Imperial Lanes was a Fantastic Host for what became a very TIGHT competition, with moderate scoring, that suddenly turned into a BLOWOUT by just ONE Hotter-Than-Hot Member.  There were a large number of 700's shot, on conditions that were, admittedly, a 'guess' by us, with a perfect Cut-Score of 723 for the 'Best 3 of 4' format.  There was a shortage of really BIG scores, with only TWO 800's shot all-day, but there was still our usual balance of handicaps, with all skill levels represented on the Cash List.  The 9-Tap Jackpot was under assault all day, with Rich Eaton sitting on top with 5-Taps, until Kenny Tameno had 9of his first 10 Taps, which included 7 straight in the middle of his first game.  A real strike in the 3rd frame derailed a shot at the Jackpot, but left him to capture the$1,000.00 Consolation, which was paid-out for the 2nd straight week.  That pushes the9-Tap Jackpot payouts to a record SHATTERING $22,505.00for the year.  The excellent turnout of 135 entries, pushed the Tour closer to a Mind Boggling $400,000.00 paid-out this year, with three Tournaments yet to go.  That also translates to an average of over $10,000.00 per Tournament, for the 37 events so far in 2011.  WOW... It was only a few years ago, that we had our first Tournament that topped $10,000.00!

 

Danny Ramos won his first title since 2008 in SPECTACULAR fashion.  His incredible 890 series Blew-Away the field by a huge margin and sent us on a search of the Record books.  What we found was shocking... Danny's enormous score was only the 2ndhighest series in a 'Best 3 of 4' format.  The Record for this format was set in April 2008 at Skyway, a SCARY 909, shot by DANNY RAMOS in his last Victory!  We have described bowlers who get HOT as being "In the Zone", "Locked-In", "In a Groove", but nothing seem adequate in this case.  On rareoccasions, we've more accurately called it being "POSSESSED"!  As evidenced by his previous 909, he's obviously been possessed before!  Danny explained his BIG score as being the result of the tremendous "Peer Pressure" he was under.  His friends had won BIG money and he didn't want to be left out.  Jeanierose (see picture) had won $1,400.00 on the slots at Snoqualmie and good friend Kenny had just won $1,000.00 for his 7-Taps.  So, after a mediocre first game, Danny ripped off 3 straight Monster games, to capture his 3rd Career win and a nice $2,109.00.  That pushes the 10 year Tour Veteran's Career Earnings to $12,091.00, although he often has to work on Saturdays at Boeing (23 yrs).  Danny used his HAMMER "Hot Sauce" drilled by our "Real Pros" Instructor Fred Mattson at Narrows Plaza.  He was also excited to compete at Imperial, where he bowls in the 'Ben Franklin' League on Wednesday nights.  Danny asked us to Thank Gary Tameno (Kenny's Dad), for getting him to work on his balance, which certainly seemed to work wonders.  GREAT JOB Danny!

 

In 2nd Place, Eric Pham had the only other 800 series Saturday (817), which boosted him into 8th Place on the Bowler of the Year standings.  It looked like he had a winning score until Hurricane Danny blew through, but the healthy $944.00 payday helped soothe the wounds.  Eric Smallman finished with a Monster game of his own, beating his Personal Best game by 20 pins with a scratch 263, to grab 3rd Place and $502.00.

A really GREAT STORY was written about our Veterans Day Tournament last week, in the JBLM newspaper.  Check it out using this link:http://www.nwguardian.com/2011/11/18/11660/veterans-servicemembers-bowl-for.html