RIYADH, 25 October 2005 — Top Gun II parried eleventh hour charge by their rivals and held on for a narrow victory in the final of the Seiko Tuesday Night Inter-Commercial Bowling League 6th Conference at the Riyadh Bowling Club lanes here.
After blowing their two-point lead over RJ Express right in the first game, Top Gun II recovered though they still have to deal with the rallying Issam Kabbani.
And Top Gun II escaped by the skin of their teeth, drawing the final match with RJ Express 13-13 on total pinfalls of 3,040-3,035 and holding off Issam to win by a mere .5 point.
Down by 6.5 points off the pace when the final started, Issam Kabbani were actually the top perfomers as they whipped D’ Unlimited 18-12 in their head-to-head on total pinfalls of 3,223-3,070.
While Top Gun picked up in the middle games with five points each, it was at this stage that RJ Express had their title hopes disappear like vapor as they caved in to pressure to hit low games for two and three points.
The trio of Benjie Macatuno, Angel Pantoja and skipper Ernie Quiambao bowled steady to finish with 769, 751 and 722 for Top Gun II. Aurel Fariñas shot a valuable 209 and 183 in the last to games for 632, while Danny Gonzales added 166 to round out the Top Gun scoring. The other members of the winning team were Jett Cabana, George Sto. Domingo and Benny Racal.
In the other final matches, For Life beat Blue Strikers 16-10 (3,097-2,936), Pinblazers routed Survivors 17-7 (3,076-2,841) and Lane Marauders blasted Pinoy-lus 17-4 (3,097-2,761).
The Top 50 Elite Showdown was won by Ansel Alarilla who totalled 1,069 pinfalls in five games. In second place at 1,044 was Leo Bandiola followed by Danny Binauro at 1,043, Fhel Ramos at 1,019 and Elmer Penoso at 1,009.
Named league MVP was Elmer Penoso in Class O, A and B and Eric Perez in CDN. Perez also clinched the Most Improved Player award. Penoso had an average of 199.86 while Perez 193.28 from an entering average of 170 or an improvement of 23.28.
The awards ceremony will be held today as well as the start of the 7th conference.
The new conference will again be sponsored by Al Hussaini and Al Yahya Trading Company, distributors of Seiko watches in the Kingdom, according to RBC Operations Manager Rommel Romano.
Final team standings after the 25th week:
1. Top Gun II 378.0 2. Isam Kabbani 377.5 3. RJ Express 376 4. For Life 374.5 5. D’ Unlimited 370 6. Blue Strikers 344.5 7. Survivors 342 8. Pinblazers 338 9. Lane Marauders 334 10. Pinoy-Plus 274 11. Pice-Ofcer 265.
