Upcoming Tournament:
AMF Firebird Lanes Doubles
October 6, 2024

The Bowling By Invitation (BBI) 24 – 25 season kicked off Sunday, August 4th at KingPins Portland for the 1st of 3 doubles tournaments. This is one many bowlers look forward to as we had a full house of 64 teams (128 bowlers) with a waitlist heading into Sunday. Normally our tournaments are capped at 96 bowlers but with a 32-lane house, of course, we were going to take full advantage of the extra lanes. 

First, I want to thank KingPins Portland and the entire staff for all that you did, continue to do for the bowlers and especially for keeping us cool all day long. We look forward to keeping this as our 1st tournament each season. I also want to thank John Huggett with Lovely Tire and Wheel for your continued sponsorship. 

Qualifying scores would vary game to game for some as they brushed off the summer dust. The patience of some was tested with splits and corner pins while others found their groove quickly like they have been bowling all summer. 

In years past predictions would be made before the first ball was scored on what the cut might look like for finals. Larry was always great at tossing out a number but this year it would be anyone’s guess. 

After 5 games of qualifying, the team of Griffin Kinney / Bill Beatty head into finals as top qualifier at +393. The 16th team to make it into the finals was Mike Hage / Tim Hagen at +162 beating long time BBI bowlers Les Dunckel / Wes Farron by 12pins. 

Honorable mentions during qualifying include: 

Nathan Gubele, now of age, for his perfect 300 in game 3 of qualifying. (He was not in the 300 pot) This is the first 300 bowled in qualifying or finals in over 2 years+. Congratulations!

Sami Morris (NWST Director), wanting to match her teammate Nathan Gubele, bowled her personal best game of 299 in game 4. Her 12th ball was gorgeous, but the 10-pin stood strong and did NOT budge. Congratulations Sami! (Side note: Kevin had no clue she was filling frames with strikes. He thought someone picked up a split when we all cheered for her.) 

High Games:  Bill Beatty 279 – GM 1 || Mike Arronson 278 – GM 2 || Jason Krieger – 268 – GM 2

High Series (Games 1-3):  Mike Arronson 749 || Jason Krieger 728 || Brian Ferguson 710 || Steve McGee 681

During the 4 games of finals everyone was focused on not only winning the team series but gaining the crucial 30 points for a team win, especially since everyone is starting at zero (no carryover). Some teams struggled during the longer break while it gave other teams time for a quick refresh. 

After GM1 and a big game by Curt Moody (247), he, and Khris Alexander (537) headed into game 2 as the leaders with Andrew Messinger Sr. / Cory Bayless (520) and Eric Stern / Teebone Marshall (517) just pins away. 

GM2 had the final lead change of the day. Andrew and Cory had a monstrous team game (528 with bonus pins) and never looked back. Griffin and Bill were within range and needed the pins to fall in their favor. Several other teams were still in it to win and just needed that “ONE” big game to move up in the standings. 

Cory struggled some in GM 3 & 4, but Andrew did not let up, stayed solid tossing out two more great scores (252 & 225) to secure the “W”.

Congratulations to the team of Andrew Messinger Sr. and Cory Bayless for your BBI Doubles win at KingPins Portland. For each of them, this is their first BBI win. 

Big thanks to Sean Daniels for staying late, helping me move away from hand scoring finals by setting up our finals on Tournamentbowl.com.  Your help and patience are appreciated not only by me as the TD but the BBI bowlers!! This will help moving between qualifying and finals faster once I am up to speed. Plus allow everyone to keep track of their favorite bowler / team in real time. 

Special thanks to Char Moody for helping with bracket entries, Hannah Wools for coming in on her day off to help with scores (and letting me hangout with Bean) 

Our next tournament will be a singles tournament on September 1, 2024, at MT Hood Lanes. 

I look forward to seeing everyone September 1st

Debbie