"Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport - the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat, the human drama of athletic competition..." ABC's Wide World of Sports Introduction
Every Saturday, when I was a much younger soul, like clockwork this poem recited. After the bowling match reached its conclusion, the last "so long" from the bowling venue ushered in these fine words. So familiar was its chant that you could close your eyes and just imagine the terrible spill that each week on cue, the unfortunate ski jumper would undertake.
Ulf Bolleby (l.), Sweden, defeated Mats Maggi, Belgium, 439 to 384, to win his first European Bowling Tour title in the Ebonite International Luxembourg Open and the 4.000 Euro top prize Sunday afternoon, March 21st. In the title match over two games total pinfall, Bolleby took a 41-pin lead after the first game (202-161) and cruised to victory with a 237-223 win in the second game. Bolleby topped Nico Joris, Belgium, in the semifinal, 436-426, while Maggi flew past No. 2 seed Karsten Aust, Germany, 458-377. 
Jens Nickel (pictured), Germany, fired the first 300 game of the 2010 Ebonite International Luxembourg Open Sunday morning at X-Treme Bowling & Billard in Foetz, Luxembourg, to lead the top 18 players into the match play portion. Long-time German national team player Nickel, who is targeting a spot on the team for the 2010 Men's World Championship in Germany in August, felled 1479 pins, the tournament's high series, and averaged 246.50 avg. for the round. Birgit Pöppler, took the 18th and final sport
to advance with 1268. 
When Jason Schwartz (pictured left) of Belvidere, Ill., found himself on the verge of perfection at the United States Bowling Congress Open Championships on Saturday, his nerves got the best of him and he fell short in his bid for the third 300 of this year's event. Two games later, the 21-year-old right-hander got a second chance at a perfect game and took full advantage of the opportunity, capping off his USBC Open Championships debut with a milestone achievement. 
Patrick Allen (l.), a 13-time PBA title winner from Wesley Chapel, Fla., and Brian Kretzer (r.) of Dayton, Ohio, a non-title winner, advanced to Sunday's Go RVing Match Play Championship title match at Norwich Bowling and Entertainment Center Saturday. Allen defeated No. 57 Ryan Ciminelli of Cheektowaga, N.Y., 601-530, in their three-game, total pinfall semifinal round match Saturday night, while Kretzer eliminated No. 50 Doug Kent, Newark, N.Y., 625-581. 
Gery Verbruggen (l.), Belgium, continued to lead the qualifying of the Ebonite International Luxembourg Open currently underway at X-Treme Bowling & Billard in Foetz, Luxembourg. Heading into the final day of qualifying, the lefty leads the 146-player field with 1431 six-game total and an average of 238.50. Karsten Aust (r.), Germany, moved into second place during Friday's Squad.8 with 1428. Qualifying ends on Saturday with four more squads and the Desperado Squad. 
Bowling has not escaped the nation's economic slowdown on many fronts and many have been predicting doom and gloom for bowling tournaments. The PBA ran into a lost sponsor and a lost tournament site during the current 2009-10 tour season. So rumor was rampant that the three former Microsoft executives who have lost an estimated $20 million since they purchased the PBA in 2000 might be pulling the plug on the 2010-11 season.
It took 16 months, but the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) Women's Bowling Team has regained the number one ranking in the nation. The March poll of the National Tenpins Coaches Association (NTCA) featured a record breaking 21 members voting and eight of them cast the Lady Hawks as the first place team. Those eight votes, along with the other 13 voters gave UMES 566 total points and the top spot in the poll. 
4-time European ranking champion Gery Verbruggen (l.), Belgium, had games of 227, 234, 235, 258, 198 and 279 in Squad 4 to overtake the lead in the qualifying of the Ebonite International Luxembourg Open with 1431 six-game total and an average of 238.50. Mathias Sarmadi (r.), France, led Squad 5 with 1371 including a 290 in the last game to move into second place in the overall standings. Verbruggen and Sarmadi pocketed a 150 Euro bonus each.
The Reno Bighorns basketball team may be preparing for a pair of games this weekend, but head coach Jay Humphries and four of his players (pictured) were able to take some time away from the hardwood to compete at the USBC Open Championships on Thursday. The players have bowled at the National Bowling Stadium for team-building activities before, but never have experienced the pressure of USBC Open Championships competition. 
Top-seeded Walter Ray Williams Jr. (l.), defending champion Chris Barnes and reigning Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour Player of the Year Wes Malott were upset victims as the Go RVing Match Play Championship got underway Thursday at Norwich Bowling and Entertainment Center. Among the top four seeds in the PBA Tour's version of "March Madness," only No. 2 Bill O'Neill (right) of Southampton, Pa., survived the opening round.
A total of eight 300 games were rolled during the Brunswick Euro Challenge at 28-laner Le Plaza Bowling in Saint Maximin, France (March 5-14, 2010). Seven by men, Kimmo Lehtonen (FIN), Mike Fagan, Norm Duke, Parker Bohn III, Bill O'Neill (all USA), Mathieu Berges (SUI) and Frederik Øhrgaard (DEN), and one by a woman, Evgeniya Smirnova, Russia. All but Berges and Smirnova had paid the entry fee for the 300-game Pot Play. To watch the highly-entertaining battle for the 3.100 Euro winner-takes-all prize
The Professional Bowlers Association laid out general plans for the 2010-11 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour season Wednesday in a meeting with the Exempt Tour players in Norwich, Conn., site of this week's Go RVing PBA Match Play Championship."The PBA has weathered the most difficult economic year for professional sports of all kinds that most of us have ever seen," said PBA Tour Commissioner and CEO Fred Schreyer, "and we are continuing to reshape the future of professional bowling by introducing new concepts that are both necessary and exciting."
When reading about USBC's recent quest to coach the two-handed style of bowling, I could not help but think back to some articles that were shared about the early days of the ABC and how the leaders of the time governed the game. In those very early times of governance, when the game was still being defined at a rapid pace, a new crop of hotshot bowlers came into vogue because some of the more ingenious players figured out how to make exotic bowling balls and use them to their advantage. Those early high tech balls were known then as 'dodo balls' and the players that used them were called 'dodo bowlers.'
In an effort to help grow the sport of bowling as a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) sport and promote the importance of athletics to today's youth, Brunswick Bowling was named the exclusive sponsor of the 2009/2010 NCAA Women's Bowling All America awards. Brunswick Pro Staff member and PBA Hall of Famer, Johnny Petraglia, will present the awards during the NCAA Championship banquet.
Ryan Ciminelli (pictured left) of Cheektowaga, N.Y., led a field eight players who advanced out of the Professional Bowlers Association’s Tour Qualifying Round Wednesday and completed the field of 64 for the Go RVing Match Play Championship which gets underway Thursday at Norwich Bowling and Entertainment Center. Ciminelli, who has already advanced to the television finals three times during the 2009-10 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour season, averaged 226.57 to finish the seven-game qualifying round with a 1,586 pinfall total.