Sunday, March 24, 2024 – CENTRAL LANES BOWLING CENTER, Tamuning, Guam
Ray Manibusan went undaunted by two open frames in the championship match and instead went on a tear marking through his match to upset top seed Jesse Eyoel 188-166 to become the Pin Point Senior Challenge March Champion Sunday afternoon at the Central Lanes Bowling Center.
The March senior contest began with Jim Pinaula garnering fifteen percent of the progressive pot in the Last Man Standing competition. But it wasn’t without some competition from Manibusan who he had to beat in a roll-off to get a chance at the $634 pot.
The tournament ensued with the top 16 bowlers who qualified through points garnered via their league scores when making their monthly entry. The elimination rounds began with the top four participants taking a bye while the remaining twelve were split into two brackets of four. The top two from each bracket proceed to the next round. In the “A” bracket, seventh seed Cesar Soriano and fourteenth seed Art Dulla advanced over Rick Torres, Mike Sanchez, Arlene Reyes, and Joe Castro. The “B” bracket had eighth seed Manny Tagle and eleventh seed Jude Tenorio rising from the rest of the pile that was Virgil Toledo, Liz Langas, Shannon Bukikosa, and Jess Meno.
The Bracket A winners went against third seed Zaldy Ponce whose 222 game over Dulla and Soriano allowed him to advance to meet Manibusan. Fourth seed Henry Abasta narrowly defeated Tenorio and Tagle in the B bracket to move on to the next round.
Top seed Eyoel had his hands full with Abasta as he took the race to two wins with a 239-212 game one victory and a 211-194 win with handicap to go into the finals. Second seed Manibusan had not encountered a tournament final situation in several years narrowly defeating Ponce 195-187 and a nail-biter 227-222 win due in part to bonus points garnered by bowling over twenty pins over
his average.
This set the background to the championship game favored by the hot-handed Eyoel against a visibly fatigued but determined Manibusan. The first two frames were not good as Manibusan came away without a mark while Eyoel opened his final with two marks. It was close then until the sixth frame when Eyoel caught a couple of bad breaks and came away with open frames while
Manibusan persevered with a string of marks to close out his first title in several years.
The qualifiers for the Pin Point April Senior Monthly Challenge are currently ongoing mainly on the Friday Night Senior League. Bowlers not in the senior league can still qualify via their other leagues provided they are entered at the Pin Point Pro Shop in Central Lanes before their shadow bowling session ends. For more information, please contact Manny Tagle or Jim Pinaula at the
Pin Point Pro shop.
Guam Bowling 