On the 5th week, Qatar Airways was languishing in eighth place in the team standings. Two weeks later, it was knocking on the door of league leader Nasser Al-Hajri thanks to back-to-back Team of the Week victories in the FTBJ-ICBL 31st Conference bowling tournament at Jeddah Lanes here.

Qatar Airways returned the top tally of 39 points at the back end of its consecutive team honors during the 7th session with Marie Gumpal making the achievement all the sweeter by running away with the ladies Bowler of the Week accolade.

Also, Igna Salgado’s high-flying squad moved up four places to second in the standings although it still has to make up a lot of ground in a bid to wrest No. 1 from Nasser.

Taurus RDLR, Jem Strikers and Pin Slashers finished next to Qatar Airways in that order as teams in the lower half of the standings overshadowed some of the leadrs including Nasser Al Hajri.

Hidada Ltd. and Sky Freight-TFC, both past Team of the Week winners, pooled 30 and 27 points respectively with D’ Barkads on 26.

Al Hajri wound up in a tie for 8th and 9th on the day with Oriana Akiera Sato on 21 points.

Lance & Thirdy and Avengers brought up the rear on 17 and 10.5 points.

Taurus gained consolation for missing the team award when Raul Delos Reyes clinched the men’s Bowler of the Week plum after shooting the high series of 686 on lines of 201, 248 and 225.

Qatar Airways took the first game in a fast start that cushioned the impact of a 7th place finish in the third game. Its top overall output of 3,122 also helped QA reach No. 1 in the day’s race.

Gumpal and Salgado matched cards of 673s at the vanguard of QA’s another strong performance. Edu Toledo on 617 and Jeanette Cerbito on 512 were the two other players to roll full games.

Aslani chipped in two games of 257-196 while Paulo Allego tallied 190.

The Patayans of the Filipino bowling community — Sharmaine, Nap and Susan — backed up Delos Reyes at Tarus with respective rounds of 606, 598 and 549 that went with the 225-149 by Jimmy Urbano and 178 by Nestor Castolome.

Over at Jem Strikers, Gerry Mandanas owned the leading score of 627. Charrie Guzman and Che Bautista tossed in 580 and 544 from the distaff side while the trio of Jess Pineda, Pancho Cuevas and Jeff San Pedro had 213-194, 204-225 and 221-206.

Roger Daquioag and Jay Bengco carried the load at Pin Slashers with rounds of 635 and 608. May Lourdes added 585 and Aileen Miralbuna 496 while Jun Pingan made 167-235 and Jun Estefano contributed 181.

Hidada had the duo of Jun Palacios and Amro Al-Amri carding the top scores of 648 and 634.

Team standings after the 7th week:

1. Nasser Al-Hajri 249.0 2. Qatar Airways 206.0 3. Hidada Ltd. 203.0 4. Sky Freight-TFC 199.0 5. Kulisap ni Moe 194.5 6. D’ Barkads 194.0 7. Jem Strikers 184.5 8. Taurus RDLR 169.0 9. Oriana Akiera Sato 158.5 10. Pin Slashers 150.0 11. Lance & 3rdy 142.0 12. Avengers 134.5