Story courtesy of Rick Torres
Sunday, July 28, 2024 – CENTRAL LANES BOWLING CENTER, Tamuning, Guam
Thirteenth seed Zaldy Ponce roared back with strikes in the latter frames of the championship match to hold off third seed Charlie Cabarles’ late charge to take his second Pin Point Senior Challenge bowling title last Sunday at Central Lanes Bowling Center. Incidentally, it was the second straight month that Cabarles was third seed but was in the final round this time.
The tournament again started with the high stakes “Last Man Standing” competition where the pot had risen to nearly $1,900 in a risk all to take it all format. This month the opportunity went to Edgar Nalundasan who
decided to not risk it all and won $271 for his efforts.
The first round of eliminations had Ponce and newcomer 8th seed Gina San Nicolas beating out 6th seed Arlene Reyes, 10th seed Jess Muya, 11th seed Rick Torres, 15th seed Art Dulla in the B bracket. The A bracket had 16th seed Manny Torre and 12th seed Mike Sanchez advancing to the next round. The pair outscored 5th seed Alex Santiago, 7th seed Jesse Eyoel, 9th seed Jim Pinaula, and 14th seed Bill Roberto.
The quarterfinal results for bracket A saw Cabarles advance over Torre and Sanchez to meet 2nd seed Mike Duenas. It was a different story in the B bracket as 4th seed Sheila Bangs and Gina San Nicolas were eliminated by Ponce to advance to meet top seed Robert Baker in the semi-finals.
The semifinals was a race to two win format with the lower seed having to do a best ball roll off if the match ended with a win by each player after two games. This was not the case with Ponce as he took it to Baker twice with games of 263-212 and 233-218 in a strikefest.
The other semifinal was equally exciting as Cabarles and Duenas were tied a game apiece and forced a best ball situation. Duenas began with a 9 count but Cabarles countered with a hard strike to move to the finals against
Ponce.
The championship match looked like it was going to be a rout as Ponce opened up the first half of the match with consecutive strikes and no open frames while Cabarles struggled with a couple of splits to give Ponce the lead. But an errant shot in the eighth frame by Ponce coupled with strikes by Cabarles started the late game rally to add to the drama by the new senior bowler over Ponce who was bowling his third championship this
year. But as luck would have it, Cabarles rolled a bad shot resulting in a one count following his strikes to lose count and fall behind. Ponce regained his composure and finished strong in the final frames to win his
second title thanks to an open frame by Cabarles in the final frame.
This month’s championship prize money increased largely due to the increased entries with the top four finalists won close to $1,600 in prize money with Ponce and Cabarles winning over $600 and $400 respectively.
Third and fourth place were awarded $200 each. All the competitors have received points that add up towards the Top 24 grand finals to be held in December.
The qualifiers for the Pin Point August Senior Monthly Challenge are currently ongoing mainly on the Friday Night Senior League. Senior bowlers who are not in that league can still qualify via their other Central Lanes
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 Joey Miranda, Manny Tagle, or Jim Pinaula at the Pin Point
Pro Shop at Central Lanes Bowling Center.
Guam Bowling 