Fast Lane

The tenth annual New South Wales Country Championships concluded at the Orange Tenpin Bowl last weekend and were a major success, attracting 798 entries over the two weekends of bowling.

Bowlers were treated to excellent lane conditions with some huge scores recorded, including nine new records, all by Orange bowlers.

Orange bowlers really excelled, winning 27 events against some top-flight competition from around the state, with players coming from Sydney, Newcastle, Canberra, Nowra and Port Macquarie.

There are a lot of results to get through and space would unfortunately prevent a comprehensive coverage in this column. To give everyone their fifteen minutes of glory we'll look at the individual events - singles and all events plus the prestigious Open County Masters this week and the doubles, mixed doubles, teams, mixed teams and Restricted Country Masters next week.

Orange's two Jasons, Brown and Belmonte dominated the men's events.

Brown shot a brilliant 707 series to win the open singles ahead of Willy Hoole (Sydney) 698 and Phil Brinkley (Newcastle) 688. In a high scoring event, a total of eleven players rolled 600 or above including Jason Belmonte 655, Mark Loader 653 and Michael Esler 652.

Belmonte broke the open all events record with a slashing 1966 nine game effort and he needed almost every pin with Hoole a close second with an equally impressive 1960 tally.

Lane conditions were certainly favourable as eight players cracked 1800 (200 average) including Orange's Steve Reil 1888, Mark Lijic 1826 and Ken Wiseman 1802 as well as out-of-towners Phil Brinkley 1866, Michael Esler 1820 and Mark Loader 1818.

Orange's Lyn Handel captured the women's open singles with a 607 series ahead of Bonnea Wiseman (Orange) with 600 and Sydney's Aila Leo.

Wiseman won the open all events with a 1710 series ahead of fellow Orange bowlers June Reil, Lyn Handel and Sharon Trudgett.

Orange's Michael Moorby scored a great win in the B grade all events with his 1704 series almost 200 pins clear of Adam Scard (Sydney) who won the B grade singles with 564 series. Frank McGovern of Orange finished second in the singles with Moorby third. Ron Langham was third in all events.

12 year old local junior Rebecca Belmonte scored a brilliant win in B grade all events with a record 1548 tally ahead of Kerrie Lees and another local junior Renae Caltabiano.

Kevin Aurisch won both the singles and all events in C grade, shooting 484 in singles to edge other locals Gary Johnson and Grant Huggett. Johnson, on the comeback trail after a two-year absence also finished second in all events while Daniel Brand (Sydney) was third.

Emulating her husband, Kath Aurisch won the women's C grade singles with a 474 series ahead of Rachael Jennings and Marg Rapley (Orange).

Orange's Jenny Rout won the D grade singles.

The men's A grade was one area not dominated by Orange bowlers with the singles going to John Barrett 604 ahead of Ray Solway 590 and the all events being won by Michael McKenzie1757 from Barrett and Steve Tiene.

Other wins for the visitors came in the women's division. Nowra's Betty Burns won the A singles with a nice 580 series from Lesley Gardner and Tracey Symons while she also took the all events crown from Melanie Brown (Orange) and Robyn Venables (Nowra).

Margaret Patterson (Nowra) won the C grade all events from Kerrie Gillard and Sue Hornsby while Wendy Hamilton (Nowra) won the all events ahead of Kerrie Lees and Jan Peters (Orange).

Orange junior sensation Jason Belmonte added his first major open singles event to his list of honours with an emphatic win in the Country Masters.

Rolling games of 258-231-209-228-200-258-229 in the final, Belmonte averaged 215 for ten games to head the 16 man field, finishing in front of Steve Tiene (Port Macquarie), Mark Lijic (Orange), Michael Esler (Sydney) and Willy Hoole (Sydney). Just missing the stepladder cut were Orange bowlers Ken Wiseman and Steve Reil who both averaged 196. Tiene rolled a tournament high 282 game.

In the first stepladder elimination match, Hoole beat Esler, although the score wasn't provided. Hoole then took on Mark Lijic in a great match, going down 209-234.

Lijic couldn't repeat that effort against Steve Tiene with the Port Macquarie junior winning 209-173.

That set up the clash with Belmonte who a tight match 203-199. Belmonte got on top early with an opening turkey before Tiene recovered from an early open with a fighting four-bagger before a costly open in the eighth frame. Belmonte stayed clean and claimed his most important title to date.

Canberra eighteen-year-old Kelly Dedassel won the women's open Country Masters after topping the averages with a206 mark and surviving a repercharge playoff with Orange's June Reil.

Dual 300 shooter Reil also averaged 206 in the qualifying stage, finishing with a flourish with games of 215-263. Dedassel started well with 210-246-224 and had a nice finish as well with 256-200.

Rounding out the top five were Dianne Gee, Bonnea Wiseman and junior Maree Caltabiano all from Orange.

In the first match the bubbly Caltabiano proved too strong for her senior rival, Bonnea Wiseman, winning 185-153. Caltabiano really got lined up in her next match, rolling seven strikes in her last eight shots to shut out Dianne Gee 227-182.

The next match was a real cliff-hanger as both players struggled for strikes, It came down to a spare shooting contest with June Reil scraping home 180-178.

Reil picked up in the final and beat Dedassel 208-198. It was another absorbing contest with Dedassel fighting back from an early deficit with a four bagger before a ninth frame miss proved her undoing.

In the nervous repercharge match, the Canberra junior made amends and took the title 182-165.

Orange junior Rebecca Belmonte scored a great win in the recent Restricted New South Wales Country Masters held at the Orange Tenpin Bowl while Sydney's Ron Langham won the men's division, upsetting top qualifier Gary Johnson from Orange.

Belmonte outpaced the field in the qualifying round, posting an impressive 172 average for her ten games to finish ahead of four other local players in fellow junior Bindy Irwin (164 average), Marie Rosser, Brigitte Eden and Jan Peters. Just missing the playoffs was another local junior Renae Caltabiano.

In the first stepladder game, Brigitte Eden just couldn't get going and Jan Peters made short work of the match, winning 164-117. The next match was a real nail-biter as peters came up against Marie Peters. The match was extremely tight with a single pin separating the players from the fourth frame. Both players left the final frame open as Peters eked out a 148-147 win.

Bindy Irwin got off to a hot start in the next match, three early strikes propelling her to a handy 44 pin lead after four games. Peters fought back well with two doubles in he last half of the match but just couldn�t catch her junior rival, with Irwin holding on 153-146.

Irwin and Rebecca Belmonte then put on another memorable match with Irwin getting out to an early lead and winning 168-165. Belmonte had the right to a repercharge and made no mistakes the second time, sprinting to a handy lead early and coasting homer 164-121.

The comeback kid, Gary Johnson looked like pulling off a memorable victory after leading the qualifiers with a 173 average, finishing 30 pins and more clear of four Sydney bowlers in Ron Langham, Daniel Brand, Adam Scard and Scott Allen.

In the first stepladder match Adam Scard looked the goods, punishing Scott Allen 205-165, boosted by a mid game four bagger. Scard couldn't reproduce the effort in his next match and Daniel Brand was too good winning 166-137.

Brand didn't last long either with Ron Langham turning up the heat after opening the first frame. He then piled on a turkey and a late double to win 215-184.

Langham then faced the nervous top qualifier, beating Gary Johnson comfortably 190-143, an opening turkey putting Johnson under pressure right from the start.

Langham started the repercharge with a double to go to an immediate lead and Johnson had no answers, going down 149-190.

Mark Lijic and Steve Reil were in sensational form in their open doubles attempt in the recent New South Wales Country Championships, firing a championships and Orange centre record of 1396.

Reil was brilliant, shooting a blistering 279-267 in his first two games before a solid 214 final game gave him a great 760 block. He had 28 strikes from 35 shots.

Lijic started slowly with a 178 game but came back strongly to post 225-233 for a 636 trio.

Orange's Mick Moorby and Bob Waddell were also in a record breaking mood, setting a new mark in the A grade doubles with an 1183 series to beat Ken Wiseman and Clive Brand.

Restricted Masters champion Ron Langham teamed with Michael McKenzie to win the B doubles with 1132, again relegating Gary Johnson into second position with his partner John Rapley.

Daniel Brand and Adam Scard won C grade with 1034.

The women's doubles saw a win to Orange's Gwen Britt and Bonnea Wiseman in open division ahead of Melanie Brown and Masters champion Kelly DeDassel.

Sisters Renae and Maree Caltabiano from Orange scored a good win in A grade with 1093 while another local junior pairing in Bindy Irwin and Rebecca Belmonte, the top two finishers in the Restricted Masters won B grade with a 983 series.

Margaret Patterson and Gail William rolled 894 to win C grade.

In the Mixed Doubles, Orange's Jason Brown teamed with Canberra's Kelly DeDassel to shoot a record 1301 series in the open division, finishing ahead of Orange's June and Steve Reil who also beat the previous record with 1254.

Winners of the other three grades were all from Orange and included Rebecca and Aldo Belmonte (A grade), Frank McGovern and Brigitte Eden with a record 1058 in B grade and Kathy and Kevin Aurisch in C grade.

Winners in the men's team events were Tony Richards, Mark Lijic, Jason Belmonte and Steve Reil (Orange) with a record 2561 in open and juniors Greg Perry, Jason Belmonte, Tim Irwin and Joel Wiseman with 2235 in A grade.

Ron Langham, Scott Allen, Ian Wilby and Michael McKenzie scored a victory in B grade.

Marisa Belmonte proved a valuable team player as she featured as part of the winning teams in both open and A grade. Her open grade partners were Karen Sharp, Maree Brown and Dianne Gee who shot 1898. They were well and truly out-bowled by the A grade team that included Marg Rapley, Sharon Trudgett and June Reil who fired a record tally of 2126.

B grade went to Margaret Patterson, Adrienne Williams, Betty Burns and Dawn Smith from Nowra while their compatriots also took C grade. Members of that team were Elaine Eimer, Kay Lawless, Christina Southwell and Mavis Camlin.

Orange junior Melanie Brown and Country Masters champion Kelly DeDassel were part of the winning open and A grade mixed teams. Their open partners were Mark Loader and Willy Hoole while the other A graders were Greg Kelly and Tony Luvianiou.

The mixed B grade teams event went to Ray Solway, Jan Skinner, Coral Cavey and Ray Joyce while Andrew Dinnie, Kerrie Gallard, Eunice McGuire and Bob Richards won C grade.

Jason Brown was in excellent form in league play as well as the Country Championships during the past week.

In the Thursday Singles, "Chuck" fired games of 247-200-255 for a 702 series then added 241 in his next game for a hot 943 series.

Others to rate a mention in that league included Chris Collins 213-205, David Rosser 234-244, Ken Wiseman 212-221-201, Jim Dullaway 216, Ken Perry 203, Frank McGovern 201 and Michael Moorby 200.

In the earlier 7:30 league high games were achieved by Les Gunner 221, Barry Rosser 212, David Rosser 212, Allan Collins 201, Wally Price 202-205, Greg Perry 235-202-232 (669), Will Harvey 213 and Chris Collins 243.

Craig Perry shot a 223 game in the Friday 10am league while Tracey Dwyer rolled a personal best 188 game. In the Monday 10am Triples Judy Louie shot a six bagger on the way to a nice 240 game.

The Golden Oldies saw high games go to Vince Mastronardi 208 and Marie Rosser 205.

The Friday Triples produced it's usual number of high scores including four 600 series. The best of those was bowled by Jason Belmonte with 230-239 (653) ahead of Warren Handel 208-222 (614), Mario Mastronardi 216 (606) and Mark Lijic 216 (604).

High games were also bowled by Lyn Handel 205, Tony Irwin 210, Michael Moorby 200, Henry Phillips 208, Steve Reil 234 and Ray Tyquin 222.

The first round of the South-West zone Country Challenge will be held at the Tuggeranong Bowl in Canberra this weekend with Orange represented by the following players:

Orange Bowl is hosting the annual Valentines Day Scotch Doubles tournament tomorrow with a large field expected with a number of teams from the Penrith Travel Club competing.

Prizes include a Getaway Holiday package, dinner for two at the Overlander restaurant, silver goblets and champagne.

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