Green tops Red for Apache bowling crown

BANKING on the strong finish of past chief Nap Maranan, Team Green toppled heavily favored Red squad to win the bowling crown in the 2nd Apaches Sportsfest at the Baguio Country Club recreations center Sunday.

Maranan anchored the Green team in a 688-657 game one win and then hammered out a 703-663 victory in the second for the title.

Down by 31 pins after the first game, Red leadman Rommel Alcid found his rhythm as he fought fellow Mason Boogie Agustin.

"It was team effort," said Maranan, one of the captains of the team as he got good support from Agustin, regional trial court judge Del Claravall, Robin Conchu and Christian Bautista, who was in a sort of "sibling rivalry" with younger brother Derek, and lost.

Red was trailing all throughout in the second game as Dang Reyes tried to rally his team with help from Alcid, who finally found his line for a better finish.

"It was a difficult lane. It was dry and difficult to read," added Alcid, the only hook bowler in the sportsfest as his regular line was off the mark.

Red, who got much encouragement from the returning past chief Rhey Bautista, though suffered from the absence of tournament director Shin Paul Chan, who could have made the difference for Red even as Green missed Joe Concepcion, who is in Korea.

Green 1 won the first game, 689-658, then took the second, 704-677, for the title.

Earlier, Yellow 1 stopped Black 1 for third place, with the latter falling to fourth place.

Yellow 2, meanwhile, rallied from 32 pins down to beat Black 2 for the Bakers title as Jun David, Paeng Ding, Ricky David, Buster delos Santos and Rudz Paraan found their groove back in the sixth and seven games to overturn a 32 point deficit into a 64 pinfall lead and never looked back.

Black 2 rallied in the final game by cutting more than 30 points from Yellow 2's lead but still fell short by 34 pinfalls.

Earlier, Red 2 beat Black 2, 2-1, for the billiards title and its morale high leading to Sunday's game.

Black 2 actually beat Green 1 and Red 1 in the sudden death to forge the title fight against the Red 2 of Reyes and Taggy Tagudar.