One of the best competitions in quite awhile emerged Saturday atDaffodil Bowl as after an early posting of 811 in the 2:00 Squad,numerous bowlers made significant assaults on the lead in the final two squads.  The turnout was great for the always popular 'Best 3 of 4' as there were 129 Entries with 26 bowlers making their way to the Cash List.  The Cut Line turned out to be at 749 which is slightly above normal and there was Nikki Blase, right on that Cut Line for the 2nd time in our last three 'Best 3 of 4' Tournaments.  Lisa Ohm made the trip all the way from Arizona and made the Cash List in 24th Place.  Also, Steve Wilson, who is moving out of state soon, was on hand for his final Tournament for the forseeable future as he finished tied for 4th Place.  Good luck, Steve and we hope to see you back very soon!  The 9-Tap Jackpot was not really threatened this week, but Mike Metcalf did hit the front 4 taps and in doing so broke a 5-way logjam of bowlers that had 3 taps.  Mike takes home a $100.00 consolation for the feat.  The 9-Tap Jackpot now grows over the $3,000.00 mark for the first time in awhile and sits at $3,242.00 for next week at Imperial Bowl.  The Progressive Pot also made a significant jump and is back over the $2,000.00 mark at $2,084.00.

 

Finishing in 3rd Place this week was Ken Seaton, who owns a staggering list of Top TEN finishes over the last two years, including Three 2nd Place finishes in a two month span at the end of last year.  Ken, who joined in 2008, has Two Tour Titles and including his $450.00 earnedSaturday, now has $13,759.00 in career earnings.  The early Leader from the 2:00 Squad who shot that impressive 811 score and turned out to be this week's Runner-up, is Aaron Eidet.  Aaron joined the Tour back in 2004 and had his previous best performances back in 2009 with 3rd & 4th Place Finishes.  After dropping out of leagues and bowling for the past couple of years (with the exception of one Tour entry last year), Aaron returned on Saturday and using a borrowed ball, finished in 2nd Place for a $675.00 pay day.  Nice shooting!  

 

Our latest Champion, the one and only, Rollie Abella came out of the Final Squad on a re-entry and obviously made some critical adjustmentsafter not bowling so well in the previous Squad.  As the scores came in, we felt that Eidet's score might hold up but Rollie's #1 fan and wife, Maribel Abella stopped Steve on his way to the scorer's table and said that she thought that Rollie had done great and maybe put in the top score.  It was about that moment when Rollie's recap sheet came across our table and not only did he win, he ran away from the competition, posting an incredible 864!  Rollie joined the Tour in 2006 and went on to win 4 Titles in 4 years with his last win being back in 2010.  This being his 5th Title earns him the special Champions retro shirt with 5 Gold Stars, one for each of his Titles.  Rollie says that he had been in somewhat of a slump before today and as his 4 bonus pins would indicate, HE WAS!  He also mentioned that he and Maribel had just returned from vacationing in The Phillipines recently and attributes that to feeling "Refreshed" after swimming with whale sharks in the open Ocean (see photo).  Rollie used his Columbia 'Violent Eruption' ball drilled by Norm at Kent Bowl and when asked what he was going to do with his $1,872.00 in winnings said "I'm going to buy more bowling equipment".  Rollie's win places his career earnings at an impressive $18,766.00.  Rollie asked us to thank everyone and especially his #1 fan & wife, Maribel.  Great bowling, Rollie and Congratulations on your 5th WIN!!!