PBA Dyes Lane Oil for Animal Championships

The Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) will take an 
historic step toward illustrating the challenges bowlers face when blue dye will 
be added to the lane conditioning oil for ESPN’s telecasts of five PBA World 
Series of Bowling championship events this weekend.

PBA worked with its official lane maintenance provider Brunswick to formulate 
and test the oil that will be applied exclusively on the pair of Brunswick lanes 
installed in the South Point Hotel Exhibit Hall B complex for the World Series 
of Bowling ESPN-televised finals.  The oil is not a product on the market and is 
being used only for the WSOB TV shows.

“Throughout its history, it has been difficult to describe the challenges 
players face in our sport,” PBA Commissioner Tom Clark said. “How oil is applied 

to the lane, and how it transitions as competition 

progresses, is something no one is able to see with the naked eye, and those are critical variables in scoring and player strategy.

 

“For the first time ever, we’re going to add dye to the oil so that bowling fans on site and watching at home on ESPN will literally be able to see how the pattern of oil looks on the lane. We are sure it will be educational and insightful for all levels of fans tuning in and we hope to learn from this experiment and improve it moving forward.”

 

The dyed oil will debut with the Cheetah Championship which uses the 35-foot PBA Cheetah oil pattern. The Viper (39 feet), Chameleon (43 feet), and Scorpion Championships (47 feet) will follow.

 

PBA Hall of Famer Carmen Salvino said visible oil was a milestone in educating the audience and elevating the sport. “A lot of credit has to go to PBA for taking what I believe is a huge step for the sport, and to Brunswick for doing the extensive research and development that was necessary to have the oil ready for this event,” Salvino said.

 

The WSOB shows will be taped Saturday and Sunday Nov. 2 and 3 and will air on ESPN beginning Dec. 1 at p.m. ET.

 

PBA WORLD SERIES OF BOWLING V TELEVISION LINEUP

South Point Exhibition Hall B

 

PBA CHEETAH CHAMPIONSHIP Stepladder Finalists (Saturday, Nov. 2, 1 p.m. PT; ESPN telecast Dec. 1, 1 p.m. ET)

1, Parker Bohn III, Jackson, N.J.

2, Pete Weber, St. Ann, Mo.

3, Wes Malott, Pflugerville, Texas.

4, Clara Guerrero, Colombia.

 

PBA VIPER CHAMPIONSHIP presented by PBA Bowling Challenge Stepladder Finalists (Saturday, Nov. 2, 3 p.m. PT; ESPN telecast Dec. 8, 1 p.m. ET)

1, Ryan Ciminelli, Cheektowaga, N.Y.

2, Chris Barnes, Double Oak, Texas.

3, Stuart Williams, England.

4, Jason Belmonte, Australia.

 

PBA CHAMELEON CHAMPIONSHIP Stepladder Finalists (Saturday, Nov. 2, 5:30 p.m. PT; ESPN telecast Dec. 15, 1 p.m. ET)

1, Dom Barrett, England.

2, Brian Kretzer, Dayton, Ohio.

3, Ryan Ciminelli, Cheektowaga, N.Y.

4, Tom Smallwood, Saginaw, Mich.

 

PBA SCORPION CHAMPIONSHIP Stepladder Finalists (Saturday, Nov. 2, 7 p.m. PT; ESPN telecast Dec. 22, 1 p.m. ET)

1, Marshall Kent, Yakima, Wash.

2, Tom Smallwood, Saginaw, Mich.

3, Josh Blanchard, Gilbert, Ariz.

4, Tommy Jones, Simpsonville, S.C.

 

WORLD BOWLING TOUR FINALS presented by PBA Stepladder Finalists (Sunday, Nov. 3, 10 a.m. PT; ESPN telecast Jan. 5, 1 p.m. ET)

Women’s Finals

1, Kelly Kulick, Union, N.J.

2, Liz Johnson, Cheektowaga, N.Y.

3, Missy Parkin, Laguna Hills, Calif.

 

Men’s Finals

1, Sean Rash, Montgomery, Ill.

2, Mika Koivuniemi, Finland/Hartland, Mich.

3, Mike Fagan, Fort Worth, Texas

 

PBA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP Stepladder Finalists (Sunday, Nov. 3, 12:30 p.m. PT; ESPN telecast Dec. 29, 1 p.m. ET)

1, Dom Barrett, England.

2, Sean Rash, Montgomery, Ill.

3, Mike Fagan, Fort Worth, Texas.

4, Tom Smallwood, Saginaw, Mich.

5, Pete Weber, St. Ann, Mo.

 

PBA REGIONAL PLAYERS INVITATIONAL FINALS Shootout Format Finalists (Sunday, Nov. 3, 3:30 p.m. PT; ESPN telecast Jan. 12, 1 p.m. ET) Players seeded based upon qualifying positions for 28 games in animal pattern events. Players 2, 4 and 6 bowl one-game match; players 1, 3, 5 bowl one-game match; winners of those two matches bowl one game for title.

1, Brian Kretzer, Dayton, Ohio (Central Region).

2, Chris Barnes, Double Oak, Texas (Southwest Region).

3, Tom Daugherty, Wesley Chapel, Fla. (South Region).

4, Brian LeClair, Albany, N.Y. (East Region).

5, Dave Beres, Waukesha, Wis. (Midwest Region).

6, Ben Laughlin, Chandler, Ariz. (West/Northwest Region).

 

PBA50 FINALS Stepladder Finalists (Sunday, Nov. 3, 3:30 p.m. PT; ESPN telecast Jan. 12, 1 p.m. ET)

1, Walter Ray Williams Jr., Ocala, Fla.

2, Amleto Monacelli, Venezuela.

3, Pete Weber, St. Ann, Mo.

PBA Scorpion Championships Lead by Collegian Marshall Kent

Two-time Collegiate Bowler of the Year Marshall Kent of Yakima, WA, the only amateur in the field, won the top berth for the stepladder finals of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA)’s Scorpion Championship Tuesday at South Point Bowling Center.

 

Kent, a student at Robert Morris University-Illinois  in Chicago, averaged 227.79 for 14 games on the Scorpion lane condition, finishing with a 3,189 pinfall total to claim the top rung in the stepladder finals by 12 pins over 2012 PBA World Champion Tom Smallwood of Saginaw, MI. Josh Blanchard of Gilbert, AZ, qualified third with a 3,162 total and Tommy Jones of Simpsonville, SC, earned the fourth spot in the finals with 3,146 pins, 23 ahead of three-time PBA50 Player of the Year Tom Baker of King, NC.

 

Blanchard and Jones, bowling on the same pair of lanes, rolled matching 269 final games to earn their shots at the title. The Scorpion Championship finals will take place on Saturday, Nov. 2, at 7 p.m. ESPN will air the finals on Sunday, Dec. 22, at 1 p.m. ET. The Scorpion Championship was the fourth of five PBA Tour events that compose the PBA World Series of Bowling.

 

Kent, who finished fourth in Bowling’s U.S. Open in July, was invited to bowl in the World Series on a PBA Commissioner’s Exemption because he is still in college.

 

Earlier Tuesday, England’s Dom Barrett led the field of 24 players who advanced to the PBA World Championship round-robin match play finals Wednesday and Thursday based upon combined 28-game qualifying pinfall totals from the Cheetah, Viper, Chameleon and Scorpion rounds. Barrett averaged 237.67 in compiling a 6,655 pinfall total for 28 games, topping Wes Malott of Pflugerville, Texas, by 209 pins. Maldonado qualified third with 6,405 pins.

 

The match play rounds of the PBA World Championship Wednesday and Thursday will be covered live on PBA’s Xtra Frame online bowling channel, and via “live scoring” on pba.com. For daily, monthly or yearly subscriptions to Xtra Frame, click on the Xtra Frame link on the pba.com home page.

 

PBA  SCORPION CHAMPIONSHIP

South Point Bowling Center, Las Vegas, Tuesday

 

SEMIFINAL ROUND STANDINGS (after 14 games; top 4 advance to ESPN stepladder finals at 7 p.m. PT on Saturday, Nov. 2)

1, Marshall Kent, Yakima, Wash., 3,189.
2, Tom Smallwood, Saginaw, Mich., 3,176.
3, Josh Blanchard, Gilbert, Ariz., 3,162.
4, Tommy Jones, Simpsonville, S.C., 3,146.
5, Tom Baker, King, N.C., 3,123, $4,000.
6 (tie), D.J. Archer, Friendswood, Texas, and Norm Duke, Clermont, Fla., 3,113, $3,250.
8, Keith Laing, Culver City, Calif., 3,111, $2,500.
9, Shawn Maldonado, Houston, 3,103, $2,200.
10, Martin Larsen, Sweden, 3,094, $2,000.
11, Patrick Allen, Wesley Chapel, Fla., 3,093, $1,800.
12, Dom Barrett, England, 3,089, $1,800.
13, Nathan Bohr, Wichita, Kan., 3,084, $1,650.
14, Ryan Shafer, Horseheads, N.Y., 3,079, $1,600.
15, Chris Warren, Grants Pass, Ore., 3,047, $1,550.
16, Lee Vanderhoef, Greenville, S.C., 3,042, $1,500.
17, Dick Allen, Columbia, S.C., 3,024, $1,450.
18, Mika Koivuniemi, Hartland, Mich., 3,019, $1,400.
19, Brian Kretzer, Dayton, Ohio, 2,994, $1,350.
20, Tom Daugherty, Wesley Chapel, Fla., 2,991, $1,300.
21, Joonas Jehkinen, Finland, 2,964, $1,275.
22, Brad Miller, St. Charles, Mo., 2,948, $1,250.
23, Danny Wiseman, Baltimore, 2,915, $1,225.
24, Dan MacLelland, Canada, 2,913, $1,200.

 

300 Games: Dom Barrett, PJ Haggerty.