Matt McNiel's Lightning Almost Strikes Twice At USBC Open Championships

Matt McNiel made bowling history last year at the Reno National Bowling Stadium when he rolled 740 in the team event, 780 in doubles, and 806 in singles to win the all-events title at the USBC Open Championships with an astounding nine-game total of 2,326.

Not only did McNiel win the coveted all-events "eagle," but he also broke the "unbreakable" all-events record of 2,321 that Ron Vokes set at the Open in Las Vegas just a year before. It was an amazing performance.

So, when the 25-year-old left-hander returned to Reno last weekend to compete in this year's Open, all eyes were upon the defending champion to see how he would do this time around. And McNiel didn't disappoint. In the team event Sunday evening, he began with a 258, followed it with a 263, and finished with a 224 to shoot 745 and lead his team to eighth place in the team standings.

After reading about this in Jeff Richgels' column yesterday, I decided to tune in Monday evening to watch Bowl.com's live streaming of McNiel's doubles and singles outings. And, again, disappointment was in short supply. McNiel led off his doubles effort with a 245, then blasted a 300, and began with a five-bagger before going a little high in the sixth frame to leave an 8 pin and finish out with a 277 for an awesome 822 series. That 822 made McNiel only the second person in history to shoot two 800 series in the USBC Open Championships.

At this point, with a 6-game total of 1567, McNiel needed to shoot 760 in singles to break his all-events record, and he needed a 691 to take the lead in all-events this year. And if he'd been able to stay on the pair on which he began the evening, he might well have been able to do the latter or even the former. But having to move to a different pair presented problems with carry that McNiel was unable to fully solve, as he shot games of 236-215-223 for a 674 series and all-events total of 2241.

By normal standards, this was still an outstanding effort. Yet, "normal" is hardly a word one would use to describe the extraordinary accomplishments of Matt McNiel over his previous fifteen games at the Open.

Matt McNiel is an outstanding amateur bowler with a smooth yet hard throwing lefty style somewhat reminiscent to my eye of Ryan Ciminelli's. But you can judge for yourself by checking out his performance last night in the embedded videos below. The first video is of his entire performance, and the second video is of the tenth frame of his second game of doubles where he shot 300.

As a side note, McNiel shot 299 and 800 last year at the Open but didn't receive USBC sport condition honor awards for them because he didn't have a USBC sport league membership at the time. And he still hadn't upgraded his membership when he shot his first 300 on a sport condition last Thursday night. So when he got to Reno this year, he asked one of the USBC folks if he could upgrade his membership there, they let him do it, and it's a good thing he did.

You can read Jeff Richgel's excellent profiles of McNiel last year here, and this year here, and Bowl.com's recap of McNiel's entire outing this year here.

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Couch Defeats Bohn in 2011 Mark Roth Plastic Ball Championship

"For it to be the Mark Roth and to be my first tournament win in three, four years is such a relief. It's special. ... It's a big monkey off my back."

--Jason Couch

It wasn't as entertaining as last year's plastic ball tournament in which Jason Belmonte left that impossible solid 7 pin on the first ball of a sudden-death rolloff and Brian Ziesig stepped up and delivered a clutch strike to win the championship. But it was still pretty entertaining watching hall-of-famer Parker Bohn defeat Tom Smallwood and fireballing hometown boy Ryan Ciminelli before falling to future hall-of-famer Jason Couch yesterday in the final game of the 2011 Mark Roth Plastic Ball Championship at the Thruway Lanes in Cheektowaga, N.Y.

And it all began in wonderful style with Mark Roth himself shown throwing a ball and getting a seven count just before the competition began. Mark overcame a serious stroke on June 4, 2009 to make his remarkable appearance yesterday, and I hope he continues to improve.

In last year's version of the tournament, Roth appeared in the public arena for the first time since his stroke and could barely walk. This time, with the aid of all the rehabilitation he's undergone plus the help of an electrical stimulator called "WalkAide," he was able to get around much better and to even throw a couple of balls in front of the crowd as well as beat his physical therapist a few days before with a 157 game while throwing a 15 pound ball. This is tremendous progress since almost dying less than two years ago and not being expected to ever be able to walk again.

As for yesterday's matches, Tom Smallwood, who's had another great season, especially with his second place $100,000 finish in the Tournament of Champions, never did get lined up but still kept his match with Bohn close to the very end. In the next match, Ciminelli outbowled Bohn but had trouble carrying corner pins and lost to Bohn in another squeaker. In the final match, neither bowler performed at his best, but Bohn struggled mightily with getting the right feel in his thumbhole and consequently threw some bad balls that put him out of the match with Couch fairly early on. This was Couch's first title since 2007. As you may recall, Couch is the only bowler to ever win the coveted Tournament of Champions title three consecutive times.

Also noteworthy was hall-of-famer Johnny Petraglia's eighth place finish in the tournament. This borders on astonishing for a 64-year-old man competing with the young lions!

Perhaps almost equally astonishing is the fact that Chris Barnes finished only 30th in a tournament where one would expect his superior talent, skill, and bowling knowledge to propel him to greater heights. After all, this tournament was designed to, as the PBA website describes it, "put a premium on knowledge of changing lane conditions, subtle adjustments in hand positions and delivery techniques, and other skills rather than relying on advanced bowling ball technology." Whom would one expect to be better in these areas than Chris Barnes? Well, maybe we should expect it from old timers like Johnny Petraglia and even Parker Bohn who grew up having to rely more on these very skills in order to succeed.

Below are the final standings, playoff results, and videos of the televised finals.

Final Standings

1. Jason Couch, Clermont, Fl., 219 (1 game), $20,000

2. Parker Bohn, Jackson, N.J., 589 (3 games), $10,000

3. Ryan Ciminelli, Cheektowaga, N.Y., (1 game), $6,000

4. Tom Smallwood, Saginaw, Mich., 197 (1 game), $5,000

Playoff Results

Match One: Bohn def. Smallwood 201-197

Match Two: Bohn def. Ciminelli 213-207

Championship Match: Couch def. Bohn 219-175

Walter Ray and Ryan Ciminelli are Looking Good

I'm watching the first games of the Mark Roth Plastic Ball Championship and am seeing a lot of slow balls and weak 10's to start the day. That's no surprise. But what does surprise me is that some guys are tearing up the lanes anyway.

Of course, it's not like they're bowling on oil flooded lanes with those cheap plastic balls of theirs. But, still, I expected the scores to be lower than they are so far. And I especially expected low rev, small hook guys like Walter Ray to be down near the bottom of the standings.

Instead, Walter, who's crossing with the stellar group of Steve Jaros, Ryan Shafer, and Mike Fagan, sits in fourth place after four games. Although it's very early in the proceedings, I should know by now not to count Walter out of any tournament unless and until the math says he's out. As legendary bowling announcer Fred Wolf used to say, "If you can do it with a pencil, you can do it with a bowling ball." And this adage seems especially true of the truly great Walter Ray Williams, even at 50 years of age. It will be interesting to see how he manages when those plastic balls carry down a lot of oil.

But the guy who's REALLY tearing them up is probably the least surprising of all. It's Ryan Ciminelli (see video below) sitting at the top of the heap, and I wouldn't be surprised if he stays pretty close to the top spot throughout the tournament so long as he's able to play outside and juice the ball to the pocket. This guy has serious power wedded to a pretty solid game overall. I think he's going to be a Tour monster with a few more years of seasoning. And even though he's a damn leftie, I hope my prediction comes true. I love to watch him bowl.

Old Master of the Masters

"It's deja vu all over again."
--Yogi Berra

Walter Ray Williams last bowled in the title match of the USBC Masters Championship in 2004. It was at the National Bowling Stadium in Reno, Nevada. He was seeded second to his opponent Chris Barnes. He defeated Barnes that day 268-239 for his first Masters title.

Yesterday, the finals of the 2010 Masters Championship took place. For the first time since 2004, it was held at Reno's National Bowling Stadium. And, once again, Walter Ray Williams was seeded second to Chris Barnes.

Williams bowled well all week and steamrolled over his opponents in match play until he ran into a razor sharp Barnes in the final winners bracket match and was dominated by a hundred pins by the widely acknowledged best bowler on tour, prompting both Xtra Frame's "Bowling Doctor" Jeff Mark and ESPN's analyst Randy Pedersen to unequivocally predict a Barnes victory.

Nevertheless, Walter Ray came out firing on all cylinders yesterday against young lion Ryan Ciminelli in the semi-final match and, playing his patented outside line, convincingly dispatched him 258-224 on the way to his showdown with Barnes. But his first ball against Barnes came up high, and a surprised Williams was lucky to leave only a 7 pin instead of a disastrous split. Yet, this was the last time Williams failed to strike as he blasted eleven strikes, most of them "high flush," in a row after that to crush Barnes 290-217 and earn his second Masters title and a $50,000 paycheck, his 8th major title, tying him with Mike Aulby and Pete Weber for second place behind Earl Anthony's ten on the all time list, increase his career national title record to 47, and vault the 50-year-old bowling wonder to the top of the Bowler of the Year points race.

"This is just another little feather, it's just awesome," said a jubilant Williams, who was reported to be leaving afterward for Stockton, CA to celebrate his mother's 75th birthday. When asked about his future bowling plans, Williams replied: "I'm going to go out there and plug along as good as I can, and the year that I'm no longer exempt out here, that's when I will have had enough.

I'm sure both the regular touring players and the bowlers on the senior tour are overjoyed to hear that.

Masters Finalists

Well, the match play dust has settled and the four finalists for Sunday' USBC Masters telecast have been determined. Lefty Mike Scroggins will take on lefty rookie sensation Ryan Ciminelli in the first match. The winner will bowl against Walter Ray Williams. And the winner of that match will face the great Chris Barnes for the prestigious title.

Xtra Frame's "Bowling Doctor" Jeff Mark says Barnes is going to win it, and Barnes certainly does look intimidatingly sharp right now. But I, as always, am rooting for Walter Ray Williams. By the way, Williams won the Masters in 2004, and that was the last time this great event was held in Reno's bowling stadium.