Kabalen-Murjana clinches title in OSN-FTBJ 49th Open Conference bowling tourney

Kabalen-Murjana got the better of the dominant team in the tournament and walked off with the championship crown in the OSN-FTBJ 49th Open Conference bowling tournament at the Bowling City here.
This long drawn out Saturday league event that spanned two calendar years ended with a surprise result in the battle for the top prize.
It now segues to the next tournament, the 50th golden Conference, this Saturday, according to the organizing Filipino Tenpin Bowlers of Jeddah.
In the championship match, Kabalen needed to beat waiting No. 1 finalist MC Hammer twice and did just that to claim bragging rights as the champion of the five-man team competition.
The first match of the stepladder finals was a knockout game with handicap of Nos. 4, 5 and 6 teams which Red Dragons won against Habagat and deposed champion Sky Freight-TFC.
Red Dragons tallied 1,122 pinfalls, Habagat 1,076 and Sky Freight 964.
Red Dragons won another match vs. No. 3 Bowling City 987-959 mainly behind Ally Bin 237, Tom Langa 209 and Cezar Pagtalunan 189 to set up a clash with No. 2 Kabalen for the right to challenge Hammer for the title.
But Kabalen put its foot down, beating Red Dragons 911-885 in a match where Dragon Pagtalunan’s 235 had been negated by 193 and 191 by Rene Ocampo and Erwin Ronquillo let alone the 189 by Ruel Santoc.
Kabalen never looked back after its first win of the night and even finished with a flourish when it poured 1,046 pinfalls to the 868 by Hammer in the second game of their championship showdown.
It was raining 200s for Kabalen in that decisive game — 223 by Santoc, 214 by Ronquillo and 203 by Ocampo. Jojie Mnalansan added 194 and Jess Pineda had 179.
While Kabalen bowled extremely well Hammer looked out of sorts with the 135 and 149 by Zaldy Bacero and Rene Punzalan proving a deadweight.
Hammer was not up to it, either, in the first game getting blown 854-733.
By comparison, here are Kabalen’s scores: Manalansan 196, Ocampo 182, Ronquillo 179, Santoc 155 and Pineda 142 and Hammer’s scores: Shams Mustafa 164, Punzalan 159, Melvin Lising 140, Jhun Estefano 138 and Dylan Ilagan 132.

FTBJ-ICBL 35th Conference bowling tournament
Meantime, the FTBJ has scheduled the tentative opening date of the FTBJ-ICBL 35th Conference bowling tournament for April 24 at its new venue, Bowling City.
For further details, interested teams may contact Nonie Yap at 0502329688, Rally Zamora at 00501591351 or Randy Mata at 0509667330.
Final team standings
Champion Kabalen-Al Murjana, 1st runner-up MC Hammer, 2nd runner-up Red Dragons, 3rd runner-up Bowling City, 5th place Habagat, 6th place Sky Freight-OSN, 7th place Taurus Amigos, 8th place Romblon Marvels, 9th place Bank Aljazira Fawri, 10th place AFM-Moe