Bottom team Escalera was at the center stage, at least for a night, when it pulled a Team of the Week and Bowler of the Week double in the Sarawat Thursday Bowling League 9th Season at the Sultanah Center’s Bowling City here.

Escalera bowled a pair of strong games that sandwiched a modest one and returned the top tally of 27 points with Bowling City three points adrift on 24.

D’ Barkads tallied 23 to be third on the night followed by OFBC on 22. Kabayan Food and Boleros tied on 18 points while previous week honoree Habagat and Thumbs-up brought up the rear on 7 and 5 respectively.

Frank Afurong savored a big night on the lanes, shooting the high series of 735 to become the Bowler of the Week and set up the Escalera double on games of 199, 235 and 238.

Esclera won the first and third games and overall output to more than make up for an indifferent Game 2 where it could only gather 3 points in sixth place.

Edward Butardo made sure Afurong’s effort don’t go to waste with a backup series of 598 that went with the 532 by Sid Sagun, 127-177 by Danny Manrisa, 203-134 by Ally Bin and 203-170 by Cesar Pagtalunan.

Host team Bowling City, the second game winner, drew strong performances from the trio of Tommy de Castro, Hero Garcia and Edu Toledo who rolled 613, 608 and 604 in that order. Supporting them with two games each were Pancho Cuevas 215-192, Archie Santos 194-166 and Gary Raymundo 178-152.

D’ Barkads actually gained some ground on league leader Kabayan Food thanks mainly to Nap Patayan and Rey Beltran who shot 636 and 589 as their team’s top two scorers. Romy Bunagan came through with 557, while Dan Edbave, Bing Amolo and James Galvan each contributed two games of 201-201, 168-153 and 172-159.

OFBC produced the second highest score of 702 courtesy of team captain Joel Nidoy who shot lines of 256, 225 and 209. Jerry Carredo supported Nidoy with 567 while Jun Estefano had 543, Toto Lim 512, Rudy Jamon 181-174 and Ding Dela Rosa 175.

Over at Kabayan Mohammed Amri carded 623 to lead teammates Rolly Vistal 590, Rene Martinez 574 and Igna Salgado 552. The other scorers were Gerry Mandanas 170-178 and Eidris Mangoda 181.

Elo Manalo, Cesar Monares and Jess Cerbito fired complete games of 565, 545 and 534 at the helm of Boleros who also received 246-200 from Ruben Grino, 150-194 from Jack Jarin and 140-177 from Nanding Siasoco.

Team standings

1. Kabayan Food 206.5 points 2. D’ Barkads 201.0 3. Boleros 200.0 4. Bowling City 179.5 5. Overseas Filipino Bowlers Club 173.5 6. Thumbs-up 171.5 7. Habagat 163.5 8. Escalera 144.5