HARLEY'S SIMI BOWL

champs Kirk Chui & Matt Snow

        Kirk Chui and Matt Snow both had career days that led to JBT titles in exciting Southern California Conference action at Harle's Simi Bowl.

        Bobby Hornacek began an exciting scratch division stepladder finals where all bowlers had at least one 'mulligan' left with a 245-240 thriller over previous day's champion Austin Thompson.  Match two was even more dramatic, as Brandon Wanders and Bobby Hormacek both started striking early on.  Wanders struck out from the fifth for 259, forcing Bobby to get all three in the tenth to tie.  He did, but at the cost of three of his four mulligans.  Brandon then struck on his first rolloff shot, and when Bobby couldn't match the strike with his last two chances, Wanders had the dramatic 10-9 win.  Lack of mulligans hurt Wanders in the semifinals though, as Ashley Dunn had just enough left for a 224-222 win, moving her on to the title match.

        Someone was going to finally win their first scratch title, as Dunn has 9 bazillion girls' titles but no open ones.  Meanwhile, Kirk Chui looked like he was going to win his first the day before until Austin Thompson stopped him.  Despite that letdown, he destroyed the pins this time, leading since game two and eventually lapping the field.  Despite a solid effort from Dunn, Kirk left no doubt as to the champ this time, winning the game 268-232, earning a long awaited first scratch JBT title to go along with two previous handicap division wins.

        Matthew Green escaped round one of the handicap stepladder finals with a 203-195 squeaker over Marc Villalobos.  In an equally tight second match, previous day's champ Leah Zweig eliminated Green 203-200.  Newcomer Matt Snow then stopped Zweig's run for a sweep with a 230-197 win to advance to the title game.

        Top seed Zack Long was wonderful all day, jumping ahead of Snow by only two pins for the number one spot.  However, Matt, who hadn't bowled a game over 100 in his short career, bowled 8 of 9 games over 100 today, including a 143 title match game that Zack couldn't keep up with.  The 251-189 final score gave Snow the first title of his JBT career, while Long's excellent day propelled him to teh top spot in the So Cal points race.

        Dunn's excellent weekend was capped off with a sweep of the Women's Series events, as she defeated Michaela Buhain 199-138 to wrap up the event.

        Thanks to everyone at Simi for another great job hosting our Tour.  Want in on all teh fun for all ages and averages?  Just check out our website for the schedules, and come on down!