Alliance in Motion Global last Friday sealed a title run it seriously mounted from the 14th week by beating challenger Lucky Strike in the FTBJ-ICBL 33rd Conference bowling tournament at Jeddah Lanes here.

With a twice-to-beat privilege as the waiting No. 1 finalist Alliance, enjoying a deeper bench, was simply a tough nut to crack for the third seed Lucky Strike.

Alliance won with plenty to spare, shooting 942 to Lucky Strike’s 837 during the championship match.

Thus did Alliance, which prided itself as the only team to register a perfect double on the way to a Team of the Week title in the tournament, end its campaign in this five-man team Friday afternoon league event organized by Filipino Tenpin Bowlers of Jeddah.

Before the Alliance surge up the leaderboard there was No. 2 Paradise Brand. But Igna Salgado’s team failed to even reach the championship match. Instead, they had to settle for third place after beating beaten by Lucky Strike in the penultimate match of the stepladder finals.

The first stepladder match was a shootout among the Nos. 4, 5, 6 and 7 teams namely Taurus, Lance & 3rdy, GM Pin Pals and D’ Barkads, with GM Pin Pals winning on 1,009 and advancing to the next match opposite third seed Lucky Strike. D’ Barkads returned 897, Lance 889 and Taurus 879.

Lucky Strike stopped the Pin Pals’ progress after winning their match 970-893 thanks mainly to the trio of Rudy Valenzuela, Nurissa Ramos and Matet Cavite who rolled 222, 211 and 209 respectively. Danny Bautista’s 169 and Archie Santos’s 159 completed the scoring.

The stage was set for the match to decide the challenger to Alliance Global.

Lucky Strike earned the right to face Alliance, beating Paradise Brand 917-901 in a stunning reversal.

Lucky Strike got a big lift from the trio of Santos and Bautista and Ramos who scored 221, 190 and 181 while Paradise drew only 150 by Lourdes Punzalan to negate the gains made by Salgado 219, Marie Gumpal 200 and Rey Beltran 172.

Valenzuela 175 and Cavite 150 rounded out scoring for Lucky Strike.

In the championship match, Alliance did the job pretty well with all its five players hitting within their averages — Grace Funtilon was at the helm on 206, Randy Mata tallied 190 while Cris Villavelez added 186, Michelle Mata 181 and Paolo Allego 190.

Lucky Strike blew its chance after the games of Cavite and Santos collapsed on 136 and 153 respectively. Also, not a single player reached the 200 series mark with Ramos the nearest on the number with 190. Valenzuela made 180 and Bautista had 178.

With no break in between tournaments, the FTBJ-ICBL 34th Conference takes place Friday at the same venue.

Final team standings

Champion Alliance in Motion Global, runner-up Lucky Strike, third place Paradise Brand, fourth place GM Pin Pals, fifth place D’ Barkads, sixth place Lance & 3rdy, seventh place Taurus RDLR, eighth place Sky Freight Forwarders, ninth place Boleros, 10 th place Hidada Ltd., 11th place MJ Bowlers.