Jack Cook & Walter Tomlin Capture PJBT Xmas Tournament Titles

The PJBT continued it’s 16 season with our classic Day After Christmas Tournament.  Every year, no matter what day of the week it is….we hold our big Christmas Tournament on the day After Christmas.  This event is always a great event for PJBT bowlers and our fellow college bowlers….as our event kicks off a long week of youth/collegiate bowling at Haja Rose Bowl.  Our event is the 26th of December and the Keystone Quaker Collegiate Bowling Tournament is always the 2 days following our event.  Many of the college bowlers or past PJBT bowlers return to compete with our current contingent of bowlers for 1 Big Major Event.  The PJBT saw 141 bowlers compete in our two divisions.

The PJBT would like to thank Rotogrip & Our Family’s Pro Shop at Haja Rose Bowl for sponsoring our event again this year.  Every year, Rotogrip donates a CASE of bowling balls, which we raffle off on this day and during the season.

This unique day brings a unique format.  Handicap Bowlers bowl first at 10am and Scratch bowls Later in the Day around 2:30pm.  Format was each squad bowling 6 games of qualifying, top 40% advance to 3 additional games of match-play, and the top 4 bowlers advance to the bracket final.  The bracket final consisted of 1 games matches….1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3.  The winners of those semi-final matches advanced to bowl each other in a 1 game match for the title.

One of the unique rules of this event is we do allow Scratch Bowlers or Handicap Bowlers to bowl both squads if they choose.  In past years, many Handicap Bowlers with high averages bowl both squads.  On this day, our Handicap final had a scratch bowler flavor to it.  The handicap division started with 49 bowlers on this day.  The dominant leader was Walter Tomlin.  Tomlin, a current Scratch bowler….recently converted over from Handicap, took home the title.  Tomlin dominated the event, leading the 6 game qualifying round with a score of +198.  In match play, he lost his lead to tournament leader, Austin Chubb.  However, he still stood in 3rd place and made the 4 person final.  In the semi-final, top seed Austin Chubb took on 4th seed Lexi Kile.  In the other match, 2nd seed Jocelyn Hood took on 3rd seed Walter Tomlin.  Chubb defeated Kile 234-204 while Tomlin defeated Hood 226-149.  In the title match, Chubb took on Tomlin.  The match was neck-and-neck but an open frame in the 7th frame started the downfall for Chubb.  Meanwhile, Tomlin continued striking and outlasted Chubb 193-175 to take home the $300 top scholarship prize.  The top 8 finishers all received scholarships

Then came our strong Scratch field of 92 bowlers competing.   Our winner was Jack Cook of Denville, NJ.  Cook was near the top of the leaderboard all day.  Cook was seeded 8th after 6 games of qualifying with a score of +122.  In match play, Cook made up some ground on the leaders by winning his matches and was seeded as the 4th and final seed to make the finals.  Cook trailed tournament leader Michael Martell, 2nd seed Brian Kennedy, and 3rd seed Joe Starace.  In our semi-final matches, Cook defeated tournament leader Martell 256-185 while Kennedy defeated Joe Starace 204-182.  This set up the title match of Jack Cook vs Brian Kennedy.  Cook got off to a hot start with 4 strikes and never looked back.  Cook dominated the match and defeated Kennedy in the final 257-172.  Cook took home the $400 top scholarship prize and the top 13 finishers in Scratch received scholarships.

Thanks to all 141 bowlers who came out and it made for another great Holiday Event!