THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 17, 1995 TAG: 9509150212
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 19 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Around the Alleyways
SOURCE: Bill Leffler
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
Bowling officials are hoping the game is starting an upswing as league play started this month.
For the past several years, there has been a slight decline in membership in the area associations in both tenpins and duckpins.
``We have 565 new members,'' said Reba Callis, secretary of the Tidewater Women's Bowling Association.
The TWBA membership has dropped from a high of nearly 10,000 to slightly more than 7,000 a year ago. The Norfolk Bowling Association has about 10,000 members and secretary Pres Carraway believes membership will be up this season. ``We lost a lot in the military in the last few years,'' he pointed out.
Duckpins dropped about 150 last year and the two local associations, the Hampton Roads Duckpin Bowlers Association and the Portsmouth Duckpin Bowlers Association, are hopeful of regaining some of those this season.
Portsmouth will be the site of the Virginia State Duckpin Tournament this year. Portsmouth also will host the Virginia State Youth Tournament and Norfolk will be the site for the National Coca-Cola Youth Tournament.
The Tidewater Women's Association will have the 1997 Virginia State Women's Tournament here.
Rankings of the top games and series in local leagues will commence in The Virginian-Pilot Saturday. Secretaries can submit their scores and highlights to control desks at area centers or phone to the bowling info-line (640-5555BOWL).
Bowler of the Week honors go to veteran kegler Jim Wenzel, who registered the season's first 300 game.
Wenzel had a perfect season opener, tossing his 12-striker in the first game of the year in the Pioneer Mixed League at Pinboy's Military.
He went on to chalk up a 714 series.
Tenpin topics: The annual Mayors Cup competition that usually opens the bowling season was not held this year. It will resume next year. . . . Summer league play was highlighted by a 300 game at Pinboy's of Lynnhaven by Chris Sykes and a 300 by Melvin Aulston at Pinboy's Military. Sykes also had a 299 game at Lynnhaven. . . . Jane Bennett, a 175-average bowler, rolled the highest game yet at Pinboy's of Western Branch by a Senior woman bowler with a 277. It was the fourth-highest game ever by a woman bowler at that center. She competed in the Seniors Friendship League. . . . Fred Thweatt has assumed the presidency of the Norfolk Bowling Association. Ernie Driver is in the middle year of a second three-year hitch as president of the TWBA. . . . Bowling lost one of its most devoted workers with the death of Marie Newsome after a long battle with cancer. The 74-year-old Newsome was a past president of the Portsmouth Women's Bowling Association and is among those inducted into the Tidewater Bowlers Hall of Fame. The PWBA dedicated its 1994-95 yearbook to her.
Duckpin data: Last year's No. 1 All-Metro bowlers are off to a flying start again. Donnie Long slammed a 182 game and 474 series in the Industrial League. Kendra Allen, the top-ranked female bowler and a graduate of the youth leagues, shot a pair of 400s in her debut in two adult leagues. . . . A back injury has delayed the return of David Nickelson to the lanes. . . . The Virginia Pro Tour is visiting Victory Lanes this weekend and has its finals today. . . . In the first North-South Challenge Youth Matches, 20 teams from Virginia competed at Newington, Ct., including local bowlers coached by Lennie McCready and Will Rowley. Beau Hoggard of Portsmouth was on a runner-up Division 1 team, which lost in the finals to a Baltimore, Md. team. Jeremy McCready of Chesapeake and Jennifer Cullings of Portsmouth were members of a fourth-place finisher in Division 2, which lost in the up-the-ladder finals to a squad from Rhode Island. . . . First triplicate of the season goes to Catherine Charlton for three 111 games in the Thursday Nite Ladies League at Victory. by CNB