Salt River Lanes hosted the first annual Chesterfield Open on February 17-18 and it was quite the inaugural event. Even with a major college tournament in Indianapolis and divisional contests in the high school bowling keeping some bowlers away, a field of 79 bowlers challenged themselves on the very tough conditions at Salt River Lanes. The oil pattern was different than what many of the bowlers had seen in recent past as a very long and heavy oil had many bowlers, especially the Canadians, thinking this resembled curling and not bowling. However, there were a couple of bowlers who had it figured out and scored well in the eight qualifying games.

Kevin Madajczyk II (Clay Twp., MI) led the boys qualifying by shooting 1702 but right on his heels was Nathan Block (Bay City, MI) who, even after shooting a 102 to start with, was at 1701. Five other bowlers finished their eight games at plus, 1600 or better, on the guys side with the final qualifying spot for the match play session on Sunday falling all the way down to 1451. Jennifer Churchill (Windsor, Ont) led the girl’s side by shooting 1544 while local favorite, 13 year old Sarah Lokker (New Baltimore, MI), was the final qualifier at 1407.

The ladies match play was very close as second and third position went back and forth all day and was decided by 15 pins after 14 games bowled. Jennifer Besana (Scarborough, Ont) finished fourth and bowled 7 time MJMA winner Christine Bator (Warren, MI) in the first step ladder finals match and found out why Bator has won so many times. Bator started striking early and often and pulled away to a 222-187 win and advanced to the semi-finals against Bethan McGeary (New Kensington, PA). McGeary has won twice this year already and was looking to stop Bator’s run as she has won the last two MJMA events. However, Bator’s hot hand continued as she posted a 219-202 win and advance to the finals against Churchill.

Churchill, is second on the ladies side with 5 MJMA tournament wins so being in this position was not strange for either bowler. The final game went back and forth the whole way but when Bator filled the tenth with a spare and a strike, Churchill needed only to mark in her tenth to take home the title. Churchill had the ball slide a bit and left the 2-4-5 and only converted two of the three to give the victory to Bator 192-190.

The guy’s side was no less exciting as Josh Powers (Portage, MI) who finished as the fourth place qualifier looked like he was ready to match Bator’s feat and run the ladder. In the first match Powers faced off against John Kelley (Sterling Heights, MI) who has 5 MJMA titles to his credit. This match came down to the tenth frame as Powers held his breath on a spare conversion and then filled the final frame for a 214-202 win.

Powers would next face Cory Hines (Jackson, MI) our number three qualifier. Powers started strong with a three bagger and put Hines in an early hole and just stayed clean until the tenth and defeated Hines 195-147 to advance to the semi-finals. In that match Powers was facing Kevin Madajczyk II who not only was bowling in his first stepladder match but this was his very first time to bowl in the match play portion of the event. Madajczyk II showed no signs of nerves as he and Powers went back and forth all game long. Madajczyk II closed strong with strikes in the 8th, 9th and first ball in the 10th after opening in the 7th to make Powers double in the tenth. Powers though stuffed a solid ten pin and Madajczyk II advanced to his first finals match against Tim Pfeifer (Cranberry Twp., PA).

Pfeifer who has won twice already in MJMA has found the going tough lately as he had gone 0-5 in his last five step ladder matches, so he was very anxious to get this match going. Madajczyk II was making spares early while Pfeifer saw a couple of untimely splits in the 3rd and 6th frames to fall behind but a 5-7 split in the 6th frame by Madajczyk II tightened things up and a four-bagger by Pfiefer in the 7th – 10th frames put the match away and allow Pfeifer to collect his third MJMA title 208-184.

We want to thank the folks at Salt River Lanes as they provided us with everything we could ask for and also contributed $500.00 to the scholarship fund by running bowling ball and 50-50 raffles for a couple of weeks before our arrival. We will look forward to returning there next season for our second event.

Our next event is another first time event to be held at Taylor Lanes in Taylor, Michigan. Erin Dobbins and the rest of the staff at Taylor have hosted many PBA event over the past few years and you know what that means, it means the oil machine has some really fun patterns we can use and we definitely will take advantage of that. With High School bowling being over, we anticipate the event will draw a large crowd so entries will need to be in early. This will also be a double points event so those bowlers who are in the hunt for Bowler-of-the-Year and Rookie-of-the-Year will want to make sure they have a good showing at this event.

We look forward to seeing everyone in Taylor on March 17-18, 2007. For more information, please contact Jerry Tarabek at 616-780-2095.