The positioning round ended the way it started with Alliance in Motion Global, Paradise Brand and Lucky Strike the top three outright finalists in the FTBJ-ICBL 33rd Conference bowling tournament at Jeddah Lanes here.

Of the three teams Lucky Strike spiced it up a bit by clinching a Team of the Week and men’s Bowler of the Week double on the 19th week at the end of eliminations in the five-man team Friday afternoon league event.

Paradise Brand did try to grab the No. 1 spot from Alliance on 35 points but despite its best effort AMG will have the twice-to-beat edge in the championship match against whoever moves up to challenge it in the stepladder finals.

AMG returned 32.5 points and its cushion of 11.5 points was more than enough to prevent a Paradise steal of its No. 1 ranking.

Sky Freight Forwarders were looking to wrest No. 3 from Lucky Strike. Instead, they will be among the teams given a second chance to book a spot into the finals after pooling 26 points in a tie with D’ Barkads.

Teams at Nos. 4-11 play three games with handicap with the four teams with the highest points to join Alliance, Paradise and Lucky Strike for the championship round.

MJ Bowlers finished between Alliance and Sky Freight on 32 points. Taurus RDLR had 20 points, GM Pin Pals 19.5 points, Lance & 3rdy 15, Boleros 14 and Hidada Ltd. 7.5 points.

Azhanawati of MJ Bowlers was the ladies Bowler of the Week. She shot 628 on scratch lines of 151, 156 and 180.

Archie Santos and Rudy Valenzuela rolled 669 and 639 at the vanguard of the Lucky Strike onslaught. From the distaff side, Nurissa Ramos and Matet Cavite came through with 517, 498. Danny Bautista added two games of 181-212 and Ruben Grino 198.

For the second straight week, Majid Aslani had the top score, 642, at Paradise with the ladies duo of Lourdes Punzalan and Marie Gumpal as the only other players to go the distance on 565 and 555. Contributing two games each were Igna Salgado 227-183, Rey Beltran 175-168 and Nick Guzon 192-198.

For Alliance, the duo of Paulo Allego and Cris Villavelez led the way on 608 and 603 to go with the 578 by Grace Funtilon, 504 by Michelle Mata, 203-184 by Randy Mata and 213 by Bonnie Garcia.

Besides Azhanawati the others who helped MJ advance the cause were Rozana 571, Suhaimie 548, Abdul Rashid 214-195, Nur Yazid 143-161 and Azizan Hassan 174-157.

Team standings after the 19th week:

1. Alliance in Motion global 600.5 points 2. Paradise Brand 591.5 3. Lucky Strike 538.5 4. Sky Freight Forwarders 518.0 5. Boleros 496.5 6. Lance & 3rdy 464.5 7. Hidada Ltd. 403.5 8. Taurus RDLR 372.0 9. D’ Barkads 363.5 10. MJ Bowlers 340.5 11. GM Pin Pals 328.0