JEDDAH: Its frustration going all the way back to the 27th Conference, Hidada Ltd. mounted an improbable stepladder run to win the championship crown in the FTBJ-ICBL 35th Conference Sky Freight Forwarders League at the Bowling City here.

Neeeding to win five matches as an unseeded team that reached the stepladder final round on second chance after missing out on the three outright final slots, Hidada sensationally did just that to finally land a title in this five-man Friday afternoon league event.

Thus did Hidada erase the bitter memory of the 27th Conference where it claimed the No. 1 with a twice-to-beat bonus only to lose that advantage and eventually the championship to Cristal Global.

Last Friday, the one with the edge that lost it all was defending champion Sadafco, which had been in the lead for the most part of the 21 weeks tournament.

The first stepladder match was a four-team knockout among Par Excellence, Hidada Ltd., Sky Freight-OSN, D’ Barkads who all survived the 3 games point system knockout for the remaining 9 teams outside of the top three finishers in the eliminations.

Hidada won to be one down, four to go. Hidada totaled 2,052 points for two games, Par Excellence returned 1,981, Sky Freight-OSN 1,913 and D’ Barkads 1,819.

The second match was a clash of teams that had briefly tasted the lead, Hidada winning over No. 3 Masaken 988-945.

Just as when not a few thought Hidada’s run would end, as Nonie Yap-captained team took on resurgent Steelers, it never happened. Instead, Hidada managed by Nanding Siasoco went all the way to the well-deserved championship.

While Hidada had spent its energy playing three games Sadafco was fresh.

But fresh did not necessarily translate to victory as the determined Hidada proved the better team in the championship match.

Hidada had Sadafco wasting its advantage by winning 966-919, with Amro Al Amri and Yap tossing 255 and 233 as against the 212 and 208 by Majid Aslani and Salgado. The other scorers were Cesar Monares 167, Grace Siasoco 157 and Pinky Acato 154 for Hidada, Jimmy Urbano 193, Marissa Resano 151 and Marie Gumpal 142 for Sadafco.

In the winner-take-all that was the second match for Sadafco and fifth for Hidada the latter made the big plays that spelled the difference in the thrilling contest 873-853.

Salgado hit strike in the last frame to which Yap responded with a double. Earlier, Monares had a strike of his own and Acato contributed from the distaff side carding 186.

Al Amri was consistent with another 200 game, 209, Yap finished on 181, and Monares had 176. Romy Bunagan and Grace Siasoco were the other members of the winning team.

Salgado and Aslani had 198 and 183 but the lack of support from other team members scuppered Sadafco’s chances. Proxy Luague would like to thank Saudi Dairy-Sadafco’s HR Manager Talal Al-Nounou for his support of the team.

Meantime, the ICBL-FTBJ 36th Conference sponsored by Qatar Airways through Commercial Manager Ebrahim Rasool rolls off today. For further details, please call Nick Gozun ( 0509720170) or Rally Zamora ( 0501591351).

Final team standings:

Champion Hidada Ltd., runner-up Sadafco-Saudia Milk, 3rd place Steelers, 4th place Masaken, 5th place Par Excellence, 6th place Sky Freight-OSN, 7th place D’ Barkads, 8th place Sagmit Dental Clinic, 9th place Rock n Roll, 10th place Al Murjana, 11th place Ceebee Aviation, 12th place ICBL Mix Insert