PBA Chameleon Championships finals filled with drama
November 23, 2009
One thing no one will be able to say about the final round of the 2009 PBA Chameleon Championship is that it was boring.
In the opening match for the Women's Series portion of the event Team USA Member Shannon Pluhowsky defeated an aggravated USBC Hall of Famer Carolyn Dorin-Ballard 268-201 for the title. Battling a brutal lane condition throughout the match that forced Pluhowsky to use a different ball on each lane, Dorin-Ballard did not hit right of the headpin until the 5th frame and left two 5-pins, becoming visibly frustrated in her effort to make history as the only bowler to win titles in all three Women's Series seasons.
But the drama had only just begun, as PBA Hall of Famer Amleto Monacelli, who had not bowled in ten days and visited doctors and therapists for severe tendonitis that prohibited him from bowling the 2009 PBA World Championships, came out for his match against Bill O'Neill in obvious pain, holding his bandaged arm as he sat between shots.
"Every shot I threw hurt like you have no idea," Monacelli said after a dismal defeat at the hands of O'Neill, 170-142. Monacelli still plans to bowl open events later on the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour Schedule for the 2009-2010 season, and will have plenty of time to heal between now and next month when PBA Tour action resumes in Wichita for the Pepsi Red, White and Blue Open presented by the United States Bowling Congress.
In another grueling match replete with open frames and battles against a difficult Chameleon shot, Sean Rash committed one of the most stunning mental errors in recent PBA finals memory when, after throwing his first strike in the tenth frame, he whiffed the 3-6-9-10 completely, leaving opponent Ronnie Russell in need of just 8 pins to secure a victory despite starting the match with two consecutive open frames. Still, though, Russell took the hard path to victory, leaving a baby split on his first ball of the tenth and getting one pin for a narrow 172-170 win.
Scores remained low in the championship match as Bill O'Neill once again found himself in position to attain his first PBA title after coming up short on the first 8 telecast appearances of his career, including his loss to Chris Barnes in the semifinal match of the 2009 PBA Motor City Open. Throwing just three strikes in the first 9 frames as Russell once again struggled through two open frames of his own, O'Neill needed 18 pins in the tenth to secure the title, and demonstrated why he ranks as one of the tour's hottest stars. O'Neill struck out for a 205, the only 200 game bowled by any of the men on the show.
Visibly relieved upon winning the first PBA title of his career, O'Neill joins Norm Duke, Walter Ray Williams and Rhino Page as a World Series of Bowling Champion and an exempt player for the 2010-2011 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour season.
In the opening match for the Women's Series portion of the event Team USA Member Shannon Pluhowsky defeated an aggravated USBC Hall of Famer Carolyn Dorin-Ballard 268-201 for the title. Battling a brutal lane condition throughout the match that forced Pluhowsky to use a different ball on each lane, Dorin-Ballard did not hit right of the headpin until the 5th frame and left two 5-pins, becoming visibly frustrated in her effort to make history as the only bowler to win titles in all three Women's Series seasons.
But the drama had only just begun, as PBA Hall of Famer Amleto Monacelli, who had not bowled in ten days and visited doctors and therapists for severe tendonitis that prohibited him from bowling the 2009 PBA World Championships, came out for his match against Bill O'Neill in obvious pain, holding his bandaged arm as he sat between shots.
"Every shot I threw hurt like you have no idea," Monacelli said after a dismal defeat at the hands of O'Neill, 170-142. Monacelli still plans to bowl open events later on the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour Schedule for the 2009-2010 season, and will have plenty of time to heal between now and next month when PBA Tour action resumes in Wichita for the Pepsi Red, White and Blue Open presented by the United States Bowling Congress.
In another grueling match replete with open frames and battles against a difficult Chameleon shot, Sean Rash committed one of the most stunning mental errors in recent PBA finals memory when, after throwing his first strike in the tenth frame, he whiffed the 3-6-9-10 completely, leaving opponent Ronnie Russell in need of just 8 pins to secure a victory despite starting the match with two consecutive open frames. Still, though, Russell took the hard path to victory, leaving a baby split on his first ball of the tenth and getting one pin for a narrow 172-170 win.
Scores remained low in the championship match as Bill O'Neill once again found himself in position to attain his first PBA title after coming up short on the first 8 telecast appearances of his career, including his loss to Chris Barnes in the semifinal match of the 2009 PBA Motor City Open. Throwing just three strikes in the first 9 frames as Russell once again struggled through two open frames of his own, O'Neill needed 18 pins in the tenth to secure the title, and demonstrated why he ranks as one of the tour's hottest stars. O'Neill struck out for a 205, the only 200 game bowled by any of the men on the show.
Visibly relieved upon winning the first PBA title of his career, O'Neill joins Norm Duke, Walter Ray Williams and Rhino Page as a World Series of Bowling Champion and an exempt player for the 2010-2011 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour season.