Nasser Al Hajri, Oryx Jets set up clash for No. 1

The battle for No. 1 came down all the way to the positioning round today after Nasser Al Hajri regained the lead from Oryx Jets with a grand slam of a performance during the 18th session in the FTBJ-ICBL 31st Conference bowling tournament at Jeddah Lanes here.
With the top spot and twice to beat edge on the line, Al Hajri and Oryx face off in a potentially explosive showdown with only 1.5 points separating the sides in the team standings.
Al Hajri returned the top tally of 39.5 points to emerge Team of the Week as it overhauled an 8-point deficit to Oryx, which could only muster 30 points on the day.
Sky Freight-TFC pooled 36 points and barring a major disaster Emy De Guzman’s team should be the fourth outright qualifier for the stepladder championship round.
Hidada Ltd. And Lance & Thirdy gained 33 and 32 points. Pin Slashers had 26 followed by Avengers 24, Jem Strikers 19.5 and the previous week honoree Taurus RDLR 17.
Oriana Akeira Sato and D’ Barkads brought up the rear on 16 and 10.
After the positioning round today the league moves to the stepladder phase with the remaining eight teams to play three games with handicap to pick the three that will advance to the championship round along with the four top teams in the eliminations and outright qualifiers. Teams 5, 6 and 7 play one game with handicap in the first stepladder match with the winner to move up to a match against No. 4 and so on.
On a day where teams struggle to score Al Hajri started rather slow but its strong third game set up a No. 1 finish in overall output.
Cesar Monares and Gail Mata both enjoyed big games to complete the Al Hajri grand slam by winning the men’s and ladies Bowler of the Week award respectively.
Monares, one of the only five bowlers to cross the 600-series mark, rolled the high series of 704 on lines of 216, 221 and 255 while Gail had the best card of 589 on the distaff side where partner Len-Len Berina made 501. Contributing two games each were Randy Mata 172-173, Zaldy Bacero 228-226 and Victor Pagayon 168-150.
Rene Santiago drilled 638 to lead the Sky Freight scoresheet that also contained 559 from Imelda Sayago, 552 from Rod Morales 475 from Grace Dasas, 269-206 from Oca Bernabe and 194 from Goying Salazar.
At Hidada Amro Al Amri was the top scorer on 626 that went with the 578 by Nanding Siasoco, 540 by Pinky Acato, 521 by Grace Siasoco, 182-178 by Rene Martinez and 190 by Romy Bunagan.
Ric Reformado showed the way at Lance with 626, while its ladies pair of Evelyn Santoc and Shirley Sagmit added 580 and 551. Marcelo Manalo scored 523 while Jun De Dios and Ver Jasa contributed 156-184 and 170.
Team standings after the 18th week:
1. Nasser Al Hajri 613.5 points 2. Oryx Jets 612.0 3. Hidada Ltd. 524.0 4. Sky Freight-TFC 514.5 5. Oriana Akiera Sato 487.0 6. Jem Strikers 472.5 7. Kulisap ni Moe 440.0 8. D’ Barkads 427.0 9. Pin Slashers 420.5 10. Taurus RDLR 407.0 11. Lance & 3rdy 402.5 12. Avengers 295.5