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.