HARLEY'S SIMI BOWL

champs Joe Grondin & Peter Hugelmaier

        In tremendously exciting title matches, Joe Grondin and Peter Hugelmaier each claimed their first JBT titles, in Southern California Conference action at Harley's Simi Bowl.

        There was an HOV lane on the 'Route 66' lane pattern, as bowlers tore it up all day long.  The two bowlers who rolled 300 games faced off in round one of the scratch division stepladder, and they put on another strike-fest, as Derek outlasted Matt 258-248.  Acuff then made a run at his second 300 of the day, firing the next ten strikes to oust Alex Watanabe 288-213.  The scores dropped in the semifinal match, and Austin Thompson scraped by Acuf 215-209 to reach the title match.

        Top seed Joe Grondin only had one previous JBT title match, a loss earlier this season at Keystone.  This time went much better, as his late turkey forced Austin to at least strike on his fill ball to keep his chances alive with the day's 'endless tenth' format.  A ringing-10 by Thompson halted that effort, and the resulting 213-193 final score was good for the first title of Grondin's JBT career.

        Scores were through the roof in the you're-gonna-get-less-handicap division as well, exemplified by the opening stepladder match, where Nick Condon outstruck Matthew Green by a 296-258 final total.  Condon beat his second straight Simi Valley local bowler in match two, this time eliminating Kyle Reed 239-217.  However, the Simi bowlers kept on coming, and this time they finally halted Nick, as Anthony DiPanni squeezed out an exciting 234-231 win over Condon to advance to the title match.

      Top seed Peter Hugelmaier and DiPanni then faced off in what may be the most exciting handicap title match in our 1,100+ tournament history.  With large rooting sections behind each bowler, Hugelmaier started with the first six strikes, while after a turkey-spare-spare start, Anthony never stopped striking, going all the way off the sheet for a 269 scratch game!  However, DiPanni was giving 4 pins of handicap, allowing Peter to potentially go strike-7-spare in the tenth to win.  Hugelmaier got the first strike, then a 7-count which left both crowds doing the math, while Peter calmly and quickly got up and converted the spare, resulting in an unbelievable 297-296 win and a most dramatic of first JBT titles.

        Lareece Chambers captured her first career Women's Series title with a 204-168 win over girl's points leader Alexis Atkin.

        Thanks to the whole staff at Harley's for an excellent job hosting their first JBT event.  Want in on all this fun and excitement for all ages and averages?  Just check out our schedule and come on down!