It’s hard to say this will be the most important Sue Braud BR Singles tournament in its long history, but there will be a lot of eyes on All-Star Lanes in Baton Rouge this weekend for the August renewal of this three-time-a-year event.

For the first time since September 2005, the tournament will be bowled somewhere other than Circle Bowl. This tournament that started back in 1973 as the Baskin Robbins Singles is alive and flourishing still even after Circle Bowl closed its doors in April.

Michael Simpson won the last Circle BR Singles in March from a field of 441 entries for a prize of $3,259.75.

Throwing out the August 2020 event which was COVID-19 limited in number of bowlers and had 255 entries, the August tournament has been good in recent years since they moved from July. There was a total of 526 entries in 2018, 571 in 2017 and 550 in 2016. IT will be interesting to see how those numbers compare with this tournament this weekend, but again the mask rules and rising COVID numbers could put a little damper on things.

Computer records for the tournament only go back to 1990 and even without the early years of the tournament, there have been over 51,000 entries in the event with a total prize award since 1990 of 1.73 million dollars. Throw in the first 17 years of the tournament and the prize fund would be around $2 million.

It’s a pretty amazing thing and that’s why it is so cool that All-Star Lanes wants to keep this BR Singles tradition alive. Officials at All-Star do not want this to be a one-shot deal. They want to keep the format alive and in Baton Rouge in the future.

The BR Singles still remains one of the most interesting and unique formats that is being copied in several different places these days. But this tournament has been won by high average bowlers, low average bowlers and by both men and women.

So onward this event goes forward. Qualifying shift times are 9 and 11 a.m. and 1, 4, 6 and 8 p.m. on Saturday with the semifinals at 10 a.m. Sunday with the 32-player bracket finals to follow.

It is that time

We have reached the point of August which means that the leagues are forming for the fall-winter season and slots are quickly filling up at both All-Star in Baton Rouge, Premier Lanes in Gonzales and the other area centers.

Looking at the All-Star league list for the fall, the house will be extremely busy and that’s a good thing to see. Leagues like the Circle Industrial, Exxon Mobil, NFL League and the Metro Travel League which all had their origin at Circle and or/Metro are continuing at All-Star this fall. So, there are going to be a lot of full house league nights and that’s not a bad thing. If you are interested, contact your local bowling center.

We’ll have the BR results and look forward to the return of the Capital City Strike Out when we join you Aug. 24. Until then, good luck and good bowling.

Well, sometimes the plans for this column change. Major news late last week has postponed what was going to be the main subject for another day.

The Sue Braud BR Singles tournament has been the subject of much speculation since the closing of Circle Bowl at the first of April. This tournament is one of the longest running tournaments in the South. The event began in 1973 when Circle Bowl manager John Snee and his friend, Bob Chatelain, who owned a Baskin Robbins franchise came up with the format for the tournament.

The Baskin Robbins Singles tournament would eventually become the BR Singles and now has the name of the longtime tournament manager, the late Sue Braud. The last time it was held out of Baton Rouge was 1989 and after a 10-year run of events at both Circle and Metro Bowl, the tourney had been exclusively at Circle since 2006.

In the last 30 years some $1.6 million in prize money has been award. But would the tournament continue to exist? Speculation about traveling sites, other Malco houses came up but, in the end, the perfect solution was found — the tournament will remain at All-Star Lanes.

So, on Aug. 14-15 the event will make its regularly scheduled return and I think a lot of people couldn’t be happier. Ever since Circle Bowl closed, the management at All-Star has worked with the bowlers at Circle to find places for them to finish the season and also plan for next year.

The two staffs have been working on this for several weeks and there were a lot of happy people when the tournament staff posted on Facebook, “When one door closes, you open another. The Sue Braud Singles Handicap tournament is back but at a different venue. Thank you, All-Star Lanes, for opening your door to us to keep this tournament going in Baton Rouge.”

Mike LaCroix of All-Star certainly wants this to be more than a one-off event. He would like for All-Star to be the new permanent home of the BR.

Also showing people reaching out and combining resources, the event will not only be sponsored by John Amedee and The Bowlers Pro Shop, but also Steve Cross and All-Star’s The Pro Shop.

Marc Pater has informed me that the basic format will not change. Only 32 lanes will be used to keep the numbers the same as in the past, 96 bowlers per shift maximum. Several Hammer balls will be given away and the online entry procedure will be the same at www.bowlthebr.com.

This is really great news. One center could have turned their backs on many aspects of this and proclaimed that they were the last ones standing and its bowl here or else, which it kind of is. But the hands that have been extended and accepted has been great to see.

BATON ROUGE, LA – This past weekend, one of my bowling friends said I might need several columns to appropriately handle the passing of local bowling icon, Sue Braud.

He may be right, but I have to handle it in this space.

I feel like I have been remembering and writing notes about friends, both young and old, who have departed this life in the last month. This is no exception. I’ve read and nodded my head in agreement for the tributes on social media to this legend of local bowling who has been associated with Circle Bowl and the former Baskin-Robbins now BR Tournament for decades.

Now it’s my turn. How many bowlers she has touched over the years as a coach, an assistant manager, a proprietor and a tournament director is hard to fathom.

Rick Bourgeois, an executive with Malco Theaters which owns Circle and is the state high school bowling director, remembers Braud as his bowling coach in the early 1960s.

“Sue was such a gracious lady and she spent a lifetime promoting Baton Rouge as a bowling destination throughout Louisiana and the country,” Bourgeois said. “I met her in 1961 when I first walked into Circle Bowl, she was my first junior coach and we worked together in the bowling business for over 40 years. She will be missed by the many thousands of bowlers who came to her numerous BR Singles tournaments and I know her legacy will live on.”

The BR Tournament turned into her baby and the December event was one of the few Braud was unable to attend. Her last appearance at the tournament was at the August event.

I don’t know what the future plans are because Sue’s daughter, Donna and her husband Jeff, came to town to handle a lot of the tournament details each time. But hopefully the BR event will continue and my strong suggestion would be that the BR event should now include the name of Sue Braud, much like the Southern Masters carries Jon Juneau’s name. It seems perfect.

And it wasn’t just in management that she shined. How about some 15 Baton Rouge Women’s Bowling Association titles. How about years and years of bowling in state and national events.

There were years as a delegate representing the local and state women’s association and also as the long-time president of the junior association. Through it all, she was a builder of cooperation and success.

“Sue was always hell bent on seeing that Circle Bowl gave the best possible customer service and her focus was always on making sure HER league bowlers were content with bowling at HER center,” said Marc Pater, who has worked many years in the Malco bowling division and is the executive director of the Louisiana Bowling Proprietors, a group Braud was the first female president of in 1989-90.

She helped lead a delegation to Bismarck, North Dakota in 1989 to bid for the 1993 WIBC Championships that was held in Baton Rouge and she was so happy when the big event came to our town. Who knew it would be the start of a long relationship with Baton Rouge and the now USBC that has seen three other national events come to town with one more still on the horizon in 2025.

When I first came to Circle Bowl in the mid-1970s as a junior bowler from Shreveport for the annual Labor Day Mid-South tournament, there were two people who I wanted to meet and know about every youth bowler — John Snee and his then youth director soon to be assistant manager Sue Braud. Sue loved that tournament, much as she loved the BR Tournament and all its thousands of bowlers.

She became GM at Circle when Snee retired in the mid-1980s and held that spot until 2011. But she continued as we mentioned at the BR Tournament and was still on the Foundation of the LPBA Board of Trustees at the time of her passing.

She was instrumental in helping that Foundation establish the Grand Prix Scholarship Fund that Stuart Moss and the proprietors group has so ably run for many years. It changed youth bowling for the better.

“I’m so sad about the loss of Sue,” said Stuart Moss, who is the general manager at Premier Lanes in Gonzales and has worked at all the local Malco centers. “The kindness and friendship she showed to me over the years was monumental. She always provided great support and advice to me while running the Malco Bowling Centers.”

When you look at social media, the references to Sue Sue or Momma Sue are endless and with good reason. She made you feel welcome and if you were a bowler, especially one that came up through her youth ranks, you were a member of her family. I was lucky to have come into that group when I moved to town in 1988 after getting to known her during my youth tournament days.

When you think of Circle Bowl there are a group of people you always think of and Sue Braud is a part of that history. My sincere condolences to all the members of her family and please know bowling is better in Baton Rouge for the years we were able to share the sport with her.

Back on Jan. 21. Until then as always, good luck and good bowling.

BATON ROUGE, LA – The BR Tournament’s 100th tournament at Circle Bowl this past weekend showed its ability to be different at every turn and again making sure that an outcome is never quite able to be predicted.

David Stearman of Mobile, Alabama, took the title using his 156 average and accompanying handicap to win the $3,671.35 first prize. He defeated Joshua Fitkin of Lake Charles in the finals in what was a fairly even match with Fitkin coming in averaging 161. Fitkin won $1,835.63.

The final could have easily been a combination of handicap and scratch or just two to scratch bowlers as the other two bowlers making it to the semifinals were Justin Veitch of Kenner and Tyler Wright of Baton Rouge. Both have certainly been bowling well of late and added $770.96 to their totals for 2019.

We will hit some of the other highlights from the event in our next column.

Thanksgiving No-Tap

Randy Summers won the men’s division of the Thanksgiving No-Tap event at All-Star in Baton Rouge with a 1,164 total to earn the top prize of $225. Gregory Snee (1,144) and Derek Michael (1,140) completed the top three.

On the women’s side, Angela Barr won $140 for first place with 1,124 with Tuleigha Rawls and Norma Wolfe both shooting 1,052 for second.

7 Christmas tournaments

Hard to believe this is the 12th time this is going on but starting on Saturday, Dec. 21, All-Star will be hosting its annual “The 7 Tournaments of Christmas.” What’s pretty cool about this event is the various formats that are fun and challenging at the same time.

Here is this year’s lineup:

Dec. 21: No-Tap — 3:30, 6 p.m.

Dec. 22: No-Tap Doubles — 3, 6 p.m.

Dec. 26: Crazy Christmas — 6, 8 p.m.

Dec. 27: No-Tap Eliminator — 6 p.m.

Dec. 29: No-Tap Doubles — 3, 6 p.m.

Dec. 31: No-Tap Eliminator — 6:30 p.m.

Jan. 1: Baker Doubles — 3:30, 6:30 p.m.

In the No-Tap singles and Crazy Christmas there are men’s and women’s divisions and handicap will be applied.

Speaking of the Crazy Christmas tournament, the four game event features a different scoring system each game: Game 1, Regular; Game 2, Mulligan (the chance to redo a wayward shot); Game 3, 3-6-9 (the chance to get a little help in the third, sixth and ninth frame); and, Game 4, No-Tap.

Entries are at the bowling center. It is always a fun event.

Women’s State

If you haven’t, this is the time to do it because entries close Monday (Dec. 16) for the 72nd annual Louisiana State Women’s Championship set for Houma in 2020.

It will be here before you know it as the event kicks off on Jan. 25-26 at Creole Lanes in Houma and follows with two more weekends of play before concluding on Feb. 9.

That will certainly mark the start of the tournament season which will be highlighted in March and early April by the Southern Bowling Congress event at both Circle Bowl and All-Star Lanes.

Honor roll notes

Check out all the scores on the honor roll list this week, 800s from Tyler Wright (823), Kenny Winstead (815) and Duke Koontz (802) with Felicia Baker (760, 712), Mary Mansur (754), Sarah Broussard (751, 711), Haley Young (718) and Cassandra LaCour (707) topping 700 for the ladies. Let’s not forget in the senior leagues, the impressive 761 by Steve McIntyre. You will also see on the list all the 300s, 290 and near 300s along the way the last couple of weeks in leagues.

We will be back with you on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, with a few end of year thoughts. Until then, good luck and good bowling.