Sheila Bangs Her Way to May Bowling Title

Sunday, May 4, 2025 – CENTRAL LANES BOWLING CENTER, Tamuning, Guam

Soft spoken Sheila Bangs quietly took advantage of Manny Tagle’s miscues in the title match to take the Pin Point Senior Challenge for May at the Central Lanes Bowling Center. She is also the first female champion this tournament year.

Rick Torres started the day’s activities by winning the Last Man Standing (LMS) competition. The winner is automatically given 5% of the LMS pot which stood at over

$1,440 this month. However, Torres put up his 5% on the gamble to double his winnings by taking a chance to draw from the LMS container to determine how many pins he needed to knock down to get to the next level of 10% of the LMS pot. He drew the strike marker and had to strike to win or lose his 5%. This time he came up a pin short as his effort drew him a solid 9 count and thus his 5% went back into the pot to be added to next month’s LMS coffer which will possibly rise to over $1,700 based on the participants for June.

The opening tournament knockoff rounds began with 14^th seed Manny Torre and 9^th seed Joe Murphy out striking 16^th seed Edgar Nalundasan, 12^th seed Henry Abasta, 7^th seed Jess Muya, and 5^th seed Liz Langas in the A bracket. The B bracket winners were 11^th seed Rene Cariaso and 8^th seed Virgil Toledo over 15^th seed Yvonne Acda, 13^th seed Nick Gutierrez, 10^th seed Jude Tenorio, and 6^th seed Mike Duenas who has a title this year.

Torre continued his title run by upsetting 3^rd seed Zaldy Ponce and Joe Murphy to advance to the semifinals. Last month’s champion and 4^th seed Cris Leal fell to top seed Manny Tagle in the semifinals to finish in 4^th place.

Bangs toppled Torre in the other semifinal in two straight games to get to the championship match.

Bowling against a team mate for all the marbles is gut wrenching at times much less against one with Tagle’s reputation as multiple title holder in his career. But this time pure focus was the main ingredient to finally reach the summit and take the crown. The open frames from Tagle was helpful having used it up to get past Leal in the previous match. In the end the two team mates were all smiles as the top four finalists are all from Team Over Under of the Friday Night Senior League.

The June qualifiers are currently ongoing throughout the various leagues till the end of May. Interested senior bowlers aged 50 and over can check with the bowling counter or the Pin Point Pro Shop at Central Lanes for more details. Ask for Joey Miranda, Jim Pinaula, or Manny Tagle for tournament rules and event information.