BUENA LANES

champs Kyle King & Abel Gervacio Jr.

      Kyle King rolled on to win #31, while Abel Gervacio Jr claimed JBT victory for the first time, in exciting Southern California Conference action at Buena Lanes. 

    Brandon Kraye, already having made finals in team and doubles JBT events this year, opened up the scratch division stepladder finals with a 212-185 win over Jimmy Hefley.  Kraye then just edged Rebeca Reguero 204-193, before Travis Hewitt stopped Kraye 247-204 to advance to the championship match.

   Top seed King and Hewitt, from Northern California, both struggled to make the right adjustments on the cheetah pattern under the lights of the championship pair.  In the end, it was King making a counterintuitive move left on the left lane that proved to be the difference, and his 212-202 win earned him the 31st title of his illustrious JBT career.  King cleaned up on brackets, and used Ebonite equipment for the win, boosting him to nearly $600 in earnings on the day.

    Theron Jouett opened up the handicap division stepladder finals with a 197-192 squeaker over Jacob Camacho.  Jouett then got past John Wright 178-148, and in another low-scoring game, beat Luke Holley 181-157, to reach his second career title match.

   Top seed Abel Gervacio was off to a good start in the title match when he fouled on a double, reminiscent of a foul that occurred in the middle of a title match at different tournament recently, which while not costing him that particular title directly, because his opponent still obviously affected the outcome with his or her bowling, certainly made that game- which he eventually lost- more interesting. My point in stating this is to show how potentially mentally devastating this day's foul could have been to a relatively new bowler in a high pressure situation, not to comment on the skill or accomplishments of any of Abel's opponents, past present or future. However, in today's situation, he calmly regrouped and made the spare to keep himself rolling.  He then appeared to strike later on to put the match away, only to realize he bowled on the wrong lane!  Again though he stayed composed, struck again on the correct lane, and had more than enough for the eventual 261-229 victory and his first career JBT title.

   Five year-old Justin Patten became one of the younger bowlers to make a JBT cut, en route to a 10th place finish.  However, bowlers as young as six have won JBT events, so hurry up, Justin!

   Thanks to Diane and the whole crew at Buena for making this one of our favorite Tour stops each season.  Over $2,000 was awarded to juniors of all ages and averages.  Want in on the fun and excitement?  Come on out to the next JBT event, it's that simple!