"Experimental" Tournament Interesting

As voted upon by the SISBA membership at their annual meeting in April 2004, a tournament conducted in divisions according to age was held at the Bowl-ero Lanes in Idaho Falls, Idaho recently.

Because the tournament would be in divisions by age, it was decided to invite bowlers 44 years of age and under to participate. So, divisions included A (open to all ages), B (open to age 45 and over), C (open to age 51 and over), and D (open to age 61 and over). All divisions had their own prize fund payoffs, and the A division side pots and brackets were separate.

The turnout was pretty good - 24 entries in A division, 21 entries in B division, 27 entries in C division, and 45 entries in D division. The women who entered were classified in the D division. There were four women participating, three were new to SISBA: Debbie Seniw and Mary Waite, both of Boise, Idaho, and Brenda Roberts of Blackfoot, Idaho. Debbie, along with Willie Hainsworth of Idaho Falls, Idaho, advanced to the playoffs, Mary missed the cut by one pin.

The scores were a bit lower than previous SISBA tournaments, but there were still five in the 1100's: Jason Parris of Blackfoot, Idaho, 1137 and Andy Kinney of Idaho Falls, Idaho, 1111 in the A Division; Terry Defa of West Jordan, Utah, 1145 in the B Division, Greg Waldon of Manhattan, Montana, 1191 in the C Division; and Orville Edwards of Pocatello, Idaho, 1154 in the D Division.

There were some great games during qualifying, too: In the A Division, Pat Luras of Pocatello, Idaho,  posted a 278 game to take the overall high game pot ($1 from A division entries since they could not participate in the STORM 300 Game Pot). Bob Bywater of Heyburn, Idaho, had a 277 in the two-game roll-off in C Division. 

Four plus the high qualifier went to the two-game playoff round in Divisions A, B and C, while eight plus the high qualifier advanced out of the D division. This was an elimination match with the second high qualifier bowling against the last high qualifier, etc., and the high qualifier drawing a bye. In the one-game match, the remaining bowlers bowled for high game to determine the winner of each division. Those four then went on to the final two-game match to determine the overall winner.

The final, two-game match was exciting. And it was Den Fernandez of Taylorsville, Utah, rising from 7th place in D Division to put together games of 211-244 for a 455 to beat out A division winner Spence Miller of Idaho Falls, Idaho, B division winner Terry Defa and C division winner Greg Waldon for the big prize. Spence had 428. Terry shot 421 and Greg was 361.  See Tournament Results

We will be sending out surveys to assess the opinions of those who participated in the tournament. For those of you who would like to express your opinion by email, please do so: verhoffv@hotmail.com or deano178@cableone.net. So far we have had a very positive response and we would like to try this tournament again.

Also those 44 and under who participated: John Robins, Cricket Lopez, Alfredo Lopez and Pat Luras of Pocatello, Idaho; Monty Vorwaller and Carl Barber of Roy, Utah; Adam Renak, Brandon Pearce, Spencer Miller, Jason Maas, Chris Azevedo, Andy Kinney, Craig Goodwin, and Ray French of Idaho Falls, Idaho;  Jason Parris, and Ron Callison of Blackfoot, Idaho; Matt Lovell of Ririe, Idaho; Tim Gneiting of Aberdeen, Idaho; and Devin Ballingham of Ogden, Idaho.

We would especially like to thank the management and staff of Bowl-ero Lanes and Bowl-ero Lounge - they did a terrific job!

 Who's Winning the Pots?