PBA Midwest/Central Region Thunder Bowl Open

 Midwest/Central Region

 Thunder Bowl Open  

Sponsored by RC Cola and Miller Lite

 

 

Thunder Bowl is hosting its 1st PBA Regional tournament

July 30th - August 1st. 

The Action was webcast on pba.com’s xtraframe.

Top 6 After Saturday Qualifying

Paul Gibson                                        1893

Matt Freiberg                                    1882

Anthony LaCaze                                1853

Brian Waliczek                                   1819

Dallas Baldridge                                1811

David Beres                                        1810

After Matchplay Sunday, Stepladder Finals

Brian Waliczek Defeated Top Seed Paul Gibson 203-195 

for his 6th Regional Title.

PBA Players Win In Europe

Chris Loschetter of Avon, Ohio, won his first European Bowling Tour title on July 11, defeating Finland’s
two-handed star, Osku Palermaa, 412-358, in the two-game title match of the sixth Storm San Marino
Open at Rose'n Bowl in Serravalle, San Marino. Loschetter, a five-year Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour
competitor, earned 10,000 Euros (roughly $12,000 in U.S. dollars).

Loschetter, 30, defeated Jimmy Mortensen of Denmark, 432-431; Johan Hellden of Sweden, 440-381,
and Gery Verbruggen of Belgium, 454-414, to reach the championship match. Fellow PBA Tour star
Mika Koivuniemi of Hartland, Mich., advanced to the semifinal round, where he lost to Palermaa, 437-
416. Pete Weber finished 10th and England’s Stuart Williams finished 24th.

Also on July 11, PBA Hall of Famer Brian Voss def. Gykis Vytautas of Latvia, 478-370, to win the Czech
Open at Bowland in Olomouc, Czechoslovakia. The 51-year-old Voss, a 25-time PBA Tour champion,
defeated Juha Maja of Finland, 515-495, in semifinal round. The Czech Open drew a field of 223 men
and women who bowled six-game qualifying rounds over a period of six days in the 12-lane host center.
Voss qualified 11th to make out into the elimination rounds and won 2,500 Euros (about $US3,200).

WRWjr Wins ESPY Award

PBA Hall of Famer Walter Ray Williams Jr., who earned a record seventh PBA Player of the Year honor
in the 2009-10 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour season, matched that accomplishment by receiving a
seventh ESPN “Best Bowler” ESPY award Wednesday.

2010 PBA World Series of Bowling

The Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) is now accepting entries for the
2010 PBA World Series of Bowling which kicks off the 2010-11 Lumber
Liquidators PBA Tour season in October at the South Point Hotel, Casino and
Bowling Center in Las Vegas.

For a $750 entry fee, bowlers are entered in six events including
the PBA World Championship. In all, the 14-day extravaganza
will award six PBA Tour titles and pay $635,000 in prize money.
In previous seasons the entry fee alone for the PBA World
Championship had been $500 for PBA members. There will be
no Tour Qualifying Rounds or “World Series Trials.”

For John Cicero of Colorado Springs, Colo., a PBA member since 2008 who
submitted the first World Series (WSOB) entry, the WSOB is a perfect
opportunity to compete affordably at the sport’s highest level.

“Since becoming a PBA member it’s been a tremendous learning curve and now
after competing on PBA conditions—mainly at the regional level—I feel I’m at
the point where I have a reasonable chance to do well under Tour conditions,”
said the 32-year-old Cicero. “To have all the (WSOB) tournaments in one
location at one time makes it affordable for me to compete in several
tournaments that I probably wouldn’t have been able to compete in otherwise.

“I bowled the Tour Trials last year and learned a lot from that experience even
though I didn’t do that well. But, I’m looking forward to the challenge of
bowling against these guys in Vegas.”

The WSOB, which is open exclusively to PBA, Japan PBA, Korean PBA and
World Tenpin Bowling Association International (non-U.S.) members, begins
Sunday, Oct. 24, and culminates with the taping of six television programs over
two days Nov. 5-6. The shows will air on ESPN starting Sunday, Nov. 28.

Members can enter on-line by clicking on the member’s login link on pba.com
and then Tournaments/Enter New Tournament and select World Series as the
region. An entry form may be downloaded by logging onto the membership site
where the entry form is the very first link on the opening page. Entrants can also
request an entry form from PBA at membership@pba.com ; or by calling (206) 332-9688. Entries may be
scanned and e-mailed back to PBA, faxed to (206) 332-9722 or mailed to the PBA office.

Beginning Monday, Oct. 25, and over a span of five consecutive days, WSOB players
will bowl 12 games on the Cheetah, Viper, Chameleon, Scorpion and Shark
patterns, respectively, with the top 16 from each daily event advancing to match
play during the second week. The top 16 players in each animal pattern event
also will earn prize money with the winner of each earning $15,000, a PBA Tour
title and a berth in the Tournament of Champions.

The combined pinfall for 60 games across all animal pattern events will
determine the standings for the PBA World Championship which will pay one in four
based on 216 entries with a $2,000 low-to-cash. First prize in the World
Championship will be $50,000. The PBA World Championship also will incorporate a unique television format where the top eight qualifiers will advance to a three-day television finale.

“We are building the PBA World Series of Bowling to be the ultimate
destination event for our entire membership,” said PBA COO and Deputy
Commissioner Tom Clark. “Multiple titles are up for grabs, a huge overall prize
fund, nine nationally-televised shows, affordable entry fee and accommodations
and all in one city for a short amount of time.

“There are no Tour Qualifying Events (TQRs), just one even playing field with
wall-to-wall competitive bowling at the highest level. If you are a PBA member,
this is the bowling trip you cannot miss. If you aren’t a member but believe in
your game, the chance to compete in the WSOB is your reason to join the PBA.”

The WSOB host hotel South Point is offering a special $49 plus tax ($78 plus tax
weekend) member room rate for the World Series. For room reservations and
more information about South Point Hotel, Casino and Bowling Center, visit
southpointcasino.com.

Storm Products Wins Manufacturer's Cup

Storm Products climbed the ladder from bottom rung to top, capturing the

inaugural Manufacturers’ Cup in the Professional Bowlers Association’s GEICO 
Team Shootout hosted by Six Flags with a dramatic 167-159 Baker team upset

of Brunswick in the title match.

The final two round-robin team matches and the Manufacturers’ Cup stepladder 
finals aired Sunday on ESPN.

The fourth annual summer special event featured Baker format team bowling where 
each member of a five-player team bowls two frames to complete a full game. In 
the GEICO Team Shootout, an “endless 10th frame” bonus feature allowed a team to 
extend its 10th frame as long as it could continue to throw strikes. The entire 
series was conducted outdoors on specially-constructed lanes on the grounds of 
Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, NJ.

Coming into the final qualifying round of the event, Brunswick had already 
locked up the top position for the four-team stepladder final and lost its final 
round-robin match to 900 Global, 200-194, on the PBA’s Chameleon lane 
conditioning pattern. Ebonite International sent Storm Products to the lowest 
rung for the stepladder finals, winning a 205-204 nail-biter on the Cheetah 
pattern, to give Storm a 2-4 won-lost record. Brunswick finished the round-robin 
portion of the event with a 4-2 record. Ebonite and 900 Global each had 3-3 
records, but Ebonite International earned the No. 2 qualifying position based 
upon higher actual pinfall during the qualifying rounds.

Fresh off its one-pin loss to Ebonite, Storm took out its frustration on 900 
Global in the opening stepladder match, 242-200. As the higher qualifier, 900 
Global selected the Cheetah pattern – which it had used successfully earlier in 
the event – but that decision ultimately played right into Storm’s hands as 
Rhino Page, anchor Norm Duke, Wes Malott, Jason Belmonte and Pete Weber ran off 
a string of nine consecutive strikes starting in the fourth frame to post the 
tournament’s highest score.

“It was a weird event,” Duke said. “In all of our earlier matches, it seemed 
like we were bowling well enough, but we couldn’t win. We lost three times by 
one pin. There are so many ways you could find that one pin, and it kinda starts 
working on your confidence. But Global picked the Cheetah and we got it going.”

In the semifinal round, Storm avenged its earlier loss to Ebonite International, 
228-215, again on the Cheetah pattern. Despite a pair of open frames and a scare 
at the end, Storm put together a pair of four-baggers to charge into the lead. 
Ebonite had a chance to win after a Chris Barnes strike in the ninth and three 
more by Tommy Jones in the 10th created an “endless 10th frame” opportunity. 
Mike Fagan struck on the first “endless” attempt, but Bill O’Neill left a 10 pin 
on the second shot which ended Ebonite’s comeback bid.

“Ebonite picked the pattern we had just bowled on and shot the biggest game of 
the event,” Duke said. “We didn’t understand why, but it was good for us. God 
forbid they had picked the Viper…”

For the championship, Brunswick selected the Chameleon pattern to slow down 
Storm’s dominance on the Cheetah, but the defensive strategy resulted in an ugly 
finale. Strikes by Brad Angelo and Carolyn Dorin-Ballard in the first two frames 
gave Brunswick an early lead, but four open frames in the next seven erased the 
team’s advantage. In the meantime, Storm also was struggling, posting only two 
strikes the entire game, but it also had only one open frame heading into the 
10th.


“We did well on the Chameleon earlier and when we did that, we figured we’d pick 
Chameleon for the title match because we wanted tough pattern and we’d be the 
only ones who had bowled on it,” Brunswick’s Johnny Petraglia said. “We just 
didn’t get the job done.”

“Outside in that environment, the Chameleon condition changed the most 
dramatically,” Storm anchor Norm Duke said. “It’s the thinnest application of 
oil. It was ugly. Everyone was afraid to make a shot because you had no idea how 
much conditions had changed. You couldn’t guesstimate what to do.”

In the 10th frame, Storm’s Norm Duke left the 2-4-5-8 “bucket” and failed to 
convert.

“The guys had me anchor because I can throw the ball straighter than anyone 
else,” Duke said. “I just wanted to get the ball to the pocket, but I over 
adjusted. I wanted a strike so bad, but I also figured I could make any spare on 
the left side if I missed. Then I leave the bucket and miss it. I honestly 
thought they were going to strike out to win, and they almost did.”

Brunswick anchor Sean Rash spared and struck, giving his team an “endless 10th 
frame” chance to rally. Angelo struck on the next shot, but Dorin-Ballard left 
the 3 pin on the next shot, ending Brunswick’s hopes.

“We got an early lead, but I left a washout and missed,” Petraglia said. “And it 
still came down to needing one final strike to win the whole thing. The pressure 
of Carolyn being the only woman, of feeling like you were bowling on a razor 
blade…there were so many different kinds of pressure on her. But we told her, it 
was win as a team, lose as a team.

“All of us were throwing that last ball with her,” Petraglia continued. “If we’d 
gotten one other good shot, we wouldn’t have needed it. Duke let us back into 
the match when he left the bucket and missed, which shows how tough that 
condition was. And we still came within one shot of winning it.”

“I’d have been happy having Carolyn make that shot,” Duke said. “She made a 
great shot. She just didn’t move far enough.”

The competition between rival manufacturers conducted outdoors at one of the 
Atlantic Coast region’s most popular family theme parks drew raves from the 
players, regardless of who won.

“It was fantastic, a really great event,” Petraglia beamed. “There was just 
enough in-your-face competition between teams, but nobody got mad at anyone. It 
was a terrific atmosphere, and it was great fun to bowl in a team concept 
again.”

Storm Products players shared an $80,000 first prize and a crystal 
Manufacturers’ Cup for their sponsoring company.

Track Adds a 6 Series Ball

Why a 6 series ball? Track’s R&D Department developed the 607ASE (Special Edition) specifically positioned between the 505A and 715A, presenting a level of performance that bowlers are looking for, right between the two. 

The asymmetric core is a modified version of the "Legion" core used in the Track Temper. Extreme Angularity is the strength of the “SE6” GEN1 coverstock, making this ball a dynamic choice for the oil patterns in typical house shots most competitive league bowlers face. Cover of the 607A is Black/Red?Yellow and finished 500, 1000, 2000, 4000 then polished with Powerhouse Factory Finish. 15# RG is 2.46, and RG Differential is .041. Available 8/5/10.

Brunswick's Adds An Anaconda

Brunswick’s new Anaconda is the first ball with “Activator® Plus” Coverstock available at the Advanced Performance price point. “Activator Plus” is a more aggressive version of the original “Activator” coverstock formulation that maintains the durability and longevity of ball reaction that are characteristic of the “Activator” coverstock family. The rough-buff, pearlized version of “Activator Plus” coverstock used on the Anaconda creates more traction in the oil, increasing the ball’s midlane and back-end hooking action, while still being clean through the front-end.

The Anaconda uses an updated version of the “Original Inferno” core. The Ultra Low RG “Inferno” core revs quickly providing mid-lane traction control with a strong predictable back-end motion. RG Max 2.51, RG Differential .04, Universal Release Date: July 12, 2010.

Brunswick's New Revolver

The Brunswick Revolver utilizes “ConneXion Grip” an improved version of “ConneXion” coverstock with a 4,000 Siaair Micro Pad finish. “ConneXion Grip” incorporates a new formula to increase the footprint size of the coverstock which improves mid-lane and back-end traction.

The “Jack™ Core” was designed as a low RG symmetric core with a high differential. The low RG engages in the mid-lane assisting in ball motion, and the high differential increases track flare potential giving the ball more opportunity to grip the back-end while using standard layouts and interchangeable thumb sleeves. RG 2.558, RG Differential 0.054, Universal Release Date: July 12, 2010.

Chemical Friction for The New Bowling Season

CFT v4.5 is the next progression in Chemical Friction Technology from Brunswick. The CFT v4.5 coverstock has a lower friction factor than CFT 3.5 which improves length through the heads and mid-lane without sacrificing the quick response and improved traction on the back-end.

The new I – Block Symmetric core was created by modifying the original asymmetric I – Block core (which has a symmetric base and an asymmetric flip block) to have an asymmetric base. By creating an asymmetric base with an asymmetric flip block on perpendicular axes the two asymmetries cancel each other out making the core shape symmetric. The core shape was also thinned and stretched to increase the RG min while maintaining the overall differential. RG 2.555, RG Differential 0.053 Universal Release Date: July 12, 2010.

Mark Williams Kegel Bowler of the Month

Mark Williams of Beaumont, Texas, has been named the June 2010 Kegel Bowler of the Month by the Bowling Writers Association of America (BWAA).

Williams, a Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) Hall of Famer (1999, Performance), won his first major PBA Senior title, the 2010 PBA Senior U.S. Open. This marks the third career major title for Williams. He also captured the 1985 and 1988 PBA Tournament of Champions crowns.

Team Brunswick Leads in PBA Team Shootout

With temperatures pushing close to 110 degrees on the bowling lane surface, the heat of the 

moment didn’t stop Brunswick from adding to its Manufacturers’ Cup lead after three rounds of 

competition in the Professional Bowlers Association’s GEICO Team Shootout hosted by 

Six Flags. 

Matches five and six of 12 scheduled Baker scoring system round-robin team matches aired Saturday 

on ESPN. 

In Baker team bowling, each member of a five-player team bowls two frames to complete a full 

game. In the GEICO Team Shootout, an “endless 10th frame” bonus feature allows a team to extend

its 10th frame as long as it can continue to throw strikes. The entire series, consisting of six head-

to-head matches between each team and a three-match stepladder final, was conducted outdoors on 

specially-constructed lanes on the grounds of Six Flags Great Adventure, in Jackson, New Jersey. 

After losing its first two matches to Brunswick, Ebonite International got on the winning track in 

Match Five, racing away to a 217-172 victory over 900 Global on the PBA Shark lane condition. A 

strike in the fifth frame and three more in the 10th by anchor Chris Barnes were the difference-

makers. Strikes by Mike Scroggins in the first and sixth frames also helped the Ebonite players - 

representing Columbia 300, Hammer, Track and Ebonite bowling ball brands – build an insurmountable

lead as 900 Global was unable to put together back-to-back strikes the entire game. 

“We picked the Shark because we felt like our team didn’t have a lot of weaknesses,” Barnes said. 

“Jason (Couch) and Mike (Scroggins) both had a good look and (900 Global) didn’t have any lefties.

We also figured our rev rate worked to our advantage. 

“We knew we had the best team there,” Barnes continued. “The format really didn’t penalize anyone

for not qualifying well, but we didn’t expect to be 0-2, either. But Brunswick bowled a heckuva 

game both times.” 

In Match Six, Storm’s decision to challenge Brunswick on the Viper pattern stung the “home team” 

in the end. Storm had the right to select the lane condition, but the lineup of Norm Duke, Pete 

Weber, Wes Malott, Jason Belmonte and Rhino Page was unable to throw a single double. Brunswick

took advantage when Parker Bohn III, Sean Rash and Brad Angelo combined for a turkey to take a 

24-pin lead after seven frames. 

An unconverted 4-6-7 split by Carolyn Dorin-Ballard in the eighth frame and a missed 1-3-6-7 

“washout” by Bohn in the 10th opened the door for Storm, but Page’s seven-count after converting

a 7 pin in the 10th frame was just enough for Brunswick to hang on for a 185-184 victory, its third 

without a loss in the round-robin match series. 

“I’ve always said if you want a condition that neutralizes the best players, pick the toughest 

condition, not the easiest,” Brunswick’s Johnny Petraglia said. “That’s kind of what you’re trying to 

do in an event like this. You try to pick a pattern that individuals can’t line up off each other. We 

felt like every time the other team picked the toughest pattern against us, they were doing us a  

favor.”  

After three complete rounds, Brunswick held a 3-0 edge in the Manufacturers’ Cup while the other 

three teams all had 1-2 records. The won-lost records at the conclusion of the round-robin matches

will determine the seeding positions for the championship round. Ties will be broken by actual pinfall 

totals, not including “endless 10th frame” bonus pins. 

GEICO Team Shootout telecasts will continue on ESPN on Sunday, July 11, at 1:30 p.m. All times 

are Eastern.

2011 Women's US Open Finals in Texas Stadium

Sports history was made at today's 2010 International Bowl Expo, when the Bowling Proprietors' Association of America (BPAA) announced that, for the first time in the history of the sport, a Women's Major professional bowling event will be held in a traditional sporting venue.   

Marking a historic achievement for women's athletics, the BPAA brokered an agreement for the 2011 Bowling's U.S. Women's Open to be hosted on-site at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, TX; details are being finalized for the nationally televised event.  Bowling's U.S. Women's Open will be held on June 30, 2011 in conjunction with the 2011 International Bowl Expo and will be sponsored by The Brands of Ebonite International.