A special “Beauties vs. Beasts” team competition featuring the leading men’s and women’s qualifiers from the 2018 tournament will kick off the 20th anniversary Storm PBA/PWBA Striking Against Breast Cancer Doubles event at Copperfield Bowl in Houston, Texas, on Thursday, July 25, at 4 p.m. CDT.

The five-game Baker format team event will be livestreamed by the PBA’s online partner, FloBowling. The winning team will share in a $5,000 prize pool. The losers will split $1,000.

Bowling with the “Beauties” will be PWBA competitors Erin McCarthy of Omaha; Missy Parkin of Laguna Hills, Calif.; Shannon Pluhowsky of Dayton, Ohio; Verity Crawley of England, and Diandra Asbaty of Chicago. The “Beasts” will be composed of PBA players EJ Tackett of Bluffton, Ind.; Tommy Jones of Simpsonville, S.C.; Darren Tang of San Francisco; AJ Johnson of Oswego, Ill., and Brad Miller of Lee’s Summit, Mo. Miller will replace Jakob Butturff who will be bowling as a member of Team USA in the Pan American Games.

The tournament, commonly known as “The Luci,” began as a fundraiser to combat breast cancer in honor of the late Luci Bonneau by her best friend, Donna Conners, and has evolved into the most prestigious mixed doubles championship event in the sport.

The 2019 event will feature a sold-out field of 160 teams, divided into four squads for seven-game qualifying rounds on Friday and Saturday at 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. CDT each day. The top 40 teams will bowl another five-game qualifying round Sunday at 8:30 a.m., after which the top eight teams will advance to an eight-game round-robin match play final round starting at 12:30. Final standings will be based on total pinfall, including match play bonus pins, for 20 combined doubles games.

The tournament is part of the FloBowling PBA Summer Tour and will be livestreamed from start to finish by FloBowling. Visit FloBowling.com for subscription information. For a complete roster of teams entered, click here:https://www.pba.com/content/files/rosters/LuciRoster2019.pdf.

WALTER RAY WILLIAMS JR. ADDS ANOTHER UNIQUE FEAT TO HIS RESUMÉ

PBA Hall of Famer and multi-record holder Walter Ray Williams Jr. added another unique feat to his lengthy resumé during the PBA50 River City Extreme Open in Monticello, Minn., when he bowled a 300 game using the increasingly popular two-handed technique. Unofficially (because the PBA has never tracked such a feat) Williams is the first player ever to bowl 300 games in PBA national competition using the traditional one-handed technique as well as two-handed.

In addition to his two-handed perfect game, the 59-year-old Williams also has bowled 108 “traditional” 300 games in PBA competition.

PBA West/Northwest Regional Manager Gary Mage has noted that regional competitor Dean Richards of Tacoma, Wash., also has accomplished the one-handed/two-handed 300 feat in PBA Northwest Region competition.

PBA BOWLING CHALLENGE TAKES ON PBA LEAGUE ELIAS CUP CHAMPS

Concrete Software’s PBA Bowling Challenge for mobile device users is challenging players to try to beat the 247 game the Portland Lumberjacks bowled at Bayside Bowl in Portland, Maine, in its sweep of the Elias Cup championship round over L.A. X.

It’s free and easy to enter for mobile device users who have downloaded the popular bowling game. To enter, download PBA Bowling Challenge http://bit.ly/Download-PBA and start bowling. If you bowl a game of 248 or higher, you will be entered into the sweepstakes. One entry will be randomly selected as the winner and receive a bowling pin signed by the winning Portland Lumberjacks (Kyle Troup, Mitch Hupé, Kris Prather, Ryan Ciminelli and Mark Roth MVP Wes Malott) and 5,000 Gold Pins.

To review the official rules, click here: http://bit.ly/OfficialRules7. The contest ends on Thursday, July 25.

PBA REGIONAL UPDATE: GEORGE GOES FROM FIFTH TO FIRST FOR FIRST PBA TITLE

Alex George from Wichita, Kan., stunned the fans, fellow competitors and even himself by moving from fifth place to first place in the final position round match to win his first PBA Regional title in the 10th annual PBA Fort Sill Southwest Open, presented by MOTIV, Sunday at Twin Oaks Bowling Center in Fort Sill, Okla.

George trailed tournament leader DeeRon Booker of Albuquerque, N.M., by 104 pins going into position round. As Booker struggled in a 190-147 loss to Anthony Lavery-Spahr of Pasadena, Texas, George defeated Austin Boulds of Creal Springs, Ill., 246-174. Joe Findling from Mesquite, Texas, and Nathan Bohr of Austin, Texas, were matched in the third- and fourth-place match, won by Bohr, 212-202. That left both players short of George’s winning total. George finished with 4,489 total pinfall for his 21 games, including bonus pins, edging Lavery-Spahr’s 4,485 for the $2,500 first prize. Bohr claimed third place with a 4,467 total, and Booker settled for fourth with 4,460 pins.

• Ronnie Russell of Marion, Ind. defeated Matt Staninger of Centerville, Ohio by 81 pins to win the PBA Angola Central/Midwest Open presented by Storm at Angola Bowl in Angola, Ind., Sunday.

Russell, a four-time PBA Tour titlist, finished with a 4-4 match play record and a total of 4,498 pins for 21 games, including match play bonus pins, to win his 10th PBA Regional title. He also earned $2,600.

• Josh Blanchard of Mesa, Ariz., and non-PBA member partner Eryk Jensen of Gresham, Ore., teamed up to win Sunday’s PBA member/non-member doubles title at Husted’s Hazel Dell Lanes in Vancouver, Wash.

In Sunday’s title match, Blanchard and Jensen defeated non-members Jason Lower and Rob Edwards, both of Vancouver, 471-437, to claim the $3,000 first prize. Blanchard earned his 11th PBA Regional title but Jensen doesn’t earn a title because he is not a PBA member.

In semifinal round, Blanchard and Jensen advanced by eliminating non-member Thomas Ault Jr. of Vancouver and Craig Tuholski of Gresham, Wash., 425-382, while Lower and Edwards ousted Austin Hunt of Pasco, Wash. and non-member Nick Borgaro of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, 448-417.

• Ray Edwards of Middle Island, N.Y. defeated Bob Leonard of Lockwood, N.Y., 259-192, to win the PBA50 Cecil Raymond Memorial presented by Ebonite at Brunswick Zone Deptford in Deptford, N.J., on Sunday, July 14.

Edwards, who qualified second, held a comfortable lead throughout the title match on his way to his 23rd overall PBA Regional title and his second of the year. He also won the 2017 Cecil Raymond Memorial.  Edwards earned $1,500 for the win.

The tournament, which began in 2004, was renamed in 2014 to honor its sponsor, Cecil Raymond, who passed away in January 2014. Raymond was the 2013 recipient of the East Region’s Pat Patterson Award for outstanding contributions to the regional program.

Edwards, a five-time PBA East Region Player of the Year, advanced to the championship round by defeating Mike Healy of Yonkers, N.Y., 183-169, while Leonard defeated John Zawalick of Westminster, Mass., 197-148, in the semifinal round.

• Ricky Schissler of Brighton, Colo. defeated Bryan Goebel of Shawnee, Kan., 210-197, to win the PBA50 Beverly Lanes Midwest/Central Open presented by MOTIV at Beverly Lanes in Arlington Heights, Ill., on Sunday, July 14.

Schissler earned the $1,400 first prize and his third PBA50 regional title.

Goebel defeated Ryan Shafer of Horseheads, N.Y., 256-197, to advance to the championship match after downing Stoney Baker of Canton, Ga., 213-160, in the first stepladder match.

• The July schedule of PBA Regionals concludes over the July 26-28 weekend with the PBA50 Tower Lanes Summer Classic in Tacoma, Wash.

● For complete PBA Regional schedules, rules and entry information, visit pba.com, open the “schedules” tab and click on PBA Regional Tours to find the event(s) in your area…and remember, you can follow “live scoring” for all PBA Regional events on pba.com (easily accessible for Apple and Android device users using the PBA app).

QUICK NOTES
• PBA fans can follow the FloBowling PBA Summer Tour points standings as they are updated following each Summer Tour event at this link: https://www.pba.com/SeasonStats/PointsList/132?list=10. The FloBowling PBA Summer Tour points will also be used to determine the USBC Cup points standings, and the eight qualifiers for both the FloBowling PBA ATX Invite and the PBA China Tiger Cup Invitational.

• Apologies for a cut-and-paste error that listed the 2019 PBA League Elias Cup final standings in the wrong order. The correct summary was as follows:

PBA LEAGUE ELIAS CUP FINALS

Bayside Bowl, Portland, Maine, July 18

(Two Matches, Race to 2 Points Baker Team Format)

      Final Standings: Portland Lumberjacks (Kyle Troup, Mitch Hupé, Kris Prather, Ryan Ciminelli, Wes Malott) ($60,000) def. L.A. X (Anthony Lavery-Spahr, Jakob Butturff, Stuart Williams, Jason Belmonte, Dick Allen) ($50,000), 2-0, 2-0.

Match One, Game One: Portland def. L.A., 228-206.

Match One, Game Two: Portland def. L.A., 214-188.

Match Two, Game One: Portland def. L.A., 221-197.

Match Two, Game Two: Portland def. L.A., 247-208.