Sports, Ink

PBA update from Thruway Lanes

Jason Couch of Clermont, Fla. and local favorite Ryan Ciminelli were the hottest bowlers at AMF Thruway Lanes Friday in the match play of round of 32 in the PBA Mark Roth Plastic Ball Championship.

Couch, who qualified second on Thursday won seven of first nine matches to take the lead from Brian Rash, the top qualifier.

Cheektowaga's own Ciminelli, 23, made an even more dramatic climb, rising from 13th place to second on the strength of a 7-2 match-play record.

Couch defeated Ciminelli in the position round, 267-218, to cement his hold on the top spot.

All four Western New York pros made it to Friday night's round of 16 match play.

Joe Ciccone of  Buffalo was in eighth place. Brad Angelo of Lockport in 12th place and Jack Jurek of Lackawanna climbed from 17th to 15th and advanced on the strength of his 222-171 win over Tommy Jones.

-- Milt Northrop

Ciminelli loses, gets richer

Keeping track of the PBA Tour's early season tournaments isn't easy these days with the hectic schedule being followed in the PBA World Series of Bowling in Michigan. Tournaments are run one after the other, but the final results don't seem to be readily available to the media because the championship rounds are being taped for showing some time in the last fall.

The PBA eagerly reported the results of this week's Cheetah Championship in Allen Park, Mich. right up until Thursday night's championship match between Ryan Ciminelli of Cheektowaga and Tour veteran Norm Duke. There was no total blackout of the outcome, but it took some website digging to find out what the result was.

Ciminelli has a sensational tournament, winning the Tour Qualifying Round (TQR) just to get into the 72-bowler field for the tournament proper. Then he led the qualifiers and proceeded to knock off Hall of Famer Brian Voss, and Stevie Weber in the first two rounds of match play.

Getting past Duke was another matter, though. Ciminelli won the first game from the Floridian, who was once a boy wonder on the tour -- he was just 18 years and 345 when he won hits first title in Cleveland in 1983. He's still the youngest ever to win a title on the Tour.

After Ciminelli took the opener of the best-of-seven finals series, 226-212, Duke came on and won the next four games, 236-228, 257-213, 236-193 and 258-205 for his 33rd career title.

Nevertheless, Ciminelli, a 23-year-old left-hander, enjoyed his biggest bowling pay day yet, earning $13,100 for his second place finish, best of his career.

The Tour wastes little time under the current format. Qualifying for the PBA Viper Championship will be Saturday on the same Thunderbowl Lanes in Allen Park, Mich. Ciminelli does have a Tour exemption yet, but he earned a place in the Viper by finishing second in the TQR last weekend.

Here's where it gets confusing. The Viper match play Round of Eight will be bowled Sunday, but the finals will not be held until Saturday, Sept. 5 when they will be taped for showing later in the fall.

The Motor City Open, which was contested last week, is still not over. The finals of the Motor City will be held on Saturday, Sept. 5, also, in Allen Park. The earlier rounds of the Motor City were held at Taylor Lanes in Taylor, Mich.

The Sunday afternoon TV schedule for the PBA Tour is up in the air. Apparently, the shows will be mainly be edited highlight packages of each tournament combining the companion PBA Women's Series event. The second portion of the Tour schedule will feature live action each Sunday for the most part.

If you can keep track of all this, you're better than I am.

-- Milt Northrop

Cheektowaga's Ciminelli stalking PBA's Cheetah

Ryan Ciminelli of Cheektowaga led the qualifying in the PBA Cheetah Championship in Allen Park, Mich.

Ciminelli finished qualifying with a 14-game pinfall of 3,477 (248.3 average). In Tuesday's second seven-game qualifying block he rolled 1,682 with games of 267, 209, 248, 253, 223, 234 and 248 after bowling 1,795 -- including a 300 game -- in the first block.

Rounding out the top four who earned a first-round bye in match play were reigning PBA Player of the Year Wes Malott (3,390), Hall of Famer Norm Duke (3,389) and one-time Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour titlist Jack Jurek of Lackawanna (3,381).

Brad Angelo of Lockport and Joe Ciccone of Buffalo did not qualify for match play. Angelo finished 30th with 3,192 total pins and earned $1,600 while Ciccone was 43rd with 3,151 for $1,500.

Some details from pba.com (check the link for a big picture of Ciminelli):

The key for Ciminelli so far has been making minor adjustments and using less aggressive urethane equipment.

"I love the Cheetah (lane condition) pattern and have a lot of confidence striking on it," said the 23-year-old Ciminelli, whose best Tour finish is seventh. "Right now I'm sticking with a urethane ball and I'm throwing straight down the lane which is key for me to be able to carry strikes.

"The second block was a little bit like a roller coaster," the left-hander added. "After the first two games I had to increase my ball speed and rev rate to get to the pocket more consistently."

The Cheetah Championship, conducted on PBA's Cheetah lane oil pattern, is the second tournament of the PBA World Series of Bowling which runs through Sept. 6.

The 72-player field has been cut to the top 28 players who will advance to best-of-seven game match play beginning Wednesday at 9 a.m. Match play continues on Thursday, with the finals to be conducted at 7 p.m.

The entire Cheetah Championship is being taped with the highlight-style telecast airing on ESPN Sunday, Nov. 8, at 1 p.m. ET.

---Milt Northrop