Ciccone Leads PBA Tour Trials

Joe Ciccone of Buffalo, NY, struggled to retain his lead in the Lumber Liquidators Professional
Bowlers Association (PBA) Tour Trials at Thunderbowl Lanes Saturday, but the player he was
most concerned about was the guy in ninth place.

Ciccone, who is trying to regain an exemption to bowl on the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour for the
2009-10 season, finished Saturday’s Scorpion lane condition round with a 36-game total of 7,884
pins, a 219 average. He held a 23-pin lead over George Lambert IV of Hamilton, Ontario, but in this
event, eighth place is as good as first, and Ciccone was 265 pins ahead of fellow Buffalo resident Dan 
Patterson, who sat in ninth place.

For Ciccone, finishing among the top eight in the Tour Trials means an exemption to bowl as a full-
time touring player for the seventh year in a row. He failed to earn enough points during the 2008-
09 season to maintain his exemption.

“It’s nice to know there’s a cushion, but that’s not something I think about,” Ciccone said. “I don’t
want to think too far ahead. Tomorrow is a different day.

“I struggled quite a bit today,” he said. “I couldn’t get comfortable with my match up to the lanes.
I was fortunate to be able to grind away. My game plan is to keep the same frame of mind tomorrow.
The Shark pattern? I’ve had some success on all of the PBA patterns, and I’ve had problems with all
of them, too. I try not to come into any round with preconceived notions about how the lanes are
going to play.

“But any time I can be in the press room at the end of a round, it’s a good day,” he grinned.

Heading into Sunday’s final nine games on the Shark lane oiling pattern, the eight players in position
to earn exempt PBA Tour berths were: Thomas Smallwood, Flushing, MI; Stevie Weber, Chalmette,
LA; Cassidy Schaub, Ashland, OH; Tim Jack, Indianapolis, IN; Dan McLelland, Windsor, Ontario, and
Stuart Williams, England. Williams led Patterson by 16 pins in the race for the eighth exemption.

LUMBER LIQUIDATORS PBA TOUR TRIALS
Thunderbowl Lanes, Allen Park, Mich., May 30
ROUND FOUR (after 36 games)

1, Joe Ciccone, Buffalo, N.Y., 7,884
2, George Lambert IV, Hamilton, Ontario, 7,861
3, Thomas Smallwood, Flushing, Mich., 7,811
4, Stevie Weber, Chalmette, La., 7,697
5, Cassidy Schaub, Ashland, Ohio, 7,683
6, Tim Mack, Indianapolis, 7,676
7, Dan MacLelland, Windsor, Ontario, 7,640
8, Stuart Williams, England, 7,635
9, Daniel Patterson, Buffalo, N.Y., 7,619
10, Mason Brantley, Detroit, Mich., 7,611
11, Mitch Beasley, Puyallup, Wash., 7,607
12, D.J. Archer, Mineral Wells, Texas, 7,597
13, Anthony LaCaze, Melrose Park, Ill., 7,580
14, Bo Goergen, Midland, Mich., 7,524
15, Tae-Hwa Jeong, South Korea, 7,510
16, Sean Riccardi, Piscataway, N.J., 7,489
17, Brian LeClair, Athens, N.Y., 7,485
18, Ken Simard, Greenville, S.C., 7,476
19, George Frilingos, Australia, and Ryan Ciminelli, Cheektowaga, N.Y., 7,468
21, Billy Oatman, Chicago, 7,457
22, Thomas Wall III, Fayetteville, N.C., 7,455
23, Dave D'Entremont, Middleburg Heights, Ohio, 7,453
24, Eddie Graham, Centerville, Ohio, 7,450
25, Tom Hess, Urbandale, Iowa, 7,428
26, Randy Weiss, Columbia, S.C., 7,423
27, Joe Bailey, Pittsburgh, Pa., 7,421
28, Bill Rowe, Hamilton, Ontario, 7,413
29, Gregory Thompson Jr., Dayton, Ohio, 7,411
30, Andrew Cain, Scottsdale, Ariz., 7,405
31, Kelly Kulick, Union, N.J., 7,402
32, Won-Young Choi, South Korea, 7,401
33, Christopher Collins, Savannah, Ga., 7,395
34, Andres Gomez, Colombia, 7,383
35, Shannon Buchan, Waterloo, Iowa, 7,354
36, Seo Hak Jung, South Korea, 7,351
37, Jesse Buss, Wichita, Kan., 7,347
38, Chad Kloss, Greenfield, Wis, 7,338
39, Bobby Hall II, Landover, Md., 7,312
40, Jeffrey Roche, Dearborn, Mich., 7,299
41, Jason Mahr, Spring Hill, Fla., 7,292
42, Matthew O'Grady, South Amboy, N.J., 7,282
43, Joe Paluszek, Bensalem, Pa., 7,258
44, Jason Hurd, St. Petersburg, Fla., 7,256
45, Tim Behrendt, St. Louis., Mo., 7,219
46, Frank Testa, Akron, Ohio, 7,199
47, Jason Poli, West Des Moines, Iowa, 7,198
48, Lee Vanderhoef, Greenville, S.C., 7,195
49, Mike Keily, Lakewood, Colo., 7,183
50, David Simard, Granby, Quebec, 7,177
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