April 2017 -
3
S U R
F
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TOURNAMENTS
20
th
Annual Brunswick Modesto City Masters
“GOOD DAY FOR RAY”
By Jim Gordin
The four year reign of the winner coming from the “Loser’s
bracket” has finally ended as Ray Lussier defeated Warren
Crawford (winner of the loser’s bracket) and claimed the title
and first place guaranteed prize of $3,000.
Ray had smooth sailing in the winner’s bracket until he met
local phenom Freddy Irvin in round six and barely escaped
with the win 452 to 448. He then defeated Warren to be
claimed “the winner of the Winner’s bracket” in a very close
match 410 to 407, sending him to the Loser’s bracket. So, if
Warren wanted to face Ray again he would have to defeat
Freddy Irvin to be claimed the winner of the Loser’s bracket.
This would be no easy task as Freddy was “feeling it” de-
feating some great local talent (Nick Kelley) and some
coach who teaches bowling at Fresno State (Chris Preble).
Warren apparently liked lanes 5 and 6 a lot more than
Freddy as Freddy’s two match play losses were on these
pair of lanes. So now the stage was set and Warren could
have another shot at defeating Ray as Warren’s only loss
was to Ray and it was time to redeem himself. He would
have to do it twice as Ray had zero losses and you have to
be defeated twice to be eliminated from the tournament.
Would this be the fifth consecutive year the Loser’s bracket
winner would claim the title? We know the answer to that
question already but it did not come easy for Ray to start a
new reign of the winner coming from the Winner’s bracket.
In their 1
st
match Warren got some redemption defeating
Ray 482 to 411. Ray was not done yet though and made a
few adjustments and found his groove again and came out
on top defeating Warren 513 to 438 and emerged as our
21
st
Annual
Brunswick
Modesto Masters champion.
Ray received a first place prize of $3,100.00. I understand
Ray recently moved from Canada and what a way to start
his bowling reputation in Northern California - winning this
year’s Brunswick Modesto Masters tournament. Congratula-
tions and hope to see you next year at Yosemite Lanes.
This tournament had added money of $3,596.00 thanks to
Brunswick and our other sponsors - Cal-West Roofing,
Bowling Outfitters, McHenry Bowl, Yosemite Lanes, Mark
Baker Bowling and the Modesto USBC Association.
Our high qualifier this year was John Gould from Mountain
Home, Idaho with a seven game total of 1800 or a 257.1
average. This year’s winner – Ray from San Jose qualified
6
th
with 1734 or a 247.7 average. Warren from McKinleyville,
Ca. qualified 17
th
with 1691 or a 241.5 average and received
a total of $1,639 for his 2
nd
place efforts.
Freddy from Modesto and our 2003 champion qualified
10th with 1707 or a 243.8 average and finished 3
rd
for
$1,150. Rounding out the top four was our 2013 champion,
Nick Kelley from Ceres qualifying 18th with 1691 or a 241.5
average and earning a respectable $900.
The last spot (24
th
) for match play was earned by Ari Wil-
son of Las Vegas, Nevada with 1663 or a 237.5 average. It
took a seven game score of 1637 (37
th
place) or a 233.8
average to receive the final check from the main prize fund.
Local bowlers grabbed 8 of the 37 checks and all competed
in match play.
Side notes – Nick Kelley lost to Freddy twice and Freddy
lost to the eventual champion Ray Lussier and runner-up
Warren Crawford. Mathieu Gee of Clovis increases his posi-
tion from game 5 being in 47
th
place to 5
th
on virtue of his
last two games of 300 and 299.
Local bowlers competing in match play (other than Freddy
and Nick) were Dave Bolles of Stockton, Brandon Bates of
Modesto, Wayne Garber of Modesto, Rich Custer of Oak-
dale, Bill Hamilton of Salida and Jim Gordin of Modesto.
Dave qualified 2
nd
with 1784 (254.8 avg.) won 0 matches,
received a $50 bonus for the top 8 in qualifying and finished
in the round of 17
th
-24
th
for total prize money of $325. Bran-
don qualified 8
th
with 1726 (246.5 avg.) won 1 match, re-
ceived a $50 bonus for the top 8 in qualifying and finished in
the round of 9
th
-12
th
for total prize money of $480.00.
Wayne qualified 9
th
with 1716 (245.1 avg.) won 2 matches
and finished in the round of 13
th
-16
th
for $385.00. Rich quali-
fied 16
th
with 1696 (242.2 avg.) won 1 match and finished in
the round of 13
th
-16
th
for total prize money of $355.00. Bill
qualified 19th with 1685 (240.7 avg.) won 0 matches and
finished in the round of 17
th
-24
th
for total prize money of
$275.00. Jim qualified 22
nd
with 1673 (239.0 avg.) won 0
matches and finished in the round of 17
th
-24
th
for total prize
money of $275. No other local bowlers cashed in the main
prize fund that did not bowl in match play. That’s a first.
For the sixth year in a row a new incentive was in place for
the top local league bowler out of the cash from the main
prize fund. Don Mathey of Turlock (41st with 1627) received
that award of $135. In addition, there was a $10 optional
insurance pool for bowlers the age of 50 and over. It paid
out 4 spots this year. Bowlers receiving money from the
insurance pool were Don Mathey $80, Paul Herrera of San
Jose $80 with a score of 1611, Craig Donaldson of Clovis
$80 with a score of 1610 and Steve R. Davis of Manteca
$80 with a score of 1596. This was the 11
th
year seniors
could put up $10 in addition to the standard entry fee for
insurance. This was the 1
st
year the minimum age was
changed to 50 and over. It pays 1 spot for every 8 entries for
the “insurance” bowlers. There were a total of 32 eligible
bowlers opting to pay the extra amount for “insurance”.
This year there were a total of 147 entries coming from all
parts of Northern and Southern California, including Nevada,
Idaho and Hawaii. Total sponsorships from
Brunswick
and
the local businesses was $3,596 and along with the prize
fund from the entries, the main prize fund paid out $17,414.
There were many high scores on Saturday and Sunday.
They included 6-300’s, 9-11 in a row and 4-800 series. The
300 games on Saturday were bowled by Mark Del Cerro of
Hayward, Forrest Kritzer of Pleasanton, and Mathieu Gee of
Clovis. On Sunday 3-300 games were rolled – Freddy and
Kevin Amodo of Stockton started match play with 300’s and
Warren bowled one against Freddy in the Loser’s bracket
championship. On Saturday qualifying, Mark started with
837 which included his 300, Jake Odell of Santa Clara
started with 805 and Warren started with 846. On Sunday
Freddy started the day with 803. There were a total of 9 -11
in a rows. Saturday had 8 – Paul Herrera 299, Dave Bolles
299, Mathieu Gee 299, Marvin Hale of Henderson, Nv 298,
Warren 290, Tommy Nguyen 290, Casey Custer of Water-
ford 290 and Freddy 290. Sunday had 1 – Chris Preble 299.
Congratulations to all the bowlers who cashed and thank
you to all bowlers who participated. Special thanks go out to
Nick Smith and Kevin Tabron from Brunswick and all of our
local sponsors. Most of all thank you to all of the helpers
who worked the tournament and assisted in the ball raffles.
Next year’s tournament tentatively will be held on April
7, and 8, 2018 at Yosemite Lanes.
Final Results: continued on page 9
