Of the 26 Finalists at Roxbury, FIFTEEN were seeking their first Tour Title, including FIVE of the top eight on the Cash List.  The scores were higher than expected on Sunday, and in the Finals, where we saw some tight, exciting Head-to-Head battles that weren't decided until the last shot.  The highest of those Sunday scores came when Greg Roberts got 'Locked-In',shattering his Personal Best series by 70 pins.  That big series not only earned Greg a New Ball and a Tour Jacket, he also 'Cleaned-Up' on 8 Brackets and another$205.00 from the Scratch Pot, to go with his 5th Place finish.  A broad range of averages were represented on another excellently balanced Cash List, where even 26th Place paid $100.  Both Pots increased for next week at Secoma Lanes, but the Progressive Pot made the bigger leap to$2,434.00, which will make for a sweet potential payday for our last regular Tournament of 2011.  The 9-Tap Jackpot Consolation paid out another $450.00, with $150.00 going to Mai-Lee Bowyer, Rollie Abella & Mick Thrush for their 4-Taps.

 

On the same day our Members were electing a new 'Hall of Fame' inductee, we had an existing HOF'er break out of a year long slump.  Leon Bemis won his 5th Career Championship Sunday, returning to the Winners Circle for the first time since July 2009.  It's been a Whirlwind 2 weeks for Leon, who only got back fromAtlanta Saturday night at 10:30.  He'd been visiting his son Michael and grandson Titus for both Thanksgiving and for his 79th Birthday.  Despite having $10 in the Progressive Pot, the $1,618.00 still makes for a nice Birthday present.  Leon started to break-out of his slump one week after Stu Gallagher replaced him as our Oldest Champion.  He said that he wanted that Crown back and the very next week at Kent Bowl, Leon had his best finish of the year when he took 3rd.  So, after the long plane ride and just 5 hours sleep, he shot a 962 to get into the Finals, then shot 5 moderate games in the Finals to win it.  He confessed to getting a little lucky on some close low scoring games, including a 6 pin win in the Final Match.  He said THANKS to Tour Director David Kim for giving him the Ebonite "Lane Breaker", redrilled by Robert Kelly at Secoma, that he used for this win.  Leon bowls in EIGHT Leagues per week and he also enjoys playing Golf when he can.  Welcome back to the Winners Circle Leon!!

 

In 2nd Place, with his best finish on the Tour, Joe Villanueva needed 2 strikes in the 10th to pull out the win.  He got one strike, leaving himself 6 pins short, but still had an excellent payday, picking-up a $961.00 for his effort.  Sharing 3rd Place, Paul Bitzer was looking for his 1st Singles Title, after Winning the Dad's Day Doubles Title in June and Greg Burdsall was looking for his first win since taking TWO Titles in 2007.  They each earned a healthy $468.00 for making the Final Four.

 

The Hall of Fame election results will be announced at the Year-End Tournament during our Awards presentations.  Invitations for that Tournament will be emailed this week.

 

Special THANKS to Chris Boger of CR BOGER CONSTRUCTION, MILLER-LITE (Columbia Distributing) andHAMMER BALLS, for their Sponsorship of this event!