Tamuning, Guam – Ray Manibusan continued his winning ways following up his victory in the Guam Senior Bowlers Annual Championship with the March Senior Bowler of the Month. Just like in the championship game he shrugged off an open in the first frame and scored 7 seven strikes to go along with a solid spare game to beat Nestor Valencia 220-187 (+8 handicap) for his second straight title I less than a month.
Manibusan led after the 6 game qualifying rounds to enter the shoot-out playoff for the championship.
10th seed Yong Kim opened the shootout nipping 8th seed Mary Pangelinan and 6th seed Rudy Palaganas in one bracket. The other bracket was Valencia’s opening run getting past 9th seed Bal Perez and 5th seed Ruben Torres.
[Photo: L-R Champion Ray Manibusan and Runner Up Nestor Valencia. Photo courtesy of Guam Bowling Congress.]
In the quarterfinals, Kim continued by beating 3rd seed Joe Mafnas 194-184 (+25 handicap) while Valencia romped over 4th seed Jim Pinaula 240-172 (+17 handicap). The semi-finals saw Manibusan ending Kim’s challenge 198-176 (+8 handicap) while Valencia upset January and February’s champion Manny Tagle.
Having to go through upsetting former champions Pinaula and Tagle back-to-back took a lot out of Valencia who now faced Manibusan. But the strikes stopped and coupled with two open frames, Valencia saw that Manibusan took advantage of the bye rounds waiting to bowl in the semi-finals to hone his game and eventually win the title.
The next contest in this year’s senior bowling calendar will be the Guam Senior Bowlers Federation 5th qualifying round for the 2014 ASBC Tournament on March 30th at Central Lanes at 10:00 A.M. The ASBC tournament will be held later this November in the Philippines.
Article from a press release.
