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.