PBA fans will be treated to six hours of great bowling action this weekend when ESPN airs the two-hour finals of the OceanView at Falmouth PBA League Elias Cup competition from Bayside Bowl in Portland, Maine on Sunday at 1 p.m. Eastern, plus re-broadcasts of the PBA League semifinals and the 2018 State Farm CP3 Celebrity Invitational presented by Go Bowling!.

The big weekend of Go Bowling! PBA Tour television begins Saturday at 4 p.m. ET with the re-broadcast one of the PBA Tour’s favorite events, the CP3 Celebrity Invitational.

Chris Paul (left), as PBA fans may know, is the NBA All-Star point guard who played a key role in helping the Houston Rockets advance to the NBA Western Conference finals, highlighted by a 41-point, 10-assist performance in Wednesday’s decisive playoff game.

The CP3 PBA Invitational telecast also features Paul’s teammates, James Harden and Trevor Ariza; newly-elected NFL Hall of Famer Terrell Owens; Boston Red Sox star Mookie Betts (right) and PBA stars Norm Duke, Pete Weber, Bill O’Neill, Sean Rash, EJ Tackett, DJ Archer and Dino Castillo, among others.

Leading into Sunday’s historic finale on ESPN, PBA fans can re-visit the PBA League semifinal round that aired last Sunday, attracting an audience of 587,000 viewers – the largest PBA League audience for a preliminary round telecast since the PBAL moved to Maine in 2015. The semifinals will re-air on ESPN2 Sunday at 11 a.m. ET.

At 1 p.m., the PBA will bid farewell to one of the longest running television relationships in sports Sunday when the Elias Cup will be decided in a two-hour finale on ESPN.

“The PBA has enjoyed a great run on ESPN,” PBA CEO and Commissioner Tom Clark (left) said. “Our partnership is a major chapter in PBA history and we will always be proud of the affiliation.”

PBA coverage was one of the first programming ventures signed by ESPN in 1979, its inaugural season. Over the past 38 years of continuous coverage – two years longer than PBA’s record run on ABC Television – ESPN has aired hundreds of PBA Tour and PBA50 Tour finals, including such memorable events as Pete Weber’s fifth U.S. Open victory; Kelly Kulick’s milestone win for women in sports in the 2010 PBA Tournament of Champions, and dozens of other events that are listed among the PBA’s 60 most memorable moments in its 60-year history.

For the balance of 2018, CBS Sports Network will provide coverage of the PBA Tour Finals and the U.S. Open before the PBA launches its new relationship with FOX Sports in 2019.

As legendary entertainer Bob Hope said, “Thanks for the memories…”

Xtra Frame visits Fountain Valley, Wilmington, Reno and more

This weekend’s Xtra Frame schedule features the PWBA at Fountain Bowl in Fountain Valley, Calif., Friday and Saturday, before the PBA Tour returns to action with PBA Xtra Frame Wilmington Open, the second of eight Xtra Frame PBA Tour events on the 2018 schedule. Anthony Simonsen of Austin, Texas, will begin defense of his 2017 title Saturday-Sunday, May 19-20, at Ten Pin Alley Family Fun Center in Wilmington, N.C.

Xtra Frame also visits Reno, Nev., for the USBC Queens starting on May 17. Xtra Frame will cover qualifying and preliminary match play elimination rounds of PWBA’s first major championship of 2018 from the National Bowling Stadium May 17-21. The stepladder finals will air live on CBS Sports Network on Tuesday, May 22. Diana Zavjalova of Latvia is the defending champion.

Xtra Frame, the online bowling channel of the PBA will be the livestream home of the PWBA Tour throughout the 2018 season, providing live coverage of all 14 events, including the stepladder finals of the first six standard events. Other finals will air on CBS Sports Network.

PBA’s “Memorable Moments” 12 thru 15 complete the list, 1 thru 11 revisited

The four additional milestones in PBA history listed below complete the list of the PBA”s “60 most memorable moments.”

The top 10 moments (actually 11, because of a tie for 10th place) were revealed during the PBA’s 60th Anniversary celebration in Indianapolis in February, and are re-visited below along with “memorable moments” 12 through 16 which were unveiled on all of the PBA Network’s outlets last week. Here are those final moments:

• 1) Don Johnson‘s 299 game in the championship game of the 1970 Firestone Tournament of Champions. He fell to floor after leaving a 10 pin on his final shot, rising to a standing ovation at Riviera Lanes.
• 2) Eddie Elias‘ meeting with PBA’s 33 founding members in Syracuse, N.Y., in 1958.
• 3) Kelly Kulick becoming the first woman to win a PBA Tour title in the 2010 PBA Tournament of Champions in Las Vegas.
• 4) Pete McCordic winning a $100,000 bonus with a nerve-wracked 300 game on ABC-TV in 1987.
• 5) Pete Weber striking in the 10th frame to claim a record fifth U.S. Open title by one pin in 2012, then uttering his famous phrase, “Who Do You Think You Are, I Am!”
• 6) Earl Anthony surpassing the $1 million career earnings milestone for the first time in winning the 1982 PBA National Championship.
• 7) Del Ballard Jr., needing two strikes and 7 pins to win the 1991 Fair Lanes Open over Pete Weber, gets the first two but rolls a gutter ball on his last shot to lose.
• 8) Mark Roth becoming the first player to convert the 7-10 split in a 1980 televised PBA final.
• 9) Bob Learn Jr. throws 44 out of a possible 48 strikes, including a 300 game, for a record four-game TV total of 1,129 pins to win the PBA Flagship Open in an arena in his hometown of Erie, Pa., in 1996.
• 10 & 11) A tie between the 2011 TOC from Red Rock in Las Vegas where Mika Koivuniemi defeated Tom Daugherty in the biggest margin of victory ever, 299-100 (lowest game ever bowled on TV) and then goes on to win the $250,000 record first prize. It was the PBA’s first live telecast on ABC-TV since 1997. And also tied for 10th, Randy Pedersen needed a strike to defeat Ernie Schlegel to win the 1995 Touring Players Championship, but his seemingly perfect shot left a stone 8 pin, prompting Schlegel to go into a wild celebration.
• 12) Jack Biondolillo bowled the first nationally televised 300 game in PBA history during the finals of the 1967 Firestone Tournament of Champions, defeating Les Schissler, 300-216, in the second match of the finals and earning a $10,000 perfect game bonus. Biondolillo then lost to Don Johnson in the semifinal match, 228-172, and Jim Stefanich defeated Johnson, 43-36, in a two-frame roll-off for the title after they tied at 227.
• 13) In 1991, Pete Weber won his third BPAA U.S. Open title at Woodland Bowl in Indianapolis, throwing 10 consecutive strikes after a spare and ending the match with a 10 pin to defeat Mark Thayer, 289-184. During the trophy presentation, Weber famously hoisted the trophy only to have the ceramic eagle topple to the ground and shatter.
• 14) In 1962, ABC Sports began its “Pro Bowlers Tour” series coverage with the Empire State Open. Hall of Fame broadcaster Chris Schenkel was in the booth for the first broadcast.
• 15) In the spring of 2000, the PBA was purchased by former Microsoft executives Chris Peters, Mike Slade and Rob Glaser. PBA headquarters were later relocated to Seattle after spending the first 42 years in Akron, Ohio.

To review all 60 memorable moments, click here.

PBA Regional Update: Brad Angelo wins second regional title in Ohio

Brad Angelo (center, with proprietors Rose and Tom Efremedes) of Lockport, N.Y. defeated Charlie Brown Jr. of Grandville, Mich. by four pins Sunday to win the PBA Taylor Kia Central Open presented by Hammer at Holiday Bowl in Struthers, Ohio.

Angelo, a two-time PBA Tour titlist, finished with a 8-4 match play record and a total of 5,071 pins for 20 games, including match play bonus pins, for his second PBA Regional title and first since 2006. The 48-year-old Angelo earned $2,500 in his 49th PBA Regional over a span of 26 years as a PBA member. Brown posted an 8-4 match play record and knocked down 5,067 pins to earn the $1,350 runner-up prize.

Brad Miller (left) from Maryland Heights, Mo., after losing his first two matches in the eight-game round robin finals, used games of 279 and 290 to vault to the lead and then held off Austin Boulds of Creal Springs, Ill., to claim his second PBA Regional title at the 11th annual PBA Junction City Bowl Southwest/Midwest Open presented by Dexter on Sunday in Junction City, Kan.

Miller took a 60-pin lead over Boulds into their position round match where the title came down to the final frame. Thanks to an early string of strikes, Boulds had a chance to claim the title, but a 4-9 split in the 10th frame ended his bid. Despite winning the game, 244-225, Boulds was unable to overcome Miller’s lead. Miller survived, 4,778-4,767 including match play bonus pins, for the $2,500 first prize.

Kole Payne of Charlotte, N.C., won his first PBA title and a $2,500 prize Sunday, defeating amateur Brian Dennis of Creedmoor, N.C., 213-190, to win the inaugural PBA Sandhills Aberdeen South Open at Sandhills Bowling Center in Aberdeen, N.C.

Payne, who qualified third for the stepladder finals with a 16-game pinfall of 3,374, mowed down three opponents in his second PBA event as a member. In first stepladder match, he defeated Zack Brown of Holly Springs, N.C., 236-182, and he then eliminated five-time PBA Tour champion Dick Allen of Columbia, S.C., 236-197, in the semifinal match.

Mother’s Day weekend, May 11-13, includes these PBA Regional events: the PBA50 and PBA Baldo Campana Memorial/Ohio Lottery Central Open doubleheader (PBA50 presented by MOTIV, one-day reduced entry fee PBA presented by DV8) at Rebman Recreation in Lorain, Ohio; the Oklahoma City Southwest Open at Planet Bowl in Oklahoma City; the PBA and PBA50 FiX Auto of Puyallup Open doubleheader (PBA50 presented by Sunset Auto Group; PBA presented by The Old Cannery) at Daffodil Bowl in Puyallup, Wash., and the PBA-PWBA Jim’s Strike Zone Pro Shop Northwest Open presented by Daffodil Bowl and Vise, also in Puyallup.

The only event on PBA’s Regional calendar for the May 18-20 weekend is the Waxahachie Southwest Challenge at Hilltop Lanes in Waxahachie, Texas.

The May 24-26 PBA Regional schedule includes the PBA and PBA50 Vanessa Brown Homes West Open (PBA presented by Track, PBA50 presented by Ebonite); the Colony Park Lanes East Challenge presented by Columbia 300 in York, Pa., and the Celeste Walker Midwest/Central Open presented by American Family Insurance at Strike-N-Spare II in Lockport, Ill.

For complete PBA Regional schedules, rules and entry information, click here to find the event(s) in your area.

Quick Notes

PBA member Michael J. Jackson of Brook Park, Ohio, died on April 30, four days after his 52nd birthday. Jackson had been a member since 2000. He bowled in six PBA Regional events without winning a title. Funeral services were held on May 3 in Brunswick, Ohio.

The PBA has learned that former member Julius Glockner of Raeford, N.C., died on April 27 from cancer. He was 78. A native of Croatia, Glockner was a 26-year U.S. Army veteran who served in Vietnam, Germany and Korea.

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