No events go without their hiccups.  I received a fair amount of complaints during our last tournament and it was fairly obvious to everyone that the wrong oil pattern was put out.  I confirmed with Santa Ana that due to a mix up, the house pattern was used for the tournament.

I am still quite certain that JD Nance was the best bowler on Sunday.  He was personally messaging me about finding places to practice during the week.  He put in the hard work and completely deserves the win.

Going forward, I have decided that I will be working more closely with venues to ensure the proper patterns are put out on tournament day.  I will be present myself during the oiling process for any future tournaments.  And since a lot of bowlers put a lot of work into preparing for this pattern, we will be using the pattern that was supposed to be used on Sunday for our next event.

We should be announcing that event very soon, so stay tuned!

Thank you so much for your understanding and for your patronage!  We look forward to bowling with you again!

• Jason

Bernalillo, N.M. – In an eventful day at Starlight, practice made perfect for JD Nance to become the first NMCTS Multi-Champion. In a record setting field, bowlers had to adjust on the fly to be able to line up with a pattern they were not prepared to see on Sunday. Regardless, with some quick thinking and tweaks, bowlers lit up the scoreboard in the first round of tournament play. The top 20 bowlers after 5 games combined for an average of 231.35 to advance into the next round. The Top 20 was led by Nance (260 avg), Zumwalt (259 avg), and Pinge (256.2 avg).  Nance started the event with an 804 Series the first 3 games, Pinge shot 300 game 2, and Zumwalt finished the last 3 games with 825, outstanding bowling by some of New Mexico's finest. For the first time in this new tournament format, scores would carry over into the 2nd round for match play. 

After 5, the first cut required a 216 average (+80) to advance to Round 2 consisting of 4 randomly drawn match play games that awarded 30 bonus pins for winning the match and 15 for a tie. Nance and Zumwalt both continued on their hot scoring pace regardless of losing matches to secure spots in the Top 4 Stepladder finals. However, the two undefeated bowlers in match play secured enough pins to be able to mix up the Top 4 seeding. Those two bowlers were previous champion Eric Vanderlip (1008, 252 avg) and Tony Lopez (994, 248.5 avg), the leaders of overall pin fall in the 2nd round. The Top 4 was set, scores still hot, and it was time to crown a champion. 

3 Seed JD Nance faced off with 4 Seed Tony Lopez in a match where it was becoming clear that Nance had no intention of slowing down, defeating Lopez 259-225. 2 Seed Andy Zumwalt was next in line for the red-hot JD Nance and a lack of good pin carry was unable to keep up with Nance who defeated Zumwalt 256-215. Finally, the championship match was here 1 Seed Eric Vanderlip vs 3 Seed JD Nance, regardless of winner we were going to crown our first Multi-Champion in NMCTS. Unfortunately for Vanderlip, JD was on a mission and delivered 11-strikes in the championship match to take the honorary crown from Vanderlip 279-226. Nance shot an outstanding 794 series in the stepladder, a showing much deserving of a champion. We congratulate all of our finalists and their skills that earned them spots in the finals. 

Thank you to all 63 Bowlers who came out to support our event, we don't think this new attendance record will last long. Thank you to Starlight for welcoming us back for yet another event, we look forward to this partnership to continue to grow. 

Rio Rancho, N.M. – Dale Coffee traveled down from Colorado to capture the title in the Dual Pattern Challenge held at Tenpins & More. 49 Bowlers from New Mexico and Colorado came to test their abilities on the long and short shots that were put out Sunday. The first round was led by Pete Sheridan of Albuquerque who averaged 237 (+186) the first 5 games to ensure bonus bowling and moving onto the next round. Only 20 bowlers would make it into the cut for the second round and the number ended up being at 1006 (+6) to move on to bowl 3 more games after scores reset to decide the top 4 in the stepladder. 

Pete continued his hot hand and posted a 712 (+112) in the 3 games of the advancer round, but was surpassed by Dale Coffee who managed to get to 742 (+142; 247 average) to lock up the 1 seed in the stepladder. The other Finalists who bowled well enough to earn a spot in the stepladder were Dennis Helmick (+82) and Michael Devore (+81) to snag the 3 and 4 seeds. 10 positions were paid out in this tournament, the bottom line for a cash spot was 633 (+30). 

Michael Devore of Santa Fe came out hot in the first match and was able to handle Dennis Helmick of Rio Rancho 246-211 who had a great tournament overall. He then went on to face our first round leader Pete Sheridan who continued to string enough strikes together to finish with a 248 game, making Devore have to get the first strike in the 10th to potentially win or force a roll off. Unfortunately for Devore, a 10 pin on a well executed shot on the first throw of the 10th ended his day and advanced Sheridan to the finals to face Coffee. 

In the finals, bowlers exchanged open frames in the first half of the match before each threw 3 strikes in a row in the middle frames. In the 8th frame, the small run ended for both bowlers. Pete left a 10pin (spare) and Coffee left 3-6-10 that he ended up chopping the 3-6 off, leaving the 10 standing. With no decisive winner at this moment and a tie still looming on the scoreboard, Dale delivered a strike in the 9th frame that was quickly matched by Pete. Pete then moving for his 10th frame on the short pattern went high leaving a 3-10 that he unfortunately missed ending his game with 193. Dale then had a window to lock up the match on the long pattern, which was the one he had the most confidence with throughout the tournament and selected to finish his game on being that he was the higher seed. He delivered the first two strikes in the 10th and a final strike for good measure to lock the title with a 213 game. 

Congratulations to Dale Coffee on his victory and thank you for traveling to all of our events, being a wonderful supporter of what we are doing with bowling in New Mexico. Additionally, a big thank you to all who came out to support the event and the staff at Tenpins & More for all of the help today, keeping the event running as smoothly as possible. 

Bernalillo, N.M. – Adrienne Hare of Rio Rancho was the winner of the Inaugural Scratch tournament held at Starlight Bowling inside Santa Ana Casino. In a strong field of 56, it took an average of 182 for 5 games (-91) to make the first cut of 28 bowlers. Leading the early charge was Brian Hare of Rio Rancho, who averaged 225 on the difficult sport condition.

Scores then reset and it was off to the second round, a three game block, in order to decide what 4 bowlers will advance to the stepladder finale. Billy Grant, who worked his way into the first cut by 16 pins, kicked into gear and stormed into the pole position after a well executed 3 game block of 677. Following him into the stepladder were (2) JJ Martinez, (3) Zach Harvey, and (4) Adrienne Hare. 

The first match was a tight battle where Hare edged out Harvey by a score of 199-191. Next up, Hare took care of business and defeated Martinez 236-178 to advance to the title match against Grant. In the title match, the fatigue of the lane pattern started to show as each bowler seemingly was only able to sync up and find carry on one of the two lanes. The match came down to the 10th frame, Grant needed to have a near-perfect frame in order to secure the win or tie. He delivered the first shot flush and on the second shot he could not get the 10pin to fall, it rocked back and forth to lock the win for Hare. Final Score Hare 200, Grant 191.

A big thank you to all that came out to support the event, including our event partners Starlight Bowling and Aplomb Financial. Keep your eyes out for more events coming soon and please continue to support our local bowling centers.