KETAN SUCHAK becomes the first ever
BTBA TENPINTOUR CHAMPION
Ketan Suchak
The first BTBA Tenpintour Champion
The first BTBA Tenpintour Champion
TPT 1 PETERBOROUGH
TPT 2 ROMFORD
TPT 3 MANSFIELD
TPT 4 ACOCKS GREEN
TPT 5 STROUD
TPT 6 AIRPORT
TPT 7 TOLWORTH
TPT 8 AIRPORT
Back to the Airport and the fight is on for those valuable top five spots and with a 29 OOM point lead Ketan was looking pretty safe with this tournament and Poole still to come, but the other four were separated by fifteen points only. Ketan had a solid start to round one, a pair of 180's to kick off were a little below his average but the finishing sequence of 234 - 240 - 228 - 211 was pretty awesome. Still only good enough for 11th place but a place n the final beckoned. So who was keeping this very good bowler in check? Seven of those who finished above him had scores lower than his 1280 total, but the handicap of 18 that Ketan had accumulated over the season punished his high scores. This was another high scoring event with a round one average of 192 where 112 scores of 200 plus were recorded. There were nine guys who exceeded the 1200 benchmark but three of them, Keith Hodge, Chris Skudder and David Bristow still did not make the final. Holding the top place was Gerry Olver where a clean sweep of deuces was only spoiled by his game three 199, his other five scores ranged between 222 and 248, pretty good scoring for a man with a 190 entering average! Eager to replicate his 2016 victory at Tolworth Barry Knox opened his account with the tournaments highest score of 279, maintaining a sequence of 200's until a 158 spoiled the fun in game six, for a 1324 scratch set, 25 pins behind Gerry and 23 pins above third man Dave Eyre. Three other 1200 scores were recorded, Mike Bergquist (with a 'g') in fifth with 1263, Ketan we have already mentioned TPT 8 Winner Bob Ockleford
and Neil Highgate in nineteenth with 1203.
Do you remember Acocks Green (scroll up) where we were treated to a bowling exhibition from a canny little Scot goes by the name of Keddie? Well his tournament average of 237 only brought him second spot, leaving us all wondering how good does he have to be to win a tournament? leaving us wondering if he could bowler any better? Well at the Airport he did bowl better! he rolled 1438 scratch with scores ranging between 215 and 258 for an average score of 240, Bowling off scratch he only finished in sixth spot. Basically he gets strikes most of the time punctuated by the occasion spare, most of us do it the other way round if we are on form!!
Very much under the radar was the very meticulous Bob Ockleford who started this event with a pair of 160's, he found a bit of form from game three onwards and put himself in the final with scores between 195 and 237 finishing in seventh place with a series of 1195.
From Ketans point of view this was a very good result because, of the top five only he made the final, which meant he could only increase his lead at the top of the OOM.
There was a stewards enquiry when it was noticed the a certain Ronald Griffin recorded a score of 254, but it was upheld!!
And so to the final: -
Another pretty competitive set of scores from Ketan, but his 763 four game total dropped down him to 18th place, he still collected 83 OOM points and remained 31 points clear at the top of the OOM. The outstanding bowler of the final was once again Alan Keddie whose ridiculous 959 maintained his 240 average but he still could only finish fourth, that's the joy of being a scratch bowler !!
Gerry Olver caught the 160 bug twice to start his final and consequently lost his lead, but he rallied with a 191 and a 216 finishing in third place overall.
Bob Ockleford meanwhile plopped in a 211 opening gambit followed by one of those pesky 160's, but big Bob found a route to the headpin and spent the next two frames getting mostly strikes recording 243 and 249 game score to heave himself to the top of the leader board and winning his first ever Tenpintour title. A truly amazing finish from our gentle giant!!
Chris Taaffe's brief venture into the top five ended despite bowling over 10 pins above his average and but failing to make the final for the first time in three events. Bob Strong did not take part and left the high table with Chris, they were replaced by Robert Poore and Martin Webster.
and Neil Highgate in nineteenth with 1203.
Do you remember Acocks Green (scroll up) where we were treated to a bowling exhibition from a canny little Scot goes by the name of Keddie? Well his tournament average of 237 only brought him second spot, leaving us all wondering how good does he have to be to win a tournament? leaving us wondering if he could bowler any better? Well at the Airport he did bowl better! he rolled 1438 scratch with scores ranging between 215 and 258 for an average score of 240, Bowling off scratch he only finished in sixth spot. Basically he gets strikes most of the time punctuated by the occasion spare, most of us do it the other way round if we are on form!!
Very much under the radar was the very meticulous Bob Ockleford who started this event with a pair of 160's, he found a bit of form from game three onwards and put himself in the final with scores between 195 and 237 finishing in seventh place with a series of 1195.
From Ketans point of view this was a very good result because, of the top five only he made the final, which meant he could only increase his lead at the top of the OOM.
There was a stewards enquiry when it was noticed the a certain Ronald Griffin recorded a score of 254, but it was upheld!!
And so to the final: -
Another pretty competitive set of scores from Ketan, but his 763 four game total dropped down him to 18th place, he still collected 83 OOM points and remained 31 points clear at the top of the OOM. The outstanding bowler of the final was once again Alan Keddie whose ridiculous 959 maintained his 240 average but he still could only finish fourth, that's the joy of being a scratch bowler !!
Gerry Olver caught the 160 bug twice to start his final and consequently lost his lead, but he rallied with a 191 and a 216 finishing in third place overall.
Bob Ockleford meanwhile plopped in a 211 opening gambit followed by one of those pesky 160's, but big Bob found a route to the headpin and spent the next two frames getting mostly strikes recording 243 and 249 game score to heave himself to the top of the leader board and winning his first ever Tenpintour title. A truly amazing finish from our gentle giant!!
Chris Taaffe's brief venture into the top five ended despite bowling over 10 pins above his average and but failing to make the final for the first time in three events. Bob Strong did not take part and left the high table with Chris, they were replaced by Robert Poore and Martin Webster.
TPT 9 POOLE
The final TPT event (except the TPT British Masters of course) took place in our Chairman's backyard in Poole, obviously a home advantage for the Griffins! Ketan was able to maintain his season long form with a 210 average display including a 241 amongst his three deuces finishing in sixth place of round one. There were not so many taking part at Poole which worked to Ron Griffins advantage who grabbed the last place into final by five pins, but he had to stop sandbagging in his final two games where he achieved 201 and 207. There were another four 1200's to go with Ketan's and were the work of David Bristow, Steve Williams, Roger Hurst and Suren Johanssen, but Russell Scott served up a sumptuous 1312 which morphed into 1468 with handicap to give him a 46 pin lead over Suren. Not only did Russell get the highest series with and without handicap but he also produced the highest scratch game of the day with a 269.
TPT 9 WINNER
RUSSELL SCOTT
Ketan's final final of the season was looking as good as the rest of his performances this year until he finally lowered his standard with a disappointing 140, but it was preceded by a 236!! and he finished in thirteenth place. Stuart Harris went into the final in eleventh position and then produced a stunning 852 with a set of games that all started with a '2', the best of which was his game seven 234. this was the highest set of the final. Russell Scott meanwhile just took no prisoners, and lead from start to finish in both round one and the final, not only did he have the best game in round one he did it again in the final with a 256! A fabulous result from a very talented bowler.
The Tenpintour team and we are sure all the 126 Tenpintour competitors that have taken part in this seasons sumptuous strike filled tour owe an enormous vote of congratulations to Ketan upon this magnificent result, and so well deserved moving from 34th to top with such consistency. He became Champion without having to win any of the individual events outright. Only Stephen Bose has ever done this before.
TPT 9 WINNER
RUSSELL SCOTT
Ketan's final final of the season was looking as good as the rest of his performances this year until he finally lowered his standard with a disappointing 140, but it was preceded by a 236!! and he finished in thirteenth place. Stuart Harris went into the final in eleventh position and then produced a stunning 852 with a set of games that all started with a '2', the best of which was his game seven 234. this was the highest set of the final. Russell Scott meanwhile just took no prisoners, and lead from start to finish in both round one and the final, not only did he have the best game in round one he did it again in the final with a 256! A fabulous result from a very talented bowler.
The Tenpintour team and we are sure all the 126 Tenpintour competitors that have taken part in this seasons sumptuous strike filled tour owe an enormous vote of congratulations to Ketan upon this magnificent result, and so well deserved moving from 34th to top with such consistency. He became Champion without having to win any of the individual events outright. Only Stephen Bose has ever done this before.