After a gap of one conference, Purefoods Hotdog is back in an all too familiar scene — winning championship to end another succesful campaign in the FTBJ-ICBL 34th Conference bowling tournament at Ice Land Bowling Center here.

The winner of the 32nd Conference then under the banner of Sarawat Superstores, the second seed Purefoods had to beat No. 1 finalist JP Gilas twice in the championship match and did just that to reign supreme in the long drawn out tournament that began middle of last year.

Purefoods earned a shot at Gilas by beating Lance & Thirdy 830-788 in the third match of the stepladder finals.

The first match of the stepladder was two games with handicap knockout among the four teams that survived a separate knockout for the remaining eight teams. Lance & Thirdy was the winner, carding 1,829 pinfalls to Hidada Ltd.’s 1,658, D’ Barkads 1,648 and Pin Crusher’s 1,621.

After winnning its second match of the day against No. 2 Alliance in Motion Global 875-757 Lance looked an even money bet for the crown.

But the eventual champion Purefoods of Igna Salgado had other ideas, whipping Lance 830-788.

It was a match in which Lance simply collapsed none more glaring than Class O and Class A players Ric Reformado and June Estefano, who slumped to 139 and 140 respectively.

In contrast Purefoods got a big lift from 195 by skipper Igna and 183 by Cesar Monares. The other scorers were Marie Gumpal 154, Majid Aslani 152 and Malou Nidoy 146.

In the championship match, Purefoods faced an opponent with a twice to beat privilege and under pressure to win to stay alive.

It did by 881-832, setting the stage for a knockout game and the pressure was on Gilas to bear.

It was Aslani’s turn to shine with a 206 with the consistent Salgado on 172, Gumpal 155, Monares 152 and Len-Len Berina 137.

Gilas had nothing much to show except for Rey Beltran’s 210. Zaldy Bacero, the Class O player on the lineup, could only muster 160 while Class A Paolo Allego was even worse on 138.

Monares delivered a valuable 200 game on 202 for Purefoods during the critical winner-take-all and along with the 176 by Salgado and 160 by Aslani proved enough to cushion the win 882-862 and clinch the match.

Bacero fell short in a bid for 200 on 192 with Allego and Beltran on 162 and 161, among other scorers for Gilas.

In all Purefoods won three matches en route to the championship crown. Other members of the champion team are Joel Nidoy, Nick Gozun and Jojie Manalansan.

Meantime, the FTBJ-ICBL 35th Conference is tentatively set to start March 6 at its new home, IN-10-SO bowling lanes in Serafi Mall.

Final team standings

Champion Purefoods Hotdog, 1st runner-up JP Gilas Striker, 2nd runner-up Lance & 3rdy, 3rd runner-up Alliance in Motion Global, fifth place Hidada Ltd., 6th place D’ Barkads, 7th place Pin Crushers, 8th place Sky Freight-OSN, 9th place Lucky Strike, 10th place GM Pin Pals, 11th place D’ Frontiers