Sunday, April 28, 2019 – CENTRAL LANES BOWLING CENTER, Tamuning, Guam
For the second straight month the top two seeds in the Guam Senior Bowlers Association monthly tournament were in the championship round. And again the top seed was pushed to the limit to win. Lito Teodoro fought off second seed Liz Salas’ title effort to take the third deciding game 206-163 with handicap to become the Senior Bowler of the Month for April.
There were three finalists unable to make the tournament which paved the way for the remaining nine to move up for a shot at the championship. The shootout round opened with twelfth seed January champ Tony Sobrevilla over sixth seed Marie Velasco 186-155 with handicap. Tenth seed Jim Pinaula advanced with a forfeit win over eighth seed Rose Tosco. The odd bracket shootout resulted with eleventh seed John Salas upsetting fifth seed Zaldy Ponce 211-199 with handicap to advance. The other odd bracket match saw ninth seed Alex Kloulubak over seventh seed Nori Catbagan 198-145 to go into the next round.
Sobrevilla continued with a narrow 236-223 win over Pinaula to move on. John Salas used strikes in the final frame to get past Kloulubak 227-186 with handicap to head into the quarterfinals. Third seed Gomes Martinez and fourth seed John Villagomez where no shows in the quarterfinals which allowed Slas and Sobrevilla a forfeit ride into the semifinals.
For the second straight month a husband and wife had to face each other to advance in the tournament. John Salas had to challenge his “better half” Liz for his title shot. In a lower seed must beat the higher seed twice to advance, John opened with a 207-164 win to open the match. But Liz shut the door to his championship hopes with a 167-159 victory in the second match to make the title round.
Teodoro put critical strikes in the tenth frame of his match to shut Sobrevilla’s second title shot for the year 227-215 with handicap.
This set the stage for the top two seeds to go for championship. Teodoro drew first blood with a 200-181 match win. But Salas came back winning by one pin in the second game 210-209 to force the third and deciding match. This was where it became a game of nerves and accuracy as Teodoro opened with three strikes to cut down the handicap advantage of Salas who kept up with spares in the first four frames. It was then that the strikes dried up between the two and it turned into a spare contest until the final three frames when errors took their toll on Salas and consistent marks by Teodoro finally ended in the final tally 206-163.
It was a valiant effort by Salas who just returned from competing in the International Seniors Classic Tournament in Hong Kong last month. She did not expect to finish this high much less having to challenge her spouse to advance to the title round. It was a great win for Teodoro as well just a newcomer to the monthly tournament which uses a new qualifier format during the month to make the shootout round. This places Teodoro as a finalist for the Senior Bowler of the Year as long as he completes requirements under the tournament rules.
The next monthly tournament will take place Sunday, May 26, at 11AM. Under the new rules, the tournament qualifier will be based on the participant’s Friday Night Senior League scores which count as an entry. The entry is based on a pin over average plus bonus points added to age and handicap to determine the points ranking. A bowler may enter more than once to make the top twelve shootout round. The top four compete for monetary prizes based on the number of entries.
The top twelve bowlers will be announced and/or posted on the Friday prior to the tournament on Sunday. For complete information, see the tournament rules posted on the bowling counter or see Manny Tagle at the Friday Night Senior League.
Guam Bowling 