Page 12 - nov2012

12 www.bowlingworld.com– NOVEMBER 2012
Ageless Walter Ray Williams
Jr. Paces PBA Chameleon
Championship
At age 53, PBA’s all-time winningest players averages 240 to
lead field of 16 into semifinal round
LAS VEGAS - The ageless Walter Ray Williams Jr. demon-
strated Monday that he still has some fuel in his 53-year-old tank,
taking the eight-game qualifying lead in the Professional Bowlers
Association’s Chameleon Championship at South Point Bowling
Center.
In the third of four ―animal pattern‖ championships that make
up the qualifying portion of the PBA World Championship, the all-
time PBA Tour titles leader with 47 career victories averaged
240.63 behind remarkably consistent games of 234, 245, 236,
247, 242, 258, 213 and 250 for a total of 1,925 pins to lead the
16 players who advanced to Monday night’s six-game semifinal
round.
Two pins behind Williams was Denmark’s Mik Stampe. Austra-
lia’s Jason Belmonte was one pin behind Stampe.
After the semifinal round, the top four players based on 14
games will advance to Sunday’s ESPN television stepladder
finals. Williams hopes to be among those four.
―After yesterday I was thinking I shouldn’t be bowling here,‖
the PBA Hall of Famer said. ―But today I was able to do what I
like to do – throw it nice and firm, get a good reaction, and I actu-
ally threw the ball pretty well. And I got some pin carry.‖
After a dismal 2011-12 PBA Tour season when he failed to
qualify for a television final for the first time in a PBA-record 26
years, Williams refused to give in to the years of physical abuse
his body has endured in bowling more than 22,000 games in PBA
Tour competition.
―I’d like to think I’m still competitive, but it’s a matter of doing
the right things on the lanes,‖ he said. ―Yesterday (in the Viper
Championship) I didn’t; today I did. I still have to shoot a lot to-
morrow (in the Bowlers Journal Scorpion Championship) to
sneak into top 24 (the match play field for PBA World Champion-
ship is based on 32 games – eight games in each of four ―animal
pattern‖ events), but it’s possible. I figured I needed to be at least
300 over today (he was 325 pins above a 200 average Monday)
and tomorrow, but we’ll see what happens.‖
Williams said he’s well aware of his advancing years, but right
now, coming from the East Coast to the Pacific time zone has
been a bigger pain.
―I’ve been waking up at 3 or 4 a.m. every night. I’m still on
Eastern time,‖ he said, ―so I think I’ll go take a nap.
―I’ve got a few aches and pains,‖ he added. ―(Sunday) night
my shoulder ached, but I woke up this morning and felt fine. It’s
not uncommon. I’ve dealt with that for a long time, not just the
past few years, and it doesn’t seem to affect my play. Actually,
most of my body parts are still pretty decent.‖
With 47 titles, more than $4 million in career earnings and
more PBA records than any player in PBA history, what’s left for
him to accomplish?
―Win another title,‖ he said matter-of-factly. ―Not a Senior Tour
title. A regular one. That would be nice, especially after last year.
That was definitely a negative on my radar.‖
After three rounds of PBA World Championship qualifying,
Sean Rash of Montgomery, Ill., maintained his lead, averaging at
a 241.12 for a 24-game total of 5,787 pins, 60 pins ahead of
Tommy Jones of Simpsonville, S.C. Chris Loschetter of Avon,
Ohio, was third with 5,699.
Complete GEICO WSOB IV coverage is available on the ―live
scoring‖ feature on pba.com, or by watching the action live on
Xtra Frame, PBA’s online bowling channel.
PBA Chameleon Championship
South Point Bowling Center, Las Vegas, Monday
QUALIFYING ROUND (after 8 games; top 16 advanced to six-
game semifinal round Monday night; top four after 14 games
advance to ESPN stepladder finals)
1, Walter Ray Williams Jr., Ocala, Fla., 1,925.
2, Mik Stampe, Denmark, 1,923.
3, Jason Belmonte, Australia, 1,922.
4, Scott Norton, Costa Mesa, Calif., 1,906.
(Continued on page 15)
Ageless Williams, attorney Norton, Bahrain’s Abdulla advance to
championship round
LAS VEGAS – Australian two-handed star Jason Belmonte,
ageless Walter Ray Williams Jr. of Ocala, Fla.; California attorney
Scott Norton and Bahrain’s Fawaz Abdulla advanced to the step-
ladder finals of the Professional Bowlers Association’s Chame-
leon Championship at South Point Bowling Center Monday.
In the third of four ―animal pattern‖ championships that make
up the qualifying portion of the PBA World Championship, Bel-
monte posted a 14-game total of 3,462 pins to claim the top berth
in Sunday’s stepladder finals by 29 pins over the 53-year-old
Williams, the all-time leader in PBA Tour titles with 47 victories.
Norton, who won his only title in the 2010 Chameleon Champi-
onship, qualified third with a 3,399 total and Abdulla, the first
player from Bahrain to ever qualify for a PBA television final,
advanced from sixth place in the final game to claim the fourth
spot in the TV field with 3,333.
Belmonte, who won three of his five career PBA Tour titles
during the 2011 PBA World Series of Bowling, made his first
stepladder final in this year’s World Series after finishing 23rd in
the Alka Seltzer Plus Cold Cheetah Championship Saturday and
25 th in the Viper Championship Sunday.
―I like to be on TV and I like to be No. 1,‖ Belmonte said.
―Every day is so different, so you just have to let go of what
happened the day before. I was kind of bummed with the way I
bowled on the Cheetah pattern. The Viper isn’t one of my favor-
ites, but today I came in as though this was the first day of the
tournament, and that’s the way I bowled.
―There was a lot of friction on the lanes today. Everyone
moved in and with my speed and rev rate, it played right into my
game plan. I got off to a great start tonight (278), but in the sec-
ond game, I realized the lanes were changing, so I made a ball
change that worked and I never looked back.‖
Williams, who saw a string of 26 consecutive years with at
least one television appearance end last season, held the lead
through 12 games before Belmonte overtook him. But it was a
great comeback after a less-than-stellar start to the World Series
in the two previous events.
―After yesterday I was thinking I shouldn’t be bowling here,‖ the
PBA Hall of Famer said. ―But today I was able to do what I like to
do – throw it nice and firm, get a good reaction, and I actually
threw the ball pretty well. And I got some pin carry.
―I’d like to think I’m still competitive, but it’s a matter of doing
the right things on the lanes,‖ Williams added. ―Yesterday (in the
(Continued on page 15)
PBA Player of the Year Rash jumps from
30th to first in PBA World Championship
qualifying race
LAS VEGAS – Brad Angelo of Lock-
port, N.Y., rolled a 279 final game Sunday
to win the top berth in the Professional
Bowlers Association’s Viper Championship
stepladder finals during the GEICO PBA
World Series of Bowling at South Point
Bowling Center.
Angelo, who won his only PBA Tour title
in the 2008 Pepsi Viper Championship,
bowled games of 236, 258, 199, 227, 236
and 279 during the six-game semifinal
round to finish the day with a 14-game
total of 3,344 pins to top the field of four
players who will compete for the Viper
Championship title in the ESPN stepladder
finals on Saturday, Nov. 10, at 4 p.m. at
South Point’s Exhibition Hall area. The
Viper Championship will air on ESPN on
Sunday, Dec. 23.
He will be joined in the Viper finals by
PBA Player of the Year Sean Rash of
Montgomery, Ill., 3,326; Finnish native
Mika Koivuniemi of Hartland, Mich., 3,283,
and Mike Fagan of Dallas, 3,267. Fagan
held on to win the fourth spot in the finals
by one pin over Scott Norton of Costa
Mesa, Calif.
― I’ve been executing well for the last few
years, but getting that little half-pocket
strike to keep a string going hasn’t been
there,‖ Angelo said. ―At this level, if you
don’t get those strikes, you can’t compete.
And today, I got some of those. I don’t
know what it was, but the chips fell.
―If you don’t have speed and rev rate in
today’s world, you can’t keep up. My little
trick has been a slow float and still being
able to get the ball through the pins. When
I can do that, I’m pretty tough to beat.
That’s my uniqueness, and it hasn’t been
there for me lately. But to be the leader?
You can’t beat that.‖
Earlier Sunday, Rash, the reigning PBA
Player of the Year, posted an eight-game
qualifying total of 2,035 pins to advance
from 30th place after Saturday’s Cheetah
(Continued on page 15)
Indiana veteran averages 25x to earn top
berth for Cheetah Championship steplad-
der finals
LAS VEGAS – Four-time Professional
Bowlers Association title winner Mike
Wolfe of New Albany, Ind., averaged 253
for 14 games to earn the top berth in the
Alka Seltzer Plus Cold Cheetah Champi-
onship stepladder finals, the opening
event of the GEICO PBA World Series of
Bowling, at South Point Bowling Center
Saturday.
Wolfe, a 36-year-old 12-year PBA Tour
veteran who is seeking his first PBA Tour
title in four years, rolled games of 233,
269, 268, 289, 227 and 247 in front of a
packed crowd at South Point Saturday
night to finish the Cheetah Championship
qualifying and semifinal rounds with a 14-
game total of 3,550 pins. He will be joined
in the ESPN stepladder finals by Jeffrey
Roche of Dearborn, Mich.; qualifying
leader Chris Loschetter of Avon, Ohio, and
three-time PBA Tour titlist Bill O’Neill of
Langhorne, Pa.
Roche, who will make his ESPN debut,
finished second with 3,499 pins. Loschet-
ter, a 10-year veteran who also is trying for
his first title, qualified third with a 3,478
total. O’Neill charged out of 16th place at
the start of the six-game semifinal round to
earn the fourth spot in the finals with a
3,477 total.
The ESPN stepladder finals which will
be conducted on Saturday, Nov. 10, at 1
p.m. in the special arena setting in South
Point’s Exhibition Hall area for delayed
telecast on Sunday, Dec. 16.
Wolfe, who won his last title in the 2008
Ultimate Scoring Championship in Taylor,
Mich., said a look into the past helped him
get back on top of his game.
― I went back to a lot of things I did in
2004 and that was be myself, not try to
bowl like other guys,‖ he said. ―I told my-
self to just do what got you here and
bowl.‖
Wolfe said he had been trying for a
couple of years to change his ball tilt,
trying to get his thumb out of the ball faster
―and turns out I couldn’t hold onto the
ball.‖
On the Cheetah lane condition,
―Everyone has a chance,‖ he said, ―so you
have to pay attention to the ball motion
and throw strikes, and I was able to do
that pretty well today.‖
PBA fans can follow scoring as it hap-
pens by clicking on the ―live scoring‖ fea-
ture on pba.com, or by watching the action
live on Xtra Frame, PBA’s online bowling
channel.
PBA Alka Seltzer Plus Cold Cheetah
(Continued on page 15)
Wolfe Tops Cheetah Field in GEICO PBA World Series of
Bowling IV Opener
Australia’s Belmonte Paces Field for PBA Chameleon
Championship Finals
New York’s Angelo Wins No. 1 Berth In
PBA Viper Championship Finals