Sunday, February 25, 2024 – CENTRAL LANES BOWLING CENTER, Tamuning, Guam
from Pin Point Guam’s Jim Pinaula.
Joe Murphy used his military and bowling experience to claw his way from his 11th seed position to upset second seed Bill Roberto with two critical strikes in the 10th frame taking the Pin Point February Senior Challenge 204-194 with handicap.
The Last Man Standing (LMS) competition started the tournament with this month’s winner, Sheila Bangs. Hoping to improve her cash winnings from last month’s fourth-place finish, Bangs unleashed three straight throws to garner 20% of the prize fund.
The single-game elimination rounds followed for the bottom twelve qualifiers vying for two spots in two brackets to advance to the quarterfinals against the third and fourth-seed bowlers. Bracket A found Liz Langas and Zaldy Ponce advancing over Bangs, Frank San Agustin, Cesar Soriano, and last month’s champion Edgar Nalundasan. Rick Torres, Manny Tagle, Jude Tenorio, and Art Dulla, narrowly fell to Murphy and Ray Manibusan. Torres and Manibusan were tied after the round with Manibusan winning the “best ball roll-off” to proceed to the next round.
Seventh seed Ponce shut the doors on 16th seed Langas and third seed Virgil Toledo with a 278 game. Murphy did likewise by narrowly upsetting fourth seed Jim Pinaula and Manibusan with his 189 game with handicap.
In the semi-finals, Murphy continued his winning ways with two straight wins over top seed Tony Sobrevilla 242-188 and 224-198 to move to the championship round. Roberto took the other spot in the finals, 223-217 and 270-203.
The finals had Roberto leading most of the way due to a couple of open frames by Murphy. But the bowling gods granted Murphy redemption by keeping Roberto from stringing strikes while keeping pace with spares until the tenth frame. Roberto’s reliable ball of choice gave him a 1-2-4-10 washout that he needed to convert to win. But the open frame gave new life to Murphy who answered in the tenth frame with two strikes and a nine-count to take the win.
The victory left Murphy a little exhausted from his title run, but very satisfied by having enough in him to pull off the victory en route to the title. The first-place cash was the perfect reward for his efforts and providing a storybook ending to this tournament.
Interested seniors 50 and above can enter the weekly tournament qualifiers through their league scores on the Friday Night Senior League. However, the tournament director has announced that league scores from other leagues can be accepted under the following conditions:
1) Qualifying bowlers must pay the $20 entry fee and register at the Pin Point Pro Shop before the end of the shadow bowling period of their league.
2) A copy or photocopy of the league score sheet must be turned in to the Pin Point Pro Shop after their respective league ends.
Otherwise, those who enter on Friday night must register before the third frame of their first game. For further details please see Manny Tagle or Jim Pinaula at the Pin Point Pro Shop at Central Lanes during store hours.
Guam Bowling 