Foundation Games X

Bruce — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 14:58:45 GMT

Foundation Games X

July 2002 PBA Midwest Regional Madison, WI ( At Parktowne )

1. Jeff Richgels, Oregon, Wisconsin
2. Dale Traber, Cedarburg, Wisconsin
3. Lennie Boresch Jr., Kenosha, Wisconsin

Jeff Richgels, former 2-time PBA Midwest Player-Of-The-Year, finally returned to the winners circle after a long drought with a convincing 244 - 167 victory over 29-time regional champion Dale Traber. This was Richgel's 21 st title and earned him an all-expense paid trip to the International Foundation Games Championships to be held in 2003. The exact location of that tournament has not yet been determined. This victory was worth $2100.00 and a Gold Medal.

"I'm back", shouted the overly delighted Richgels on his latest triumph. A bad wrist which has required no less than 3-operations has hampered his performances as of late, but this victory puts him in a very exclusive "club" of other Foundation Games champions, including: Steve Jaros (who is a 2-time champion), Jason Queen, David Traber (Dale's brother), Pete Dohan, Lisa Bishop, Liz Johnson, Hugh Miller, Dino Castillo, Jeff Zaffino and Diandra Hyman.

Richgels has an impressive bowling resume which includes the 1993 National Resident Pro Championship and 2-FIQ Gold Medals which he earned in Bogotá, Colombia back in 1985 in the American Zone championships. The 40-year-old right-hander claims to be a "tweener" and relies more on accuracy, rather than power. He did prove his versatility in this unique event which featured two separate and distinct lane conditions for the pro's to compete on.

This was the fourth Foundation Games tournament to be held in the PBA Midwest Region in the past 2-years, and the second to be held at beautiful Parktowne Lanes. Proprietor Dan Schwoegler runs a "Class A" operation and is to be commended for providing an excellent surface to bowl on. Rick Thomas and John Scheid assisted Kegel Tech Norm Titus and Midwest laneman Rory Holland to ensure that the lane conditions were exact. Midwest Director John Weber also chipped-in and helped with the all-important "process-verification". John is the 2002 recipient of the annual John Davis Award which is presented to the Foundation Member who continually exemplifies a passion for the Sport of bowling.

DAY 1 - Friday: Norm and Rory met at the bowling center and checked out the Standard SE lane machine. They double-stripped the lanes to make sure that all of the "memory" of the house "shot" was gone and that the lanes were absolutely clean. The house uses Defense S lane cleaner and they use Offense HV for its lane oil. Lanes 1-18 were oiled with the "short pattern" to a distance of 31-ft. Lanes 19-36 were oiled to a distance of 43-ft. for the "long pattern". The crew then watched the practice session and decided that both patterns looked fair and challenging for the participants. Then they went to dinner and decided to meet back at the bowl at 6:00am.

DAY 2 - Saturday: They met and began their seemingly thankless lanemen "rituals", including a thorough check of the hardness of the lane surface using the Sward Rocker Test. The lanes were thoroughly cleaned and then oiled with the 31ft. pattern. Tapes of the pattern were taken and read as the bowlers filed-in for their first 5-games of competition. As expected, the scores were fairly low on this pattern. At the end of play, Traber held the lead with +118 and 16 th place was -5. As soon as the last ball was thrown, the crew went back to work and took "after bowling" tapes and cleaned off the lanes. As the bowlers were being treated to a great buffet, the "long pattern" was applied. The players came back and found this pattern to be more conducive to scoring as there seemed to be a more distinct place to play. The majority of the field "ganged-up" around the 3 rd -arrow and the so-called track blew open and naturally, scores escalated. There were several 6 and 7-baggers that were few and far between on the more demanding 31ft. pattern, that morning. At the completion of these 5-games on the long pattern (and 10-games overall) the field of 71-bowlers was cut to the top-16 finalist. They were to come back tomorrow and bowl on both of the patterns during the match-play finals. Once again, Traber was the leader at +246 (a 224 average) and the cut (16 th place) was Lyle Zikes at +64.

DAY 3 - Sunday: The lane guys, Norm and Rory, met at the lanes and got everything ready for this final day of competition. Lanes1-12 were oiled with the "short", and lanes 13-24 were dressed with the "long". Match-play was interesting and exciting with the cream continually rising to the top. With this type of format, all physical and mental skills are required to deal with the different patterns from game-to-game. After the position round (game 16), the field was cut to the top-5 for the always exciting (and strategic) "Foundation Games TV Format" . The first match featured Tim Penner and Jeff Carter bowling on Penner's choice (because he was the higher qualifier of the two), which was the "short". Penner won that match: 199-191. Match #2 saw Lennie Boresch against Penner in another close battle, with the more experienced Boresch coming out on top with a 199-181 victory. The semi-final match was another thriller. Richgels, by virtue of being the higher seed, chose to bowl Boresch on the "long pattern". Richgels got a clutch double in the 10 th frame to barely nose out the talented Boresch, 211-207. Boresch received the Bronze Medal along with a paid entry into the International Foundation Games Championships. Traber, who led throughout the majority of the 2-day tournament, immediately announced that he would take Jeff to the "short pattern". Richgels proceeded to bowl a beautiful game of 244 against the confused Traber, who could only muster a 167 and settle for 2 nd place and the Silver Medal, along with the same Invitation. As Richgels stood on the Olympic style podium with the Gold Medal around his neck, he said, "This is special. To win a tournament against these talented guys on multiple conditions is truly very special. I really look forward to bowling in the International Championships next year."

All in all, it was another great Foundation Games tournament. The top-3, were once again, three of the top players in the Region. Their remarkable skills on these demanding conditions paid off. The Foundation will continue to administer tournaments with the strictest controls in an attempt to bring credibility and integrity to our great Sport. Plans to come back to Madison next year are already underway.

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Foundation Games X