Deadline for YABA youth tournament weeks away

By Staff
Mike Carson / bowling columnist
March 4, 2003
The deadline for area youth bowlers to enter the 40th Annual YABA City Tournament is now just a few weeks away.
The local YABA association would like to encourage all of our youth to participate in this annual event.
The tournament is slated for March 29-30. Singles and Doubles will be bowled Saturday at 10 a.m. The Team Event will be bowled Sunday at 1:30 p.m.
Activities will include a banquet following the team event during which tournament awards will be presented.
Also, all participants will be eligible to win a scholarship. If you would like to register for the scholarship program contact Candy Blackmon, Leon Fike or any director of the YABA association.
Parents, please encourage your children to participate in this tournament. Get together with your children and their coaches and help them form their teams and find partners to bowl doubles with. We need your help to make this tournament a success.
Entry forms are now available for both the Men's State and the Ladies' State tournaments.
As you know, we will be hosting the ladies this year in the months of May and June.
The Board of Directors of the MWBA are seeking your assistance to help make this a successful event.
Any manner of help is greatly appreciated. You may assist in keeping score, making or donating door prizes and assisting those who will be our visitors. Assistance is needed in these and other areas. Contact any member of the Board if you would like to help out.
Guys, your help is also appreciated. If you will recall, last year when we hosted the Men's tournament, a number of our ladies pitched in to help. Now is a time to repay the favor and show your appreciation of the good deeds they have done in the past.
In local league action, many leagues are ending up third round play over the next couple of weeks.
The Dixie Belles league saw the strong J.D. Auto Sales team take the top spot for the third consecutive time this season.
Following league rules, that allowed the second place Randy Harrison team to qualify for the roll-off.
The Structural Steel qualified under similar circumstances in the second round. On Monday night, in the Monday Nighters league, the team Major Payne concluded a strong third round to capture a spot in that league's roll-off.
On the other side of the house, the News Restaurant team bounced back from a dismal performance in round two and come on strong to win their last ten games in a row to edge out United Fence for the third position in the season-ending championship in the Hucklebuck league.
Once again, it was a week of big numbers. Two local bowlers came within one ball of reaching perfection.
However, in both cases nasty splits on the twelfth ball ended their quest. Don Crandell saw a 4-9 stop him in his tracks in the Hucklebuck league while in the Wednesday Night Mixed league Marty McMullen came in just a little high and left the Big Four split to finish with a 296. Don finished the night with a nice 723 and Marty played the Energizer Bunny as he kept going and going and going to record games of 251 and 237 to capture the high series for the week with a strong 784. Other guys cranking out some big numbers included Johnnie Blackmon (729), Milton Hudson (276/704), Ken Miller (275/702) and M.A. Copeland (707). Jim Walker, Ray Pickard, Robert Brown, Billy Priester and Rodney Bounds all recorded games in the 260s.
Denise Rutledge strutted her stuff for the ladies with not one, but two 600 Series. On Tuesday, Denise rolled off a week-high 643 to slip by Sue Kirkpatrick's 640 and then came back Wednesday to fire a 234 en route to a 608.
Sue did get some revenge though by capturing the high game for the week with a 237 and the red hot Lainey Rogers picked up her third consecutive 600 series with a 609 in the Bowlerettes league.
Rounding out the top for the ladies were Cindy Rutledge (236), Cathy Jones (223) and Janie Tisdale (220).
Keep the ball rolling. . . and until next week, good luck and good bowling!