Dom Barrett #1 Berth for PBA Chameleon Championships

England’s Dom Barrett advanced from sixth place to first Monday night, claiming the No. 1 berth in the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA)’s Chameleon Championship stepladder finals at South Point Bowling Center, in Las Vegas, NV, the third of five events that compose the PBA World Series of Bowling V.

 

Barrett, who won his only PBA Tour title in the 2011 Scorpion Championship, will lead a field of four into the Chameleon Championship finals on Saturday, Nov. 2. ESPN will air the finals on Sunday, Dec. 15, at 1 p.m. ET. Also winning berths in the championship round were Brian Kretzer of Dayton, Ohio; Ryan Ciminelli of Cheektowaga, NY, and 2010 PBA World Champion Tom Smallwood of Saginaw, MI.

 

Barrett rolled the only 300 game in the semifinal round Monday night, finishing with a 14-game total of 3,246 pins to win the top seed in the stepladder finals by 13 pins over Kretzer, who also is a one-time PBA Tour title winner. Ciminelli, who earned the top berth in the Viper Championship presented by PBA Bowling Challenge Sunday night, is the first player in World Series V to qualify for two telecasts. Smallwood won the fourth spot by four pins over Patrick Allen of Wesley Chapel, FL, who earlier in the round called a foul on himself, costing him a place in the stepladder finals.

 

“It was a great run, perfect, couldn’t have worked out better,” Barrett said. “I won my title on the old Scorpion pattern, which is very similar to the new Chameleon lane condition, and it really matched up well to my game. I used the knowledge I’ve gotten from bowling in this center before and it helped me a lot.

 

“I’m over the moon,” he said with a grin. “I’ve bowled the best this week that I’ve ever bowled in my life, and this is the World Series, the biggest event there is. I had a couple of down moments in (the Viper Championship semifinal round) last night, but I went to bed, thought about it and woke up with a new attitude.”

 

Barrett went into the Viper semifinal round Sunday night as the tournament leader, but fell to 13th place by the end of the round.

 

Earlier Monday, the field of 235 players completed the third of four qualifying rounds for the PBA World Championship. The combined seven-game qualifying scores from the four animal pattern tournaments – Cheetah, Viper, Chameleon and Tuesday’s Scorpion Championship – will determine the top 24 players who will advance to World Championship round-robin match play on Wednesday and Thursday. After the Chameleon round, Barrett led World Championship qualifying with 5,046 pins, followed by Wes Malott of Pflugerville, Texas, with a 4,905 total and Jason Belmonte of Australia in third place with 4,836 pins.

 

All qualifying rounds from the World Series are being covered live on PBA’s Xtra Frame online bowling channel, and via “live scoring” on pba.com.  Tuesday’s schedule includes Scorpion Championship qualifying squads at 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. PT, and the top 24 semifinal round starting at 7:30 p.m.

 

PBA  CHAMELEON CHAMPIONSHIP

South Point Bowling Center, Las Vegas, Monday

 

FIRST ROUND STANDINGS (after 7 games, top 24 advance to semifinal round)

1, Dom Barrett, England, 3,246.
2, Brian Kretzer, Dayton, Ohio, 3,233.
3, Ryan Ciminelli, Cheektowaga, N.Y., 3,211.
4, Tom Smallwood, Saginaw, Mich., 3,198.
5, Patrick Allen, Wesley Chapel, Fla., 3,194, $4,000.
6, Sean Rash, Montgomery, Ill., 3,171, $3,500.
7, Tom Daugherty, Wesley Chapel, Fla., 3,154, $3,000.
8, Jake Peters, Decatur, Ill., 3,127, $2,500.
9, Bill O'Neill, Langhorne, Pa., 3,104, $2,200.
10, Todd Book, Russells Point, Ohio, 3,083, $2,000.
11, D.J. Archer, Friendswood, Texas, 3,064, $1,800.
12, Jason Belmonte, Australia, 3,061, $1,700.
13, Johnathan Bower, Middletown, Pa., 3,051, $1,650.
14, Bryon Smith, Roseburg, Ore., 3,042, $1,600.
15, Ronnie Russell, Marion, Ind., 3,018, $1,550.
16, Wes Malott, Pflugerville, Texas, 3,017, $1,500.
17, Jesse Buss, Belvidere, Ill., 3,008, $1,450.
18, Giorgio Clinaz Jr., Venezuela, 3,004, $1,400.
19, Carsten Hansen, Denmark, 2,978, $1,350.
20, Alan Mojado, Pala, Calif., 2,973, $1,300.
21, Martin Larsen, Sweden, 2,972, $1,275.
22, Michael Machuga, Erie, Pa., 2,958, $1,250.
23, Shawn Maldonado, Houston, 2,902, $1,225.
24, Paul Moor, England, 2,869, $1,200.

 

300 Games: Alan Mojada, DJ Archer, Johnathan Bower, Dom Barrett.

PBA Chameleon Championship Sunday

 

The stepladder finals of the third “animal pattern” PBA Tour event of the 2012-13 season from the South Point Hotel and Casino Las Vegas, NV takes on an international flavor and features the return of Walter Ray Williams Jr. to a televised final.

In the opening match of the PBA Chameleon Championship, 2010-11 Rookie of the Year Scott Norton of Costa Mesa, CA, takes on Fawaz Abdulla, the first bowler from the Middle East country of Bahrain ever to make a PBA finals telecast.

Norton made a memorable debut in the 2010 World Series of Bowling Chameleon Championship, qualifying as tournament leader in his first TV appearance and then stringing eight consecutive strikes on his way to a 256-181 win over Sean Rash for his first career title.

Abdulla went from 11th to fourth in the final qualifying round, slipping past
PBA stars Tommy Jones and Norm Duke in the final game to take the last TV spot. Suffering from a chronic case of gout prior to the finals, Abdulla required an overnight hospital stay but recovered enough to make his first TV appearance. Abdulla is part of a seven-man Bahrain contingent coached by longtime international competitor and PBA member Tim Mack of Indianapolis.

The winner of the opening match will take on Williams in the semifinal. The
PBA’s all-time leader in Tour wins with 47, is making his first TV appearance in
more than a season. In 2011-12, for the first time in a record 26 seasons, the
PBA Hall of Famer failed to make a TV show.

The winner of the semifinal match will then take on 2011-12 Player of the Year challenger and five-time Tour winner Jason Belmonte of Australia. Belmonte, who won three titles in last year’s WSOB, lost a close vote for Player of the Year honors to Sean Rash last season.

The next two Sundays after the Chameleon telecast will feature World Series of Bowling finals with 90-minute programs airing at 1 p.m. ET. The Bowlers Journal Scorpion Championship will air on Jan. 6, and the PBA World Championship on Jan. 13.