Back to bowling

Tenpin bowling was one of my first sports. It was actually the sport where I learned I was left-handed. It was also the only sport I played with my Mom, whose first death anniversary we will be commemorating in a couple of weeks. Some of the places we played at no longer exist, and of course, I went on to other sports, most known of all being basketball. Also, arthritis eventually took bowling away from Mommy, as well.

It was with great pleasure and some poignancy that I accepted the job of hosting the Bowling World Cup National Finals yesterday at the SM North EDSA bowling center. It was great to reconnect with old friends, and go back to a sport I first fell in love with as a kid.

Technology had standardized a lot in bowling, especially the lanes. But it will still take a lot of work for it to become a full Olympic medal sport, probably because there are too many variables. But that hasn’t stopped many young people from rising up the ranks and becoming world-beaters at it.

Perhaps the one constant all this time has been Paeng Nepomuceno, now the only non-American reaching Gold status as a certifier of bowling coaches, another achievement he has added to his four World Cups and three Guinness world records.

After a full week of grueling eliminations, the top eight men and top eight women bowlers had to go through another wringer of eight games to determining the top three who would bowl for the right to represent the country in the 48th World Cup in Wroclaw, Poland in November. With their pinfall totals carried over, the leaders had an advantage. Still, it was not going to be easy, not by any stretch of the imagination.

The men’s eliminations started on Sept. 15, the women’s the following day. After the entire elimination process was over, RJ Bautista emerged the men’s leader with a 32-game series total of 7,051 pinfalls. In the women’s division, veteran Liza del Rosario finished with a reasonable lead over her nearest competitor at 5,964. The second- and third-ranked bowlers would play a best-of-three. The winners would face the top seeds in a similar process to determine the Philippine champions.

In the men’s division, that turned out to be Chester King, who won four golds in the Asian Tenpin Bowling Championships. But RJ was literally on a roll. The 1995 World Cup representative of the Philippines threw a monstrous first game of 280, 11 strikes with only a spare in the second frame. King churned out a respectable 195. In the second game, Bautista and King both left the eighth frame open, but Bautista had a slim lead and finished strong, 222-195. As of this writing, Liza del Rosario had fallen behind current national youth champion Krizziah Tabora, but had forced a deciding third game. Tabora held sway, to earn the right to go to Poland.

Ironically, one of the most popular sports played in the Philippines had a small but active crowd cheering the competitors on. In fact, this writer was the only sports media member present. Should they place in Poland, perhaps the cheering will be louder. At least my memories were brought back to life.