By Dean Acker
Register Bowling Columnist
RICHMOND —
Mark Rogers bowled the top series at Galaxy last week with a 666 score in the Classic Doubles League, while the top game was 248 by John Hickam in the Cash Money League.
Andi Daly led the ladies for the week with a 237 game and 590 series in the Cash Money League.
The 299 game by Rogers two weeks ago was the third of his career. He also has two 300 games on his resume.
League Highlights
Classic Doubles
The top scores in this league last Thursday were a 246 game and 666 series by Mark Rogers. Anthony Newland had the next-best men’s scores with a 212 game and 578 series.
Tina Hisle bowled the top women’s game at 225 and the second-highest series at 525.
The best women’s series was 535 by Novel Davis, who rolled the second-best game at 192.
Hisle converted the 5-7 split twice.
This league will complete the summer season this week. Bottoms Up (Jan Stepp and Lynn Estes) has 40 wins going into the last night of action, while the King Dogs (Kyle Shultz and Dean Acker) are second with 36.5 wins.
These teams will meet on the final night with Bottoms Up needing one win to take the league championship. The King Dogs can finish first by winning all three games and the total pins.
The Wanna Be’s (Robert Lamb and Novel Davis) can finish second depending upon the results of the match between the top two teams.
Summer Cash Money League
John Hickam led this league last week with a 248 game and 660 series. Brandon Simpson rolled the next-best scores with a 247 game and 641 series.
Substitute Pete Stamper bowled a 238 game and 622 series.
The best women’s scores were bowled by Andi Daly with a 237 game and 590 series, while Novel Davis had the second-best women’s scores with a 225 game and 555 series.
Tuesday No-Tap
In addition to regular strikes, nine pins down with the first ball in a frame counts as a strike in no-tap leagues.
Brandon Simpson bowled his second 300 game of the season in this league to match the two 300 games bowled by his partner, Shayne Smith. Simpson added games of 245 and 284 to set a new series high for this league at 829.
Smith rolled the second-best series for the night at 740 while the second-highest game was 274 by Gary Holtzclaw.
Holtzclaw (681) and Carl Daniels (628) also rolled series scores exceeding 600, as did sub Mark Rogers (633).
Holly Cowell led the league’s ladies with a 245 game and 631 series. Sue Hegelmeyer recorded the next-best women’s series at 592 and Wanda Sampson the second-best game at 232.
This league will complete the summer season this week. The usual pattern of a position round in which the first-place team bowls the second-place team, the third-place team bowls the fourth-place team, etc during the last week of the season will be used.
Four teams — High Rollers (Genny Bryant and Wanda Sampson), What’s Up (Patricia Green and Gary Holtzclaw), Tap (Shayne Smith and Brandon Simpson), and Good Girls (Donna Fourre and Sue Hegelmeyer) - still have a chance to win the league championship.
Hulsenberg wins U. S. Women’s Open
Leanne Hulsenberg topped defending champion Kelly Kulick 218-183 in the finals of the U. S. Women’s Open tournament on June 30 to take home the $50,000 first place prize money.
Kulick, who bowled collegiately at Morehead State, averaged 241 for the 48 games she had bowled in the qualifying rounds to earn the top seed. Unfortunately, she had a bad game in the championship match with only one strike in the first six frames, and she left the big four split (4-6-7-10) twice. Kulick won $25,000 for her runner-up finish.
The women had to bowl as many as 48 games in qualifying rounds to determine the five women who qualified for the step-ladder finals.
In the step-ladder format, the fifth seed bowls the fourth seed in a one-game match with the winner bowling the third seed and that winner bowling the second seed, etc.
Qualifying as the top seed is quite advantageous as that bowler needs to win only one match to take the title.
The top five seeds were Kelly Kulick from Union, N.J., Leanne Hulsenberg from Roseville Cal., Liz Johnson from Cheektowaga, N.Y., (who also bowled for Morehead) Shannon O’Keefe from Arlington, Texas, and Lynda Barnes from Double Oak, Texas.
The fifth seed, Barnes, defeated fourth-seed O’Keefe 268-166 and third-seed Johnson 259-225, before losing to second-seeded Hulsenberg 247-246.
The finals were bowled on lanes set up on the 50-yard line in the Dallas Cowboys football stadium with a crowd of more than 6,000 in attendance.
The sponsors of the event, bowling ball manufacturer Ebonite International and the Bowling Proprietors Association of America, offered a prize of $1,000,000 if a woman rolled a 300 game in the final match.
This is the largest prize ever offered in bowling, but the quest for the one million dollars ended early as both Hulsenberg and Kulick left the 10 pin with their first ball of the match.
A record-size field of 286 of the top female bowlers in the world competed for a total prize fund of $225,000.
Last Week’s Top Scores
Men’s Series
Mark Rogers 666
John Hickam 660
Brandon Simpson 641
Pete Stamper 622
Men’s Games
John Hickam 248
Brandon Simpson 247
Mark Rogers 246
Larry Leach 240
Pete Stamper 238
Clifford Rose 230
Ronnie Norris Sr. 227
Lewis Jones Jr. 227
Shayne Smith 214
Anthony Newland 212
Brian Ford 204
Behle Burns 200
Women’s Series
Andi Daly 590
Novel Davis 555
Tina Hisle 525
Women’s Games
Andi Daly 237
Novel Davis 225
Tina Hisle 225
