Friends & Foes Tournament is Huge Success!
St. Louis is a bowling market saturated with 9-Pin No-Taps. Every weekend you can find at least two being ran in several local bowling centers. I'm a creator, and doing the same thing over and over again begins to bore me. Bowlers flock to 9-pins, but I wanted to try something different, yet target the same audience.
It's with these thoughts that I created the Friends & Foes four person team event at Shrewsbury Lanes in conjunction with Ray Orf's Pro Shop. Ray Orf's also had an Ebonite Demo Day with two shifts at Shrewsbury earlier in the day. The format for the tournament is complex, but interesting at the same time. For a $50 entry, each bowler received their first drink free, a $20 gift certificate to Ray Orf's Bowling & Trophy Shop, four games of traditional bowling, and the opportunity to win more free drinks while striking with a colored head pin. Over 260 drinks were given away by Shrewsbury Lanes!
Also, each bowler was eligible to cash in singles, doubles, and team event. All three events were handicapped taking 80% from 220. Singles consisted of your personal four game total with handicap. Doubles had the leadoff and second bowler pairing up and the third and fourth bowler competing together. The team event was for all four members, but only the best 3 scores per game were used. In other words, the lowest individual score with handicap was dropped in the team event.
In addition, 35 trivia questions were asked throughout the night with the winners receiving $100 cash team prize. 2nd place received Insidebowling.com t-shirts, and 3rd received Ray Orf's bowling towels. The trivia concept is widely used for charitable events in the St. Louis area, and I thought it would mix in well for this unique event. The winners of the trivia contest were B & B, second place went to Platter Full of Nums, and third was Bill's Sheep.
The fun didn't stop there as music was being played all night. During the 2nd game, strike pot tickets were sold for $1 each or 6 for $5. At the completion of the 2nd game, 8 tickets were drawn for 7 $80 shots and 1 $61 shot. In this event, you had to throw a natural strike to receive the prize. Anything else, left you with nothing.
$4 handicap and scratch brackets were available for bowlers, which resulted in 64 total brackets.
During the night, Ray Orf's also raffled off two high performance bowling balls donated by Columbia 300 and Track.
The event had room for 24 teams, and we fell just short with 22 teams for the first year. I was very pleased with this turn out and know this tournament will fill in the future. Bowlers came from all over the area to participate and I fielded many positive comments during and after the event.
Some of the highlights included a team coming out of retirement and hauling their bowling balls in a shopping cart when they entered the building, another team being thrown together as strangers, a group of Angry Gingers bowling together, and some asking their closest friends to bowl this fun tournament with them. This event appealed to all skill levels, which was a first for Insidebowling.com.
The success of the tournament really was due to 3 businesses working together. Jim Bulinski from Shrewsbury Lanes had banners printed and flyers all throughout his bowling center for two months leading up to the event. Rich Orf and his staff at Ray Orfs' Bowling & Trophy Shop promoted the event over the counter and on their facebook page. In addition, Rich's wife Sheila and children Andrew and Mary were a huge help throughout the night. Insidebowling.com promoted the event through their website, database and social media outlets. Special thanks to Jerry Anderson for bringing 3 teams from Redbird Lanes as well.
Singles paid out 22 spots with Tim Behrendt winning with a score of 991. Tim received $140 for first. Joe Nolan was second with 977 and took home $90. Third was Russ Fountain with 972 and received $60.
Doubles champions were Ryan Martin and Tim Behrendt with a winning score of 1884 which paid $150.
Team champions were the Angry Gingers (2793) which consisted of Tim Behrendt, Ryan Martin, Eddie Byrd and Chris Taylor. Team event paid $250 for first.
There will most likely be a Friends & Foes II Tournament before the end of the year. Check Insidebowling.com regularly for updates about future events.
