Saturday, January 20, 2007 Manila’s Layoso almost scored a perfect game
DEFENDING champion Benshir Layoso failed to top the first round of the 8th Metro Gaisano Sinulog Classic Open but bounced back strongly Thursday as he almost scored a perfect game at the Gaisano Bowlingplex.
The Manila Tenpin Bowling Association protege Layoso concluded the first eight games of the 16-game format with just 1,774 pinfalls, but his performance in Game 5 outshone all his rivals when he scored a pin shy of registering the magic number of 300 for a perfect game.
Layoso, who scored a perfect game in September last year in the Bowlingplex Tenpin Association (BTA) Classic, made eleven successive strikes but blundered in his final throw when he knocked down just nine pins that prevented him from pocketing the P50,000 top purse for a perfect game.
Layoso placed only sixth after the completion of the upper eight rounds although he still has a chance of defending his title as players who make it in the top 32 of the 80-kegler draw will advance to the next round.
The elimination round will wrap up today with the hosts Cebu Tenpin Bowling Association (Cetba) and BTA steadily dominating the early rounds with eight players between the two Cebuano squads making it to the top ten.
Cetba’s Jomar Jumapao, the Philippine Bowling Congress’ 2006 bowler of the year, rocketed to the top of the list when he scored a total of 1,905 pins in eight games.
He snatched the lead from opening-day leader Clarence Tiu of Bowlinplex Tenpin Association, who had a partial output of 1,856 pinfalls. Tiu was relegated to second place, ahead of BTA’s Luther Tapaya and James Zuluaga (Cetba), who settled for the third and fourth places, respectively.
Layoso and teammate Sammy Sy, who finished fifth, were the only visitors who made it into the top 10.
Completing the top 10 list are Germaine Uang (BTA), Wilbert Yu, Jericho Jumapao and Jake Yap of Cetba. (MCB)
