Long Island Summer Bowling Tour!

Port Jefferson NY 

The Long Island Summer Bowling Tour opened it's second season this past friday june 7. 2002 at port jeff bowl almost in an identical fashion in 2001! for the second season in a row, a competing bowler rolled a perfect game. only this time it was an adult. and this time it was worth the price of admission!

Junior scratch division:  

Tom scherrer, Holtsville could not have climbed the ladder to the top  in a more efficient way then he did last friday night. scherrer, for the 4-game qualifier was seeded 4th, 3rd, 2nd and 1st, in order after each game had concluded. he was also the only junior bowler to have 4-200 games, highlighted by a 263 in game 2 and a 259 in game 4. he finished at +147 (236.75) and easily distanced himself from second seed rob pellegrino, northport at +90 (222.50). qualifying in the 3rd and final position was brian smith, lindenhurst at +48 (212.00). 9 pins back, just missing the cut was craig lindahl, port jeff station at +39 (209.75). 

in the semifinal match, pellegrino wasted no time in eliminating smith, defeating him 201-180. that set up the final match with pellegrino squaring off vs scherrer. 

both bowlers were relentless rolling strikes one after another.  but it was pellegrino that would carry the one extra strike he would need and he won the match, 235-226. 

Adult Scratch Division:  

scott cicale, holbrook, set a new 4-game a2Z scratch series total with a blistering 1027 (256.75) 4-game qualifier. highlighting the evening for the night, cicale rolled a 300 in game 3, thus becoming the first bowler to win the 300 game incentive award that A2Z offers. this summer, a2Z has a progressive pot for adults and progressive scholarship fund for junior bowlers. with the initial pot/Fund set up for the adults and juniors at $150.00, and an additional $24.00 for the adult entries for the night, cicale took home a cool $174.00 for the gem.

john ciccaralli, port jeff station was almost as outstanding, qualifying second with a remarkable 1002 (250.50), highlighted by a 266 in game 2. the 3rd and final advancing seed came down to anthony martinez, shoreham and pete bohleber, miller place. when the lights went out after the final balls were thrown, martinez came out on top, 980 (245.00) to bohleber's 978 (244.50). and on to the finals we went. 

martinez, known to many in the bowling community on long island as "Charlie Brown" and ciccaralli came out swinging. matching 4 strikes to open the game, it wasnt until a costly open  by ciccaralli did martinez take control of the match. ciccaralli went solid 10 in frame 7, but missed the conversion and from there martinez was simply not going to let him off the hook. a stubborn 7 pin in frame 5 and a single pin spare on the first ball in the 10th were the only pins martinez would leave standing in the preliminary game. martinez won going away 268-215. the stage was set for cicale and what was now a very hot martinez. 

martinez continued his assault in the final game and left cicale at the starting gate, not once relenting in the process. perhaps waiting in the wings halted any momentum cicale had gathered in the prelims or possibly martinez was just not going to go home in second place. whatever the reason was, martinez hammered cicale 252-191 to take home the title. 

all was not lost for cicale though. he did take home the second place winnings and the $174.00 for the perfect game. he even managed to laugh and smile as both a2Z organizers, steve (A)brams and Ken (Z)agorski threatened him to "not show anymore in future tournaments until the progressive pot hits at least 3-weeks"!

for martinez, who has a reputation of being very confident  and can be intimidating at times, the win came down to execution and precision. "Scott and John both had a Great night, no denying it. We all carried our share of breaks. But you cant rely on breaks to win. You have to throw shots. I felt I had a more direct route to the pocket then the both of them, and I played my angles correctly all night. it raises your percentage of strikes if you can keep the ball where you want it and how the ball enters the pocket. I threw alot of good shots tonight. It feels good to win, no matter where you do it or what it is you won. I really feel good".  

average 250 scratch for 6, and 260 scratch in the finals? it would be hard to argue "CB".  

Adult handicap division: 

Vinny zambito, shirley is dedicated for sure. last year on the LISBT, zambito (along with Benny Wong, Port Jeff station) bowled in every tournament but always came thisclose in qualifying but no cigar was ever lit up. so what does he do this year in week one of the LISBT? he shows up, pays his money and takes to the lanes! it was clear from the get go this past friday night that vinny had a game plan and he was going to stick to it. 

zambito went into the top seed after game 2 (240 scratch) and never looked back. rolling a front 3 of 667 scratch, zambito qualified first with an 846 (211.50 scratch) and a 1022 (255.50 w/handcap). qualifying second was joe nuzzi, farmingdale with 843/987 (210.75/246.75)  and gary lindahl, ridge at 835/975 (208.75/243.75). cashing but not advancing to the finals was brian darcy, setauket 779/959 (194.75/239.75). 

in the preliminary game, nuzzi and lindahl were to stay competitive until late in the game. nuzzi ran into spare trouble in frame 8 and lindahl managed to avoid any problems and defeated nuzzi 229-214 w/hdcp. lindahl to the finals vs zambito. 

zambito appeared to be ready and eager. however, as was the case with scott cicale in the scratch division, waiting in the wings presents problems to some. in addition, there was a slight delay in setting up the overhead monitor for the match, and those few moments may have distracted zambito. when the match started, it was lindahl who set the pace and zambito now appeared to be nervous. lindahl threw strikes and more strikes on top of that and zambito's quest to win the title evaporated into the air. lindahl won the match 272-176 w/hcdp. after the match was over and the payout was taking place, both lindahl and zambito smiled and laughed. a handshake between the two finished the night, but not before zambito promissed "he would be back to finish it the next time". at the end of it all, was benny wong, lending support to vinny. seems the both of em knew something special had just happened. 

Junior hdcp division:  

the youth handicap division a light turnout, however, by the end of the night it proved to be the most exciting. 

matt kingsepp, ridge, just starting out in the game and in tournament bowling, paced the division by averaging 262.25 w/hdcp. derek vandervoort, mastic beach, had a very impressive outing by averaging 213 scratch and 258.50 with handicap. vandervoort rolled an opening 234 scratch and finished the 4-game qualifyer with a 223 scratch. just as impressive but missing the cut by 5 pins was daniel dabkowski, east northport at 1029 w/hdcp. dabkowski rolled a 217 scratch in game 2. 

with two bowlers advancing to the finals, and one game to determine a champion, kingsepp and vandervoort decided to extend the evening.....by one whole game. 

kingsepp and vandervoort tied in regulation at 270 w/hdcp! with a large gap in handicap from one  bowler to the other, a 9th and 10th frame rolloff did not seem appropriate. so tournament directors decided the best thing to do was to roll off in  a second game. both bowlers were warned, another tie game....then a coin flip would determine who was locking up port jeff bowl and who was going home! 

in the second championship game for the two, kingsepp defeated vandervoort 259-207 w/hdcp. no need for a third game. we at a2Z bowling appreciate co-operative junior bowlers! 

great job by all bowlers who competed!   

A total of 43 entries participated in the event. Next on tap? East Islip Lanes, june 14, 2002 9:00 pM!   

Thanx for all the support. 

Standings after Qualifying

Payout