Sunday, November 13, 2016 – CENTRAL LANES BOWLING CENTER, Tamuning, Guam
Rudy Palaganas climbed out of the 7th seed spot to upset top seed Gomes Martinez in the semifinals and then overtook 3rd seed Ray Manibusan 192-176 plus handicap to take a second straight Senior Bowler of the Month championship. The seniors were greeted with a short oil pattern that surprised many of them. The challenge resulted in lower scores and frustration on many who were expecting the longer patterns that they were bowling on during the past couple of weeks.
The lane pattern resulted in some exciting matches in the shootout rounds. Sixth seed Nestor Valencia took a narrow 199 win over 8th seed Kathy Mandapat (194) and 10th seed Mary Pangelinan (195) in the even number bracket. Palaganas started his title run by nipping 9th seed Ben Taimanglo and 5th seed Jim Pinaula 169 to 167 and 143 respectively.
In the quarterfinals Manibusan romped over Valencia 260-195. Palaganas continued with a solid 235-189 victory over 4th seed Terry Roberto. In the semifinals Palaganas continued his charge by upsetting top seed Martinez 202-132. Manibusan upset 2nd seed Manny Torre 194-159 in the other semi-final match setting up the two for the championship.
The finals went down to the wire as to who can make the fewer errors on the pattern which had broken down and making it difficult to string strikes. But is was a split in the final frames by Manibusan and back to back strikes by Palaganas that provided him with the margin to win the match.
The next senior event will be the Senior Bowler of the Year championship that will be a 24 person field led by defending champion Ray Manibusan and the previous winners of the month from January to November. The remaining slots will be filled by the top qualifying non-titled seniors based on a point system using placement and participation factors during the tournaments in 2016.
The tournament is currently scheduled to be held December 18th at Central Lanes. Many of the participants are part of Senior Team Guam who will be participating in the 2016 Asian Senior Bowling Championship to be held in Seoul, Korea from November 22nd to the 30th.
This prestigious senior bowling event is held every two years. Countries along with Guam participating in this tournament include host Korea, Japan, Australia, China, New Zealand, Singapore, and the Philippines.
Guam Bowling 