Siete Pares 2

KUWAIT CITY, Oct 11: As the elimination round of the on-going 2016 FTBK-Robinsons Land Tenpin Bowling Team Tournament Season 9 drew to a close, the lane masters of Siete Pares 2 emerged on top of final team standings after turning back Strikers X in their scheduled 11th round match.

Advancing to the next round to vie for the title in the single round robin championship series in order of their qualifying round standing are Rock N Bowl, World Class, Siete Pares 1, K2E2 Thunders and Strikers X.

Season 9 will also see a new champion among the six contenders as defending champion Cozmo Salmiya failed to live up to expectations and did not qualify for the next stage of this event sponsored by Robinsons Land and organized by the Filipino Tenpin Bowlers Kuwait (FTBK).

 Back to the final week results of the qualifying round where at least four finals berth remained up for grabs among six teams namely Siete Pares 1, K2E2 Thunders, DMDA Bowleros, D’ Islanders, Strikers X, Al Afaq Holidays and the Philippine Embassy Strikers, the contenders went up against separate rivals thus making the outcome of the matches crucial for all the championship round aspirants.

First up to confirm their formal entry to the next round were Rock N Bowl keglers who dished out the week’s most notable performance as they showed the exit door to the deposed champion Cozmo Salmiya with a 3381-2814 rout. In eking this superb victory over the entertainment magnates, Rock N Bowl headed by the diminutive but highly efficient pin buster Liza Catapia with able support from Norie Sairat, Romy Fermil and Rod Llait swept the all four games of the match via 803-769, 776-703, 848-665 and 929-677 game scores en-route to whooping 3381-2814 total pin falls victory. With this big win, Rock N Bowl moved up to second place and grabbed the 11th week team high series award as well.

 Going to the match between tournament elimination round front runner Siete Pares 2 and the Striker X lane masters who are one of the finals berth contenders, tournament leaders Siete Pares 2 pin breakers indicated that they do not intend to give away their number one position in the team standings as Edwin De Mesa, Siddharth Nair, Mario Santos, Dorcas Sansone and Lito Igot shared the scoring load in the first three games and soundly defeated their opponents via convincing 796-744, 855-781 and 847-755 scores.

Despite losing three games in a row, the relatively high output of Strikers X in this games put them in the thick of the fight for a finals berth. Spearheaded by JR Sabado, Jowie Concepcion, Vicky Navarro and Bob Navarro, Strikers X even bolstered their chances of advancing after subduing Siete Pares 2 in the fourth and last game of the match 856-746. The high scoring affair ended in favor of Siete Pares 2 in a final total pin falls tally of 3268-3136.

 Moving on to another important match between contenders Al Afaq Holidays and Philippine Embassy Strikers, the travel magnates of Al Afaq led by Rudy Zablan, Chris Bulacja, Nelson De Leon, Bernabe Alfaro and Ric Marimla kicked off their campaign with a huge 813-711 win and were on course for a trip to the finals after dishing out another 778-706.

This however was not meant to be as the diplomats bannered by Jheng Liwayway, Dexter Nebres, Arnold Mendoza and Bert Pantanilla successfully regrouped in the next two games and went on to book 792-719 and 811-718 victories that were enough for them to go home with a close 3053-3020 total pin falls edge.

 With D’ Islanders who drew the final week bye also out of the running after only managing to collect a total score of 3007 pin falls, and with Siete Pares 1 and the K2E2 Thunders already assured of their respective seats to the finals after match up ended in a 3082-3040 score in favor of Siete pares 1, the last remaining spot to the finals went down to a down the wire situation between the Strikers X and the DMDA Bowleros who went up opposite World Class.

After Gina Ashley, Bill Stiles, Ted Ashley, Glenn Corbit, Carol Awadi and Anastasius Menezes handed World Class three consecutive 820-764, 760-708 and 867-643 victories, the 250 pin falls advantage of DMDA over Strikers X dwindled to just 81 pin falls going to the last game of the match.

Still hounded by their below par performance, the DMDA Bowleros managed to snatched a 747-863 win that turned out to be their final game of the season as Strikers X succeeded in booting them out of the Top 6. Final score of the match in favor of the World Class keglers was 3155-2862.

 For the Individual and Team High awards the winners are as follows: Individual High Game Men Class O/A-Edwin Latoja 266, Men Class B-Anastasius Menezes 242, Ladies- Vicky Navarro 223; High Average Men Class O/A-Mousa Abdullah 189, Men Class B-Butch Alinea 164, Ladies-Jheng Liwayway 171; Team High Game-797 K2E2 Thunders and Team High Series-3167 Siete Pares 1.

 The finals team standings after eleven weeks are as follows (read as rank, team name and total score); 1. Siete Pares 2-34021, 2. Rock N Bowl -33750, 3. World Class -33575, 4. Siete Pares 1 -33418, 5. K2E2 Thunders -33349, 6. Strikers X -33059, 7. DMDA Bowleros -33035, 8. D’ Islanders -32974, 9. Al Afaq Holidays-32955, 10. Philippine Embassy -32869, 11. Cozmo Salmiya -30965.

By Miguel Carlos

Special to the Arab Times