Del Rosa Lanes

champs James Hawkins & Robert Lim

    James Hawkins and Robert Lim captured JBT titles in exciting Southern California Conference action at San Bernardino's Del Rosa Lanes.

    Both divisions used our exciting pick-yer-poison format, where after a cut to the top 16, higher seeded bowlers choose their own match instead of being assigned by seed.  Most higher scratch seeds chose wisely in round one, with top seed Derek Acuff, #3 Cameron Smith, and #4 Hawkins winning 2-0, but #2 Riley Dempsey couldn't come up with the antidote for #15 Chris Hefner, losing 2-1.

    The round of eight were all 2-0 sweeps, with #14 Caycee Landers getting by #6 Joey Chuo, Smith beating #7 Steven Manier, Acuff beating Hefner, and Hawkins getting by #16 Zach Martinez.

    In one-game semifinals, Acuff beat Landers 236-180, and Hawkins beat Smith (for a change) 236-165, setting up the title match.  Acuff has just made the move up from handicap, and put on his best performance on the challenging conditions to date to capture the top seed.  However, the always-tough Hawkins would not go away, and finally struck on the right lane in the tenth frame to squeeze out a 205-196 win for the title, the ninth of his excellent JBT career.

    Top handicap seeds also picked their poisons well, as #1 Robert Lim, #2 Jacob Camacho, and #4 Brooke Martinez all survived the opening round, but #3 Alex Bissett fell to #10 Eric Demo.  In round two, #9 Marguerite Evans swept #5 Jenny Phandanouvong 2-0, Martinez squeezed by #7 Randi Speiler 2-1, Lim got by Demo 2-1, and Camacho just edged #8 Isaiah Cleveland 2-1 (and 220-214 in game 3). 

    In the semifinals, Evans beat Camacho 242-200, while Lim stopped Martinez 232-211 to set up the finale.  "Silent Bob" had been all smiles all day, and with good reason, and his excellent bowling continued in teh title match with a 226-183 win, good for the first title of his JBT career.

    Caycee and Brooke had good days in the regular event, but even better in the concurrent Women's Series event, as they advanced to the title match of our periodic 'tournament within a tournament' for girls only.  Landers, an outstanding collegiate bowler, was the overwhelming favorite on paper, but the up and coming Martinez more than held her own.  A ninth frame open was her downfall though, and Caycee earned her first Women's Series title with the 203-188 win.

    Thanks as always to the crew at Del Rosa for hosting our Tour.  Over $1,300 in scholarships were awarded to bowlers of all averages- if you want in on all this fun (and you should!), just come down to the next JBT event- it's that simple!