Bowling: Baton Rouge Singles tournament promises more intrigue

BATON ROUGE, LA – Well, let’s see what happens this time around.

The stories that can be told about the Baton Rouge Singles tournament even back to when it was the Baskin Robbins tournament many years ago could make a small book. But it continues to be an event  people from various states and the local area can’t stay away from.

So how will it go this time? This time it’s slate for Circle Bowl on Dec. 3-4. Qualifying is 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. Dec. 3 and 1, 4, 6 and 8 p.m. with semifinals on Dec. 4 before the 32-player bracket finals.

The young guns win NOLA

We saw many of them as they grew up as high school and youth bowlers. They were good then and they were winners then. Many of them have proven to be winners as adult bowlers, where money and prestige are sometimes harder to achieve. Many of them have also handled their ascension to adult bowling with a lot of class and really brought new blood to the sport.

Many of them are sons of bowlers following family members, which is a really nice thing to see as well.

Sunday in New Orleans was the final 2016 event of the NOLA Tour. Justin Bui posted another win, this time with Jacob Garretson.

Bui and Garretson won the title 211-209 in the Baker stepladder final match over Bobby Werthmann and Curt Dupre IV. Tyler Wright and BJ Autin took third.

Juneau Memorial dates set

The first big event of 2017 will be the Jon Juneau Memorial Scratch Masters on 27-29 at Circle Bowl. It’s hard to believe this will be 17th time this event has been held. Bui will be trying to become one of the few to put his name on the permanent plaque multiple times.

No video please

It appears the United States Bowling Congress is serious about keeping the bowling pattern serious for the 2017 Open Championships in Las Vegas and the 2017 Women’s Championship here in Baton Rouge. It was revealed on a Facebook post for the 2017 events that there will be some restrictive video policies that will include live Facebook streaming or videoing bowlers in practice during the competition.

The company that people can pay to have their event tape will still be operative but the DVDs will not be shipped until the tournament is over.

I can’t wait to see how often people are going to have to go into the stands to stop people from videoing on their phones. Special moments like final shots of 300 attempts will be allowed but only short videos. That’s why next year no broadcasts will be conducted by the USBC on their Bowl.com page.

This event here is getting more complicated by the minute.

In other news for 2017, the River Center will host a Louisiana USBC Youth Tournament that will qualify bowlers for the national junior gold event on April 8. It may seem early to announce this but the news is that the event will be held on the River Center lanes installed for the women’s championship. Entries are at the centers and spots are limited.

Honor roll notes

There are lots of 300 games in the honor roll notes with Justin Vappie, Jason Graham, Gregory Snee, Bui and Tyler Wright rolling perfect games. Mark Saale just missed with 299, while senior bowler Glynn Nickens had 11-in-a-row. Also Linda Walsh picked up the 7-10 split while senior bowler Wendy Drennan had a first 200 with a 208 off a 114 average. Senior bowler Iry LeBeau was 50 pins over average.

Please check out all the great scores on our honor roll. We will have city tournament results (where there were more great scores) in our next column on Dec. 6.

Until then good luck and good bowling.