Week 28 Recap
Trevor (126-98-0) : Tyson (128-96-0)
WEEK 29
Match #1 – HOWARTH vs. ARMSTRONG
Sitting 9 points back of Team Youzwa for the half and only holding onto the last A-side spot by 6 points over Team Lamonica, this match is a must win tonight. With only matches against the 11th and 12th place teams remaining Team Armstrong has the favourable schedule to make a big push to finish the season. With the team only winning total by 90 pins, Randy Morrissette (1144) winning by 72 pins over Andrew LaMonica (1072) ended up being a critical, and even featured a 904-triple. The majority of matchups were quite close as we had leads switch in the last game in two matches. The first was Tim Hooper (878) who saw his 47-pin lead ripped from his hands by Jeff Bradshaw (917) with a 185-271 loss. The last one was Karen Armstrong (916) coming out no top 3-2 over Matt Turanski (907) with her taking the last game 277-258. Team Howarth had a relatively average night in terms of scores, but thanks to three sub-800s from Team Fleming it quickly turned into a free 25-point night. For Glen Howarth (1022) he continued his run, putting up over 1000 pins in 8 of the last 9 weeks.
Key Matchup
A battle between siblings is likely to bring out a little extra competition. I think you’’ see Glen with the higher total but Karen’s team to come out on top.
Tyson’s Pick: Team Armstrong
Trevor’s Pick: Team Armstrong
Match #2 – LAMONICA vs. COOK
Team LaMonica had a decent scoring night shooting over 3700 for a lousy 10 points, while their opponent Team Cook doesn’t crack 3300 but walked away with a win. Quite remarkable when you consider Char McIvor (879) was not only the one person on her set to be over average, but also the only person on her team who was even within 100 pins of their average. I have watched Bantam matches at YBC with better scores what the Cook or Rodych team were putting up. Back to Char’s match, her win makes her 8-1 in the second half. This match also included what might have been the worst anchor matchup the league has seen all year with Ethan Buckman (786) winning 3-2 over Matt Rodych (746). On the other side, Andrew Lamonica (1072) was part of the highest scoring anchor matchup of the night with him and Randy Morrissette (1144) combining for a 277 average. Matt Turanski (907) also found himself on the wrong end of a close match, nearly coming out with a win until a late game push from Karen Armstrong (916) had her walk away with the win and total.
Not since Princess Diana have I seen a crash as hard as what Derek Sabourin (790) and Zach Friesen (823) pulled off last week. I will say they need to be marginally better this week to get back into the win column.
Tyson’s Pick: Team Cook
Trevor’s Pick: Team Cook
Match #3 – D. GELARDI vs. RODYCH
This match means nothing. It is a good practice and opportunity warm up opportunity for both teams going into roll offs, but both teams are locked in their A & B sides and not in the hunt for the second half. The lack of urgency might have come across last week as Team Rodych came out flat, the fact that Amanda Devenney (842) and Dan Sim (860) managed to steal seven points while both were under average is a sign that luck was on their side last week. That being said, with the win Amanda now has three straight wins and 13 points over that span. To add insult to injury Matt Rodych (746) losing to Ethan Buckman (786) also leaves him with only one win over his last 10 weeks. With only 11 points in the last 8 weeks Calvin Cline (838) feels his pain, this past week getting thrown around by Cyndie Barnett (939). With the exception of Jesse Leyte (928) who had a fairly average night, the rest of Team D. Gelardi tried to make Calvin feel better, with Chris Jeffers (685) and Dwayne Gelardi (860) coming together to shoot 335 pins under average. This marked only the second time this season Dwayne has shot under 900 and had him take only a single point against his last year’s teammate Robbie Hendrickson (936).
Key Matchup
Someone needs to light a fire under Matt as he is averaging 215 over the last five weeks and is currently less Matty Smokes and more Matty Mist... the shot.
Tyson’s Pick: Team D. Gelardi
Trevor’s Pick: Team D. Gelardi
Match #4 – YOUZWA vs. LOURENCO
From the least important to one of the most important matches of the night. Team Lourenco sits 1.5 points back of Team Cook for top on the season, while Team Youzwa only sits 3 points back. With Team Cook having matches against two bottom 8 teams remaining, a split night between these two teams will severely hurt eithers’ chance of winning the regular season. For the half Team Youzwa either needs a win tonight or a loss from both Team Armstrong and Team Stevenson. Team Youzwa had to put in some work last week to get themselves to this position after taking only three points in the first two games. After that the team turned on the jets and took 15/19 points. This included Jennifer Duncan (802) pulling off a comeback on Tabatha Gelardi (794) and Colton Youzwa (1074) putting up his third straight 1000, this time sweeping Kyle Costello (947). Team Lourenco didn’t do anything nearly as fancy, they just all decided to shoot the same score, three players were within the 949-953 range with only Dixie (921) trailing behind due to a slow finish. Alycia Mann’s (953) sweep of Holly Chaikowski (670) popped her sweep cherry for this season.
Key Matchup
Team Lourenco having to face the man, the myth and the legendary Ryan O’Callaghan will be a big ask, but maybe after a long day playing the Open qualifier fatigue will start to set in.
Tyson’s Pick: Team Youzwa
Trevor’s Pick: Team Youzwa
Match #5 – STEVENSON vs. CAMPBELL
Team Stevenson needs to gain 12 points on Team Youzwa to win the half but they aren’t the only ones with something on the line. Team Campbell only sits 0.5 points ahead of 8th and 6.5 ahead of 9th which means every point from here till the end of the season is critical. They were on the right track last week until they de-railed after the second game, going from nine points in two games to four points on the remainder of the night. Alyssa Campbell (957) kept her team in it for total with her 220-pin win over Jesse Gagnon (737). Unfortunately for them, this was more than balanced out from Colton Youzwa (1074) sweeping Kyle Costello (947) and Marc Steves (981) taking a 110-pin victory over friend Jessica Meurrens (871). Team Stevenson simply cemented themselves into the A-side last week making Team Nelson’s 3708 look like chump change compared to their 4041. This was one of the most well rounded 4000+ weeks in the league this season with the lowest player on the team being Erik Stewart (982). The tightest match of the night ended up being a between Michael Linsenmeier (1029) and Dave Duncan (1007) even with Michael starting down 94 pins but that was quickly erased in game three with a 313-185 win, and the win being decided on the last game with a 291-285 victory.
Key Matchup
Erik has either swept or been swept in the past three weeks. Look for the first game to be a sign for how the night will go.
Tyson’s Pick: Team Campbell
Trevor’s Pick: Team Campbell
Match #6 – HENDRICKSON vs. FLEMING
Team Hendrickson has been on a tear, picking up their third win in the last four weeks. Taking down Team D. Gelardi is a big confidence boost heading into the roll offs. Especially for Robbie Hendrickson (936) who took down league high average Dwayne Gelardi (860) in a dominating 4-1 fashion. Also for the firs time in 2023 we can say Chad Hurd (739) is victorious after taking advantage of a less than stellar Chris Jeffers (685) that included a 460-triple. In probably what was the biggest individual performance of the night Gillian Lamonica (1014) smashed her season high scores, even shooting an 830-triple that would have won her total against almost half the leadoffs and putting her up in the top 10 totals for the week, even amongst anchors.
Key Matchup
If Gillian keeps going where she left off last week, and gets a little more support on the score card from her teammates . Team Fleming could look to steal their first win of the half.
Tyson’s Pick: Team Hendrickson
Trevor’s Pick: Team Hendrickson
Match #7 – S. GELARDI vs. NAUGLER
Another match with no major implications, which I honestly believe will either lead to a lot of loose bowling and good scores or a lot of pins left on the deck. Team S. Gelardi looked like some of them already started that last week as Michael Young (854) and Holly Chaikowski (670) combined for one point off Craig Klassen (949) and Alycia Mann (953). The lone winner on their team was Sam Gelardi (998) who took a small win over Belle Lourenco (951). On the other side Kevin Naugler (1035) and Jeston Bartram (1037) took 8 points off Kyle Young (900) and Geoff Born (1004). However, the points stopped there, almost literally, as the team finished with 9 points.
Key Matchup
Both teams need to find some team rhythm for the roll offs, but given neither team has much to play for besides pride this week, I think whichever team can actually finish off the night will be the winners.
Tyson’s Pick: Team S. Gelardi
Trevor’s Pick: Team S. Gelardi
Match #8 – NELSON vs. KING
Team King was one of the other teams that really had their leadoff go off last week with Garry Bell (1054) smoking Colton Harris (794), the highlight being his 834-triple to start the night, making him the second leadoff over 830 on the night. They ultimately won this match by having Kyle and Geoff keep their totals close and had Garry and Dewar at the top taking the points and helping them win all the totals. Three games were decided by 30 pins or less, and two of those were five or less. Their opponent Team Nelson did not come nearly as close to their opponent, with no games closer than 50 pins. The big showing for their team came at second with Dave Duncan (1007) lighting it up for the night and just got on the wrong end of Michael Linsenmeier (1029) and let a late game four comeback drop him to a 2-3 on the night.
Key Matchup
With Geoff switching sides to play for Team Nelson we will see if he will be just as kind as he was last time or if he’ll take the boot Wayne.
Tyson’s Pick: Team Nelson
Trevor’s Pick: Team Nelson
