JEDDAH: Habagat, the Tagalog term for northeasterly wind, whipped 200 games in torrents and went on to claim the championship crown in the Sarawat Superstores Thursday Bowling League 13th Season at Bowling City in Sultanah Center.

The No. 2 finalist, Habagat ended the run of upset-conscious AL Striker to gain a chance to challenge waiting No. 1 Al Murjana for the biggest prize of the tournament.

Having put away AL Striker 960-837 Habagat needed to win twice against Murjana or a total of three match games to make it.

No problem. Right in the first game Habagat made known its intentions, beating Murjana 1,020-931 thanks to a pair of 225s from Rommel Cagampang and Jimmy Aragones as well as a further pair of 196s from Edu Toledo and Geo Mangaliman and a 178 from Ryan Conde. For Murjana Archie Santos was the lone 200-game scorer on 212 with Ruel Santoc on 197, team manager Rene Ocampo 190, Mhon Laxamana 173 and Jay Bengco 159.

The Habagat victory set up a winner-take-all between the league’s top teams to emerge after 19 weeks of eliminations.

On paper Murjana looks the form team of the tournament, leading the pack for as long as one cares to remember and never looking back after reclaiming the lead from Habagat on the 13th week.

But form had been rubbished by a rampant Habagat squad as it took the required second win against Murjana 943-919 with Cagampang this time teaming with Richard Antonio to hit 200 games of 213 and 202 to go with the 181 by Mangaliman, 178 by Toledo and 169 by Aragones. The Murjana scorers were Santos 209, Ocampo 195, Laxamana 178, Bengco 169 and Santoc 168.

The final week of the competition began with the first stepladder match featuring teams Nos. 4, 5 and 6 namely AL Striker, Carling and D’ Barkads.

AL won the knockout two games with handicap on 1, 887. D’ Barkads tallied 1,882 and Carling 1,884.

AL then advanced to the second match vs. Magnolia Ice Cream of Igna Salgado, winning by 980-964 only to be stopped in its tracks by Manny Tibay’s Habagat squad.

For Tibay it marked the first time in this Thursday league his team tasted a championship after getting knocked out once too often in the past.

League organizer Salgado thanked Aubrey Viljoen (VP Arabian Store Co.- Sarawat) and Mohd. Al Amoudi ( Marketing Manager) for their support of the successful tournament.

Meantime, Salgado said the Sarawat Superstores Thursday League 14th Season starts today. Roll-off is 7 p.m. at Bowling City.