PBA Spare Shots

BELMONTE RETURNS FAVOR, THROWS 300 AT FAGAN TO WIN IN THAILAND
TO SET UP POSSIBLE “GRUDGE MATCH” WITH RASH IN WORLD BOWLING TOUR FINALS
Usually, throwing a 300 game at your opponent in the title match is good enough for a win, and that’s what happened in Bangkok, Thailand on Friday, Sept. 30. But this title match involved two 300 games, and set the stage for a possible televised grudge match in Las Vegas in November.

In Bangkok, two-time PBA Tour title winner Mike Fagan of Patchogue, N.Y., started the championship match of the PTT World Bowling Tour Thailand 2011 event with a 300-211 victory over top qualifier Jason Belmonte of Australia. But Fagan needed to beat Belmonte twice in the double-elimination finale, and it didn’t happen. Belmonte returned the favor, defeating Fagan, 300-205, in the second game to win the title and one million Thai bhat (US$32,000-plus).

With his win, Belmonte earned 50 points and moved past Finland’s Osku Palermaa into third place on the WBT points list to set up the possibility of a showdown match with “bottlegate” rival Sean Rash of Montgomery, Ill., in the World Bowling Tour Finals presented by the PBA. Rash is second in WBT points heading into the Australian Masters, the final qualifying event in the series. Finland’s Mika Koivuniemi has locked up the No. 1 berth in the three-player stepladder finals, but if Rash and Belmonte remain one-two, they will meet in the first ESPN-televised match of the 2011-12 season.

The men’s and women’s WBT Finals will be contested at South Point Hotel, Casino and Bowling Center in Las Vegas on specially-constructed arena lanes on Thursday, Nov. 17, and will air on ESPN on Sunday, Dec. 4, at 1 p.m. ET.

The Thailand tournament was the next-to-last WBT qualifying event and featured a strong PBA Tour presence in addition to Fagan and Belmonte. In the opening three-player stepladder match, Ryan Ciminelli of Cheektowaga, N.Y., fired a 227 game to tie Thailand’s Peerawich Rungacharoen, and then eliminated the Thai bowler, 10-6, in the one-ball roll-off. Rash was eliminated in the opening match with a 214 game.

In the second three-player showdown, Ciminelli’s 278 overpowered Sayed Al Hashemi of UAE (245) and Choi Won Young of Korea (238). Ciminelli then ousted Dan MacLelland of Saginaw, Mich., 280-258, before losing to Fagan in the semifinal match, 234-214.

The Australian Masters is set for Oct. 10-22 in Sydney. The Australian Masters will determine the top three men and top three women in WBT points who will advance to the ESPN finals at South Point. In each division, bowlers will compete for prizes of $10,000, $6,000 and $4,000 for first, second and third places, respectively.

Koivuniemi and Carolyn Dorin-Ballard have locked up men’s and women’s WBT Finals berths going into the Australian Masters. Rash is second, Belmonte third, Palermaa fourth and Chris Barnes fifth in the men’s standings. Sweden’s Nina Flack is second on the women’s list ahead of PBA Tour exempt player Kelly Kulick and Finland’s Krista Pollanen.

PALERMAA TOPS BARNES TO WIN VIENNA OPEN
Finland’s Osku Palermaa defeated defending champion Chris Barnes, 192-184, to win the Columbia 300 Vienna Open at Plus Bowling in Vienna, Austria, on Oct. 2. Barnes, a 13-time PBA Tour champion, saw his hopes for a second straight title end when he left a pocket 7-10 in the 10th frame.

Palermaa, who won his first PBA Tour title in the 2010 Shark Open, captured his third European Bowling Tour title of the season after defeating England’s Dominic Barrett in the semifinal match, 226-191.

BOHR DENIES WEBER; PARKS CONTINUES TO DOMINATE SENIOR REGIONAL PLAYERS
Nathan Bohr of Wichita, Kan., celebrated his return to PBA Tour exempt player status by denying Pete Weber a record 47th PBA Regional title in Springfield, Mo., on Sunday, Oct. 2. Bohr defeated the St. Ann, Mo., PBA Hall of Famer, 246-218, to win the joint Midwest/Southwest Region Barney’s Open at Enterprise Park Lanes for his 11th career PBA Regional title and the $2,500 top prize. It was Bohr’s first regional win of the season.

The PBA Southwest and Midwest Regions also combined for a pair of one-day Senior events at Junction City (Kan.) Bowl. Walter Ray Williams Jr. of Ocala, Fla., won Saturday’s Viper Open for the first PBA Senior Regional title of his illustrious career. Williams defeated Mike Dias of Lafayette, Colo., 247-177, for Saturday’s win, and Dias turned the tables in Sunday’s Cheetah Open, knocking off Williams in the semifinal round, 288-279, before defeating Mike Mineman of St. Louis, 215-189, in the title match. Both winners earned $1,000.

Kenny Parks of Hammond, Ind., continued his domination of the PBA Senior Regional circuit, defeating Harry Sullins of Chesterfield Twp., Mich., 245-227, to win the the combined PBA Central/East/South tri-regional Lewisburg Senior Classic at Greenbrier Bowling Center in Lewisburg, W.Va., on Sunday, Oct. 2. The title was Parks’ fifth of the year in PBA Senior Regional competition and the ninth of his career. He also earned $1,600.

The Oct. 7-9 weekend includes the Midwest/Central Region Brunswick Zone-Hawthorn Senior Open sponsored by Allstate Insurance in Vernon Hills, Ill.; the Central Region Boss Plows/Mid-State Truck and Stonebrooke Rehabilitation Centre and Suites Open at Rose Bowl in New Castle, Ind.; the Southwest Region Young & Pratt Austin Open at Dart Bowl in Austin, Texas, and the West Region TKR General Contractor Open at Golden Pin Lanes in Tucson, Ariz.

The only event on the Oct. 14-16 PBA Regional schedule is the South Region’s NAS Open at NAS Freedom Lanes in Jacksonville, Fla.

PBA Regional competitors will continue to bowl for points through Feb. 26 to try to qualify for the 2012 Dick Weber PBA Playoffs. The top 16 points leaders in the PBA’s East, South, Central, Midwest, Southwest and West/Northwest Regions will earn berths in the new Xtra Frame Tour event which will be held March 30-April 1 at Woodland Bowl in Indianapolis.

All first-time PBA Regional title winners also become eligible for the season-ending PBA Tournament of Champions.

For complete Regional tournament schedules and entry information, visit pba.com and click on “Regional Tour” under the “Schedules” drop-down tab.

PBA WORLD SERIES “WARMUP” AMONG HUNDREDS OF SHOWS IN XTRA FRAME ARCHIVES
If you missed Tuesday’s six-hour Xtra Frame “PBA World Series of Bowling Warmup” show from South Point Bowling Center in Las Vegas, you can still access it through Xtra Frame’s extensive archiving system.

The special edition of PBA:39x60 included a preview of the 2011 WSOB, a complete recap of the 2010 WSOB and more. It was a prelude to the 2011-12 season which will feature more than 100 hours of live coverage of World Series of Bowling activity and more than 250 total hours of PBA Tour events on Xtra Frame over the course of the season. In addition, the Xtra Frame archives contains hundreds of additional programs ranging from previous PBA Tour, Senior Tour and regional events to interviews, instructional videos and product introductions.

For details on Xtra Frame subscription rates, including a special 60-day World Series of Bowling offer, visit pba.com and click on the Xtra Frame logo for information.

The third annual PBA World Series of Bowling is set for Nov. 4-20 at South Point. A capacity field of 240 bowlers from around the world will compete for nearly $1 million in prize money and eight PBA Tour titles during the two-plus-week extravaganza.

QUICK NOTES:
Pepsi has been named the titled sponsor for the Pepsi PBA Exempt Players Championship, one of the featured events that will be contested during the PBA World Series of Bowling. The ESPN finals of the Pepsi PBA Exempt Players Championship will air on Sunday, April 8, at 1 p.m. Eastern.

Australian two-handed star Jason Belmonte and Chicago’s Diandra Asbaty, the winner of two PBA Women’s Series titles, are featured in full-length features in the August/September issue of a new international sports magazine, Sports Life, which is on sale at major magazine retail outlets around the country. Sports Life has announced it plans to include coverage of PBA stars in every issue. Chris Barnes will be featured in the October issue. Peter Cimino is Sports Life’s bowling writer.