AL Striker catches last bus for Team of Week in Sarawat Superstores Cup

Team of the Week AL Striker. (AN photo)

JEDDAH: AL Striker, struggling at the bottom of the 9-team field, got to taste Team of the Week victory on the last serving during the 18th week in the the 16th Season for Sarawat Superstores Cup at the Bowling City here.
On the final week of eliminations prior to the positioning round of this Thursday night five-man team league event, AL came up with the top tally of 29 points ahead of Habagat 28.
Sponsor team Sarawat Superstores finished three points further back on 25 followed by D’ Barkads 22, Jem Striker and Al Murjanah 18.
The previous week honoree Salam Rice and Casadores tied on 16 points with Al Kabeer last on 7 points.
AL Striker, which is best remembered as the underdog team to reach the stepladder finals with a chance for the title before it got beat by eventual champion Habagat in the 13th Season, actually enjoyed a double courtesy of Bonnie Garcia. Stringing games of 233, 236 and 251, Garcia went on to post the high series of 720 to become the Bowler of the Week.
Phepz Niere shot 627 to back up Garcia while Benjie Cils added 599 for AL, which picked up pace after a slow start to go third-first for the second and third games respectively and second for overall output.
Cesar Monares contributed 197-206 while Gerry Lim and Tommy Kamal tossed in 165-159 and 193-199 for AL.
Habagat which along with Murjanah looks a lock for two of three outright berths for the championship round matches had the second highest scorer of the night in Jimmy Aragones who fired 717 on lines of 225, 238 and 227. Med Ramos on 612 was the only other player to hit a series. With two games each were Rommel Cagampang 248-248, Rene Punzalan 169-171 and Geo Mangaliman 194-193.
Sarawat got a big lift from the trio of Mohd Al Amri, Jay-R de Dios and Igna Salgado who rolled 617, 616 and 591 in that order to go with the 583 by Yasser Hokbi, 199-180 by Dylan Ilagan and 192 by Gerry Mandanas.
For D’ Barkads the five-man team to count were Ladio Gonzales 656, Ed Sardiña 627, Joel Nidoy 625, Gerry Tano 577 and Romy Bunagan 505.
Paolo Allego top-scored at Jem on 641 followed by Cesar Pagtalunan 620, Mike Tambasin 569 and Rolly Vistal 542.
Team standings after the 18th week:
1. Al Murjanah 430.5 2. Habagat 406.0 3. D’ Barkads 377.0 4. Salam Rice 373.0 5. Al Kabeer Frozen Foods 362.0 6. Casadores 350.5 7. Sarawat Superstores 347.0 8. Jem Striker 322.5 9. AL Striker 293.5