clicking on here.

You may also want to view Fagan's semifinal match with a top female bowler (yes, they let the women bowl against the men in Europe too) from Denmark named Mai Genge Jensen by clicking on here.

I even got a big and pleasant surprise when, as I was looking over the current standings in the Brunswick Euro Challenge, my eye caught the name of a guy I used to bowl with in the Bay Area that I hadn't seen or heard from or about for over 20 years. I wrote to him on Facebook and told him not to be intimidated by the big, bad PBA stars coming over the pond this week.

I want to start paying more attention to bowling in the rest of the world, especially now that the PBA Tour is on hiatus this week and is winding down its season. Stay tuned for further coverage of the Euro Challenge and EBT.

PBA's Unfair Double Standard?

"Win or lose, bowling a doubles tournament is one of the funnest things I've ever done."
--Randy Pedersen

"Voss is playing today like someone has handed him a ransom note on one of his kids."
--Rob Stone

"As we've seen, crushing the pins during the week and doing it on Sunday are two different stories."
--Rob Stone

"The two of them are showing their mutual arm swing love for one another."
--Rob Stone's quip of the week regarding the compliments Brian Voss and Diandra Asbaty expressed about each other's graceful and efficient arm swings

I'm thrilled that Brian Voss and his partner Diandra Asbaty won the tournament Sunday. They bowled very well together and earned their victory, just as Jason Belmonte and Michelle Feldman earned their right to bowl for the title after the dazzling show they put on in qualifying and match play.

Voss hadn't won on the regular tour since 2006, but Sunday's victory gave him his 25th title, exempt status next season on tour if he wants it, and a sure shot of confidence in the arm to pursue his profession with renewed passion, not that he seemed lacking in passion from the get go Sunday.

About.com's bowling writer, Jef, said that even though he enjoyed the bowling, he had concerns that the Baker format might have confused and alienated bowling novices and that the PBA should go light on "gimmicky" tournaments like yesterday's. But I disagree with him about yesterday. Even though I don't care much for the Baker format, it's the only way they could have shown so many matches featuring such an impressive panoply of male and female stars, and I doubt that any ESPN bowling viewer worth keeping was befuddled or turned off by the Baker system.

But I'm befuddled about one thing. As much as I like, respect, and even revere Brian Voss, I have misgivings about crediting the winner of ANY doubles tournament with a PBA title. But, more than that, I don't begin to understand why Diandra didn't get credit too. The way I see it, if Kelly Kulick was credited with a PBA title and awarded an exemption for winning the TOC, and Brian Voss is credited with a title and awarded an exemption for winning Sunday, Diandra Asbaty darn well deserves HER PBA title and exemption too.

How do YOU feel about this?

Brian Voss Converts 7-10 Split

I've never converted the 7-10 split, and I could probably count on one hand the number of times I've seen others convert it, beginning with Mark Roth's famous effort on TV years ago. On another occasion, I was bowling in league against a team where a guy left the 7-10. One of his teammates told him that if he picked it up, he'd buy him a new bowling ball. You can guess what happened after that. It was the first time he ever converted it after forty years or so of bowling. Would you believe that the other guy made good on his offer? Now that's a man of his word. You gotta respect that. That's the only time I've seen the 7-10 made in person.

But I saw the next best thing last night on Xtra Frame last night. It was the position round of the final block of match play. Brian Voss left a 7-10 on what appeared to be a good pocket hit late in the game. He and his doubles partner Diandra Asbaty needed every mark they could get to make it to the televised finals, and, you guessed it, Voss converted the 7-10 and will be on TV Sunday. You can watch his conversion below.

By the way, if you're into very technical ball talk, don't miss replaying most of this block. The guest was Hank Boomershine, a top product development guy for Storm. He's incredibly knowledgeable about bowling ball design and dynamics, and he answered a plethora of probing questions about this stuff last night. It was a veritable clinic.

Here are the top five teams for Sunday's stepladder finals:

1, Jason Belmonte, Australia/Michelle Feldman, Auburn, N.Y., 11-5, 7,289.

2, Wes Malott, Pflugerville, Texas/Shannon O’Keefe, Arlington, Texas, 12-4, 6,903.

3, Rhino Page, Dade City, Fla./Shannon Pluhowsky, Kettering, Ohio, 9-7, 6,888.

4, Tom Smallwood, Saginaw, Mich./Jodi Woessner, Oregon, Ohio, 10-6, 6,883.

5, Brian Voss, Alpharetta, Ga./Diandra Asbaty, Chicago, 9-7, 6,839.

The Cream Rises and a Bowling Legend Speaks

After 40 games and the second of three 8-game rounds of match play, the cream is rising to the top of the field. Chris Barnes has vaulted into the lead by going 7-1 in the round and averaging a sizzling 249 for the last seven games on difficult lane conditions. Behind him is a veritable dream field of Pete Weber, Tony Reyes, and Wes Malott followed by Kelly Kulick who still has a chance to make it to the top four of Sunday's televised finalists. Walter Ray is way down in 13th, but he still has an outside chance to come on strong to make it into Sunday's telecast and win the one major tournament he's never won during his fabled career.

But what I enjoyed most about watching the second round of match play live on Xtra Frame today was listening to "Bowling Doctor" Jeff Mark talk with the legendary bowling coach and writer John Jowdy. Jowdy, who will turn 90 in a few months, has coached a Who's Who of bowling legends, been one of the sport's finest writers, and has met just about everyone and seen just about everything in the sport over his very long and storied career.

He and Jeff Mark talked about many things this afternoon, but one of the highlights was his list, in order, of the top five bowlers of all time. First was Earl Anthony, followed by Walter Ray Williams, Don Carter, Dick Weber, Mark Roth, and Don Johnson. He was especially impressed by Walter Ray's longevity as a very competitive bowler on tour and opined that the PBA will never see anyone like him again.

When asked how someone aspiring to become a professional bowler should prepare for the challenge, he strongly advised them to bowl leagues and tournaments on tough sport conditions and to seek the best coaching available. "If you're going to spend $200 on a new bowling ball, spend it on a good coach and keep your old ball," he suggested. Good coaching that builds good habits will get you a lot further than the fanciest new ball.

But even though he thinks the USBC coaching certification program is good in theory, he has reservations about how well it actually works and thinks that some coaches, like Mark Baker, who have never been USBC certified are the best of the best. He believes, and Jeff Mark agrees, that the best coaches combine theoretical knowledge with actual experience at the highest levels of competitive bowling. In short, the best coaches are or were players who can also share invaluable knowledge with you about subtleties like "touch" and "feel" in the heat of competition. Mark also suggested that although many of these top flight coaches are difficult for the regular bowler to access on a one-to-one basis, one can benefit from bowling clinics in which these great coaches regularly participate.

Jowdy also praised the free armswings of guys like Brian Voss and Norn Duke and suggested that those who want to bowl competitively for a long time and not suffer all kinds of problems with broken down bodies should emulate these styles. He and Jeff Mark agreed that what the smoother stylists may sacrifice in power and the short term success that power may bring are likely to more than make up for it with competitive longevity and bowling fitness, unlike guys such as Mark Roth who, even before his devastating stroke, had to undergo surgery on both knees and other medical interventions for the wear and tear he put on his body with his very aggressive style. Yes, he, unlike most power stylists, enjoyed tremendous success on tour, but was it really worth it? asked Mark rhetorically.

Jowdy also talked about the heydays of the TOC at the Riviera Lanes in Akron Ohio and other great eras and moments of bowling history. It was a very entertaining afternoon of bowling and conversation with a bowling legend.