RIYADH, 17 May — On a roll and peaking, Alley Bang Bang dislodged Unicorn at No. 2 after winning another Team of the Week award on the 21st week of the Marhaba Bowling Tournament being played at the FAL Bowling Center. Their next target: the formidable Mavericks who are enjoying an almost insurmountable 494 points margin. It’s a tall order for ABB; but then these grizzled ABB veteran bowlers have always thrived on pressure.
Captained by Rolly Manalang, ABB dealt Al Humaidi Trading of Jesse Gutierrez a masterful 4-0 shutout to register the best 360 points right after posting another award-winning performance last week in a spectacular comeback bid. Now ABB enjoy a commanding 247 points lead over the No. 3 Unicorn.
Class O bowler Dante Prado, ABB’s perennial take-charge guy, again dished out his deadly form in rolling an 805 scratch in 4 games to lead his teammates.
Meanwhile, the unstoppable Mavericks went back to business with a decisive 3-1 win over Tsamba Konnection of John Harris who couldn’t seem to get to the second half of the 12-team standings. This time, it was veteran Ramon Nilo who carried the torch for Mavericks as they piled up 270 big points to keep the charging ABB from a distance. Virtual champions, all the Mavericks need to do is to show up on the championship rounds to formally claim their title.
But the week’s spotlight belonged to ABB. Winning back-to-back Team of the Week awards, ABB’s moment could not be denied. Charging to No. 2, ABB had left Unicorn behind by a big 247 points at No. 3. Although a lot of help was given to ABB by Unicorn themselves for defaulting that day, ABB was nonetheless hot on the lanes against the struggling Al Humaidi Trading. With the formidable Dante Prado showing the way, ABB raked up a total of 150 total points in Game 1 alone from their 1020 pinfalls. That included the special bonus of 70 points for scoring past the 1,000 barrier and 30 bonus points for surpassing 900 pins plus 50 points for winning Game 1.
Prado scored the highest scratch series of 805 pins from 244, 193, 212 & 156 as ABB left Al Humaidi beaten from their massive onslaught, 1,020-817, 916-841, 927-868 & 797-792.
Also playing their hearts out were JR Bagon (730 in 4 games), Manalang (540/3 games) and Clem Salazar (517/3 games). Edwin Guano, Richard Oczon and Dave Santos played remarkable 2 games each. JR Bagon is No. 5 in the elite top 50 bowlers with an average of 175.47 in 64 games.
The talented veteran Ramon Nilo of Mavericks beat all bowlers in the battle for the Bowler of the Week award with his 816 coming from games of 166, 199, 182 & 205 and a handicap of 16 per game. Nilo beat Dante Prado who had 805 and Ramir Santos of Saudi Oger who had 804.
The Mavericks of team captain Ben Carriaga beat Tsamba 3-1 (907-897, 970-895, 921-931 & 995-808) but it was more or less expected. Aside from Nilo, the Mavericks who displayed their bowling arsenal were Yusuf Fernandez, Carriaga, Gil Hembra, Antonio Bonifacio, Noel Morales, Fred Tejado and Freddie Solomon.
The losing Tsamba Konnection who settled to No. 8 were Benjie Presto, Leo Agote, William Ybay, Leo Laudencia and Romy Goliat. Presto had the most remarkable game with 763 from scratches of 191, 157, 204 & 199.
Meanwhile, the flashy Jhing Sahagun slowly tightened his grip in the fight for the No. 1 bowler of the league. Sahagun closed out with an average of 185.89 in 54 games after 21 weeks, decisively beating No. 2 Dante Prado who had 181.13 in 64 games. Benjie was third with 178.05 in only 39 games. The Hunks of Rod Basilio took advantage of Unicorn’s defaulting to close in on the No. 3 Unicorn. But all the Hunks showed was a 2-2 decision against the lowly MIB (Mga Ilongo Bowlers) of Beltran Tatoy. The Hunks garnered just 100 winpoints for winning Game 1 & Game 3 but went flat zero on bonus point for failing to break the 900 mark in a single game. The Hunks however managed to narrow the gap from No. 3 Unicorn to just a mere 48 points in preparation for the exciting do-or-die battles in the coming rounds.
The MIB quintet who surprised the Hunks were captain Beltran Tatoy, Mario Temana, Mark Corrales, Ricky Bunao and Hannibal Geronimo. The Hunks were bannered by team captain Rod Basilio, Romy Matic, Arnold Bellen and Totie Dapo.
Alley Bang Bang against Mavericks for the title? Not quite. Alley Bang Bang against Unicorn or Hunks will be more like it. But they’ll be fighting for second place.
