THUNDER LANES

Steven Black earned his third consecutive title, while Tiffany King returned to the winners' circle after a long absence, in the JBT SW's first visit to Thunder Lanes in Fort Mohave, AZ.

The very fair lane conditions required good shotmaking to score, and Christian Jensen did just that in the opening round of the stepladder finals resulting in a 213-159 victory over Brandon Watts, who continued an impressive scratch debut season with the top-5 finish.  In round two, a late 5-bagger gave Philip Schwartz just enough to get by Jensen 229-222 in a great match by both bowlers.  The semifinals makred the third time in three JBT SW events that Schwartz faced off against Steven Black (the last two in the title match), and unfortunately for Philip the result was the same this time.  Black made confident shots in the second half of the game while Schwartz's look faded, and Steven triupmhed 215-156 to reach the title match yet again.

Top qualifier Bill Grant came all the way from New Mexico to get eligible for the Mojave Invitational, and accomplished that mission by leading the field, again showing his dominance on lower scoring lane patterns.  He and Black engaged in a classic title match, with both bowlers executing great shots.  Black's first hit in the tenth forced Grant to double to win, and Grant, stepping up on his good lane, was a pinch left on his first ball, putting it through the break and thus missing wide right.  The 236-220 final was good for the 35th title of Black's career, and put an exclamation on a great run this spring, as he became the 3rd bowler to win both events in a weekend, and won his 3rd consecutive scratch title for the third time in his JBT SW career.

The handicap division finals featured five members of the Thunder Lanes junior program in the eight person field.  Round one featured all three locals, as Cassandra Canoy rolled a 200 scratch game en route to 278 handicap total, easily defeating good efforts by Doug Taylor (200) and Jennifer Mueller (204).  

In round two, Canoy remained on a big-time roll, firing a 238 that was just enough to defeat great scores of 231 from Selene Webb and 220 from Mojave star Nick Lamek.  The semifinals remained high-scoring, but this time it was Brandon Dauphinais making his first stepladder a big success with a 260 score that defeated Canoy (220) and Gabby Brown (200) to advance to his first title match.

Top qualifier Tiffany King had her favorite bowling ball damaged at Antelope the day before, but the Antelope staff more than made up for that by drilling her a brand new ball on the spot.  Tiffany owes the Antelope folks- and the machine that damaged her ball- a huge thank you, because she proceeded to grab the top seed at Thunder, and then pour on the strikes in the title match.  Despite a fine 232 effort from Dauphinais, King remained in control the whole match, and her 265 score was plenty to capture the second title of her JBT SW career.

Thanks to Storm as always for the raffle ball, and the Thunder Lanes staff for a great job recruiting local bowlers, and an excellent first visit to their fine center!