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.