D’ Barkads bowled true to form as the top-seeed team to win the championship crown in the Faris Monday Night Bowling League 18th Season at the Jeddah Lanes in Mosadia Plaza here.

D’ Barkads’ victory in the championship match against No. 2 HBMR Nanding was the last of the stepladder final results that went according to the form book.

It was not even close with D’ Barkads winning by 1,033 to 1,002 pinfalls.

HBMR gained a shot at D’ Barkads after dusting off the third outright finalist, MC Hammer at 961-949 in the third match. Hammer advanced to the penultimate stepladder match by beating Scorpion Knights 1064-997.

The Knights were the winner of the first match, a shootout among the four teams to advance from the repechage. The Knights tallied a winning three-game series of 2,197. Boungaville compiled 2,165, Jem Strikers had 1,962 and Selecta Ice Cream returned 1,936.

Against the Kights Hammer collected a perfect phantom score of 300 with Zaldy Bacero on 223, Randy Mata 219, Robert Stone 163 and Ruel Santoc 159.

It turned out Hammer would end the tournament just as it started the finals — in third place — when it got beat by second seed HBMR which netted phantom of 245, 302 from Rene Santiago, a pair of 174s from Rene Martinez and Nonie Yap and 165 from Nanding Siasoco.

As the No. 1 finalist, D’ Barkads enjoyed a twice-to-beat edge, a privilege they never had to use up by beating HBMR right in the opening salvo.

D’ Barkads tallied a phantom score of 279 that went with the 205 by Amro Al Amri, 200 by Bonnie Garcia , 185 by Leo Edejer and 164 by Rey Beltran.

Nanding, with a phantom of 246, received 197 from Siasoco, 183 from Santiago and 170 from Martinez.

Meantime, league organizer Igna Salgado said the Lipton Monday Night Bowling League 19th Season will start today with 14 teams in the fold. Roll-off is 8:30 p.m.

Final team standings:

Champion D’ Barkads, 1st runner-up HBMR Nanding, 2nd runner-up MC Hammer, fourth place Scorpion Knights, fifth place Boungaville Phil., sixth place Jem Strikers, seventh place Selecta Ice Cream, eighth place Mottawer Engineering, 9th place Blue Diamond, 10th place Sarawat Superstores, 11th place Brothers 4ever, 12th place Taurus RDLR, 13th place Jeddah Lanes, 14th place Faris Entertainment Center