The Tour got back to the 100 entry mark, with a truly FANTASTIC turnout, on a busy Saturday that had, a HISTORIC Husky game, a Sounders game, a Mariners game, the Puyallup Fair & the Fremont Oktoberfest all going on. A BIG surprise was the number of Members shooting some VERY nice scores. HiLine has been our most consistently moderate scoring Center, never too high or low scoring. We used exactly the same oil pattern at HiLine, that we have for many of their Tournaments, yet suddenly the scores took a big jump. The reason is very interesting. In July, after Narrows Plaza got a new oil machine and at that time, we saw a similar spike in scores. HiLine just had their oil machine overhauled and 'What an Amazing Difference' that can make, without changing the shot at all. The scores at the Top and Bottom of the 'Cash List' were both at least 20 pins higher than normal, for a "Best 3 of 4" format. But, as usual, the 'Cash List' was still very well balanced with high, medium and lower averages all well represented. Another byproduct of the higher scoring, was that NO Member had more that 3 No-Taps to start a game all day. HiLine is historically a Center that has produced many BIG Jackpot winners over the years. However, 5 Members did tie at 3 No-Taps each (Eaton-Nguyen-Hall-Lane-Nucci), so we paid $25 to each, and still saw the Jackpot grow to $2,957.00, for the Tower Lanes Tournament on Oct. 3rd.

Our HiLine Champion is Rey Alvarez, who took his 3rd Career Title. Rey is a "LIFE" Member who originally joined the Tour in 2003. With an AMAZING 867 score in the 2nd squad, he won this Title despite starting with only a 183 game. With this format, we've seen many times, where a Winner starts with their lowest game, which ends-up getting 'Tossed-Out', but then rallies to shoot three BIG games, as Rey did this week. Even stranger, was that the 2nd, 3rd & 4th place finishers ALL did the same thing, also tossing their first games! Doesn't seem like a good strategy, but it sure worked for them. Certainly is a nice "NEVER Give-Up" story! Even with the unusually high score, Rey's 867 only won by a NARROW TWO PIN margin and he had to convert the 2-4-10 split in his last frame to pull out the win, which was good for a nice $1,738.00 payday. Rey was only able to return to the Tour in 2009, after missing a few years due to a knee surgery. NICE bowling Rey... CONGRATULATIONS on win #3!!

In the 12:00 squad, John Rorke set a score (865), that looked very tough to beat. He hadn't shot any big sets since joining in July, but got in 'The Zone', at one point stringing 22 straight strikes. However, with zero in the Progressive Pot, it did limit his payoff to $500,00. The 3rd Place finisher, Rob Tegtmeyer also shot what would normally have been enough to win, with an excellent 856. A pretty triumphant return, after a one year absence from the Tour, netting him $408.00.

RESULTS

OTHER PAYOUTS

NEW PROGRESSIVE POT TOTAL: $1,759.00
NEW 9-TAP JACKPOT TOTAL: $2,957.00

STRIKEPOT CONSOLATION WINNER:
3 Taps - R.Eaton-T.Nguyen-J.Lane-W.Hall-M.Nucci ($25 ea) ($120)

TOURNAMENT INFORMATION