Fast Lane
story first published in the Central Western Daily, Saturday 29 February, 1996
Despite an anti-climactic stepladder final match, Terry Wenban again proved his liking for the Orange lanes when he captured his fourth Orange Open title in the past five years at the Tenpin Bowl last weekend.
Wenban, who won the Open in consecutive years from 1992-94 and who finished third last year, moved from fifth after Saturday's qualifying round to first place on the stepladder seedings with a sizzling display on Sunday.
He averaged 214 after the 22 game preliminaries, boosted by a monstrous 1005 block on Sunday.
After starting with a moderate 185 effort, Wenban caught on fire with games of 258-267-257 for a sensational 782 block then tacked on a 223 for a 1005 four game tally, not far off Jason Doust's centre record of 1015.
For good measure he then added a 238 game for a five game tally of 1243, also just 10 pins short of the centre record.
For that series of games Wenban pounded the pocket mercilessly and if not for the odd stubborn ten pin could have shot anything.
The Orange Open was another success story, attracting some of Australia's very best bowlers, including numerous national and state representatives and both the number one ranked male and female bowlers in the country.
The top five stepladder started with state rep Mark Donaldson facing world FIQ gold medalist Sharon McLeish.
The stylish McLeish made short work of that match, cruising to a great 249-170 victory that included nine strikes.
McLeish looked in charge early in the next game against last year's runner-up, and overnight leader, Chris Batson. However, an open frame from McLeish midway gave Batson the opening he needed and he threw a four bagger to win 221-190.
Batson was again in trouble against Australia's number one ranked bowler, Victorian Ian Bradford who fired an early turkey at him.
After a spare/strike in the next two frames Bradford lost the line and while he settled for spares, Batson reeled off a late five bagger to win 224-202.
Bradford was consistent during qualifying but wasn't able to string the strikes and rack up the big numbers like Wenban.
In the final match, which was a major disappointment, both players struggled to hit the pocket and Wenban eked out a 150-138 victory, with two missed tenpins and an unlucky 7-10 split proving Batson's downfall.
Batson had earlier in the day thrilled the large group of spectators with a conversion of the 7-10.
He led the qualifying on Saturday but struggled bowling an inside line on Sunday and it wasn't until a move to an outside line and a brilliant 280 that he was back in the hunt.
While he was obviously disappointed, finishing second in consecutive years is a good effort.
Orange finished up with only three participants with the withdrawal of Steve Smith leaving only Peter Brown, Ken Ashton and Val Irwin to do battle.
Brown struggled into 32nd spot after the first 12 games, barely making the cut, then improved his position to 23rd with some good games on Sunday, overall averaging 184 for 18 games which is well below his best.
Ken Ashton again failed to live up to his ability and finished 30th with a 179 average.
Val Irwin was overawed in her first appearance in the big-time, and rolled below her best to average 164 to wind up in 57th.
Former Orange bowler Laurie Hitman, now from Gosford, had an even tougher time finishing in 60th place.
Rounding out the top ten were Newcastle's Robert Thompson who finished sixth for the second time in the Orange Open. Next were Don McRae, Steve Hall, Andrew Frawley and Shaun Cummings.
Frawley, a former South Pacific round winner at Orange, bowled well on Saturday to be second but just couldn't get things going on Sunday and fell back to 9th.
Just missing the cut to the top ten was Sam Romeo, whose eleventh placing was his worst ever finish in an Orange Open. The 1986 champion had previously not finished lower than sixth in six attempts.
Fred Allsopp was also close up in 12th as was Amanda Bradley in 13th.
Other well known bowlers were Cheryl Munson (15th), Terry Maher (20th), Ann Maree Putney (21st), Sue Cassell (29th) and Danielle McAdam (40th) while Ian Baker, 4th over the past two years, finished 41st.
Defending champion Steve Lovell had a horror time and averaged just 167 to finish well back in 49th spot.
Saturday saw the participants roll a dozen games in qualifying with the top 32 players returning for another six games on Sunday.
At that stage the field was cut to the top ten who rolled an extra four games to decide the top for to take part in the finals.
Special thanks to tournament sponsors in the Mid City Motor Lodge, Central West Trophies, All State Foods, Coca Cola, Brunswick and the Orange Bowl plus WIN television and the Central Western Daily for their coverage of the event.
There's plenty of other top flight events over the next couple of months where many of the Orange Open competitors will be lining up.
Upcoming tournaments include the C.T.B.A.M. Melbourne Masters at Mooroolbark next weekend, the Elka Newcastle Cup at Mayfield on March 16-17 and the Australian tenpin Cup at Sunshine on the easter weekend.
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Junior bowlers take centre stage this weekend with the running of the Orange Junior Masters.
Jason Belmonte will be back to defend his Open title and will start favourite ahead of Jason Brown.
Rhearne Trudgett is defending champion in the girls' division and should prove tough to beat.
Former Masters champion Karen Brown is keen to add another title to her resume in the final year of eligibly as a junior while Melanie Brown faces a tough task as she makes the step up from the graded division.
Bowlers receive a shirt and trophy as well as entry into the New South Wales State Masters.
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This week's star bowler was John Piper who was in devastating form in the Sunday Sabbath league where he rolled an impressive 25
252 game, naturally a personal best.
Just missing the honour this week was Judy Louie who fired a personal best 251 game in the Wednesday 10am Midstate league.
Garry Evers rolled a 224, also a personal best achievement in the same league.
Bob Taylor notched up an even 200 game in the Sabbath league while
in the Alpine Pharmacy Doubles earlier that night Steve Winkler bowled a 205 game.
Katrina Gosper has shown remarkable improvement over the past few months following some coaching and came up with a personal best 203 game in the Monday 6.30 league.
Pam Cameron-Stephen rolled an excellent 221 in the Tony leahey Ford Monday Triples while Marilyn Schwenke shot a 210 and Judy Louie a 203.
The Autostyle Wednesday Doubles produced its usual share of top games including an excellent 224 from Dianne Hazzard. Others to shine included the new king of the gutters John Cooney 204 plus Wal Price 206, Karen Sharp 202, Ian Hazzard 208-201 and as always Len Richards with a nice 212.
In the Wednesday 7.30 league the under-rated Al Collins rolled a fine 227 game ahead of Tony Bloomfield 200, Jason Osborne 203 and John Baker 203.
Uli Moes had plenty to smile about when he picked up a $100 casino jackpot in that league.
Top efforts from the juniors included Brett Condliffe 152 and Kenny Davis 153 while both those players recorded their first turkeys.
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Don't forget to pick up your free copy of the latest "Strikeout" newspaper which arrived a couple of days ago.