The 4th Tournament in the Qubica Senior Summer Series – This event was held down at the Scareport. The format was a straight 7 games. The patterns we’ve been using this year have all had a theme, PBA Legends. And for this tournament we played on 2024 Salvino, which is a 44ft, 29ml with a 5:1 ration. All the patterns we’ve played this year have been in the “challenge” category.
Just a side note before we get into it. I, in all my years of bowling at the Airport have never seen the place so quiet. At one point the only customers in the centre were the tournament bowlers. I spoke to the staff, and they echoed what Dunstable told me. The weekends are dead in the summer holidays as families take advantage of the mid week offers, rather then going bowling at the weekend… so I‘ve had a idea. BTBA national competition across the 3 regions. Working with 3 independent proprietor’s, bowlers play 3 games, re-entry across the 5 Sundays in the summer holidays then on the 6th Sunday it’s a national final for the highest scores from each region – so 15 bowlers from the north south and central, I want to call it “BTBA Summer Strikers”
Anyway enough of that waffle, lets get into the action !
Squad 1
Only 2 bowlers managed to average over 200. Matt Trotter was in the lead on +87 and in 2nd was the richest lorry driver in the world Jamie O’Dwyer on +29. In third was Paul Loberman on -16. In the handicap section is was 89, yes EIGHTY NINE year old Gerry Wrathall who shot 1528 with his handicap. In 2nd was Ian Oakley and in 3rd Debbie Payne.
Squad 2
It would be interesting to see who from the pack would challenge Trotter and JOD at the top. Alan Keddie had a rare day where the high scores eluded him, same with Gary Baker who couldn’t get the strikes going. Kevin Pilley looked to of got going in game 5 with a 232, but the charge faded away. Basher opened up with a 656 and then lost ground and then clawed a bit back to finish on +46 that saw him take 3rd place. But a 683 over the final 3 games saw Alan Meades take 1st pushing Trotter into 2nd Basher 3rd and Jamie O held on to 4th place. The only other bowler to break a 200 average was Chris West on +15
A close finish in the handicap section. Debbie Payne held on the 4th, Ian Oakley took 3rd and it looked for a long time that Chris Smith would topple Gerry at the top. But a 144 in game 6 was his undoing and Gerry held on to take the win by 8 pins.
Well done to Alan and I’m really happy for Gerry winning the handicap ! Just get an idea of how old Gerry actually is… He was on the planning committee for Hadrians Wall, he said he once went on a package holiday to Constantinople, well he said “package holiday” it was more a crusade. And he fought in the war ! – the Boar War !!
Of course there are other ways to win in these tournaments.
So Kimberly Oakley was the high lady scratch with 1320 a 188 average and thanks to sponsor MOTIV UK she won a Motiv Raptor Rush https://www.motivbowling.com/products/balls/retired-balls/raptor-rush.html
There were scratch high pot games
Game 1 – Alan Meades 248
Game 2 – Matt Trotter 259
Game 3 – Martin Williamson 237
Game 4 – Chris West 256
Game 5 – Alan Keddie 236
Game 6 – Jamie O’dwyer 249
Game 7 – Alan Meades 237
We gave away £460 in bracket prize money
I also had a 2nd Motiv Raptor Rush to give away ! – And I wanted to reward consistency. So the ball went to the bowler who had the smallest difference between their low game and their high game. The top 4 were all ladies. Gaye McCully had a difference of 40pins, Anna Yang & Terese McCarthy had a 38 pin difference. But with a low game of 156 and a high game of 191, giving her a difference of 35 pins was Linda Pray ! – Well done Linda a Raptor Rush is all yours.
So lets look at what Alan and Gerry won…
Alan won £375 first place, £60 in the brackets and £20 in the high game pots, so £455 in cash + a Qubica Shirt, thanks to Striking Shirts https://strikingshirts.bigcartel.com/ a Qubica Trophy Pin and stylish excellent ball spinner thanks to https://www.printable3d.co.uk/
Gerry won £275 first place, and £40 in the brackets, and he gets a https://strikingshirts.bigcartel.com/ and a Qubica Trophy Pin and stylish excellent ball spinner thanks to https://www.printable3d.co.uk/
Thank you.
First and foremost to Richie Beck who was meant to bowl but has an injured shoulder, so instead spent his birthday weekend running the tournament on the day, which meant I could focus on my skittles a little bit more. Of course to Lobbers for advice and technical geeky-ness. The host centre Airport. For me its just the history of the place having spent a lot of my youth there listening to Chris Buck. The Staff are great, the chicken is lovely.. the bogs stink. But even that’s re-assuring. Like it wouldn’t be the Airport if the bogs smelt nice. The sponsors, these events wouldn’t happen if I had no sponsors – so of course to Qubica https://www.qubicaamfbowling.com/products, Motiv Bowling https://www.motivbowling.com/ Striking Shirts https://strikingshirts.bigcartel.com/ and new sponsor https://www.printable3d.co.uk/
And lastly to you all the bowlers ! – thank you for bowling and supporting my events.
The final event in the series is 18/19th October at Dunstable – And it’s going to be a format 2, make the cuts style of tournament.
Lets make the last event of year a really good one.