West Side Lanes, Taft’s brand new lanes that just opened this past September, held its first ever tournament on Sunday, January 8. It was a No-Tap Tournament and brought out nearly thirty local bowlers and for most of them it was their first-ever bowling tournament experience!

Bowlers needed to be at least 16 years of age or older to compete and see if they could knock down nine pins and get a strike for it! The highest scratch series won a cash prize. Results were as follows: 1^st – Mike Maloy (737); 2^nd – Ed Wheeldon (697); 3^rd – Jeff Cramer (611); and 4^th Chris Clepper (596).

Tournament time is fast approaching for local junior bowlers that enjoy the competitive challenge against other juniors from around the state of California. For many junior bowlers local tournaments are good for practicing their skills, but nothing beats the true challenge of a different town, different lanes, different bowling competitors and the butterflies in one’s belly as the tournament practice fires up!

This year will have plenty of action as our local juniors try their luck out of town in the Pepsi Tournament or the 2012 Youth Championships open to all California USBC Youth bowlers.

The Pepsi Tournament will be finishing up its last week of local qualifying next weekend and then it’s on to the District finals for all the different districts in the state. Our local juniors will be participating in the District 5 finals at Buena Lanes in Ventura the weekend of March 24-25, 2012 with the District winners moving on to the Pepsi State Finals on May 5-6, 2012, at Fountain Bowl in Fountain Valley, CA.

The annual GEUSBC (Golden Empire United States Bowling Congress) Mixed City Tournament will take place the last weekend of January (28-29) at AMF Southwest Lanes. Event will feature the Mixed Team event both days at 10am and then the Mixed Doubles event both days starting at 1:30pm. There are two divisions—Adult and Senior. Cost to enter is $25 per person per event. Entry forms are available at local centers or you can download one from the GEUSBC website (www.geusbc.org). Pre-entries need to be in by this Wednesday, January 18, or you can enter the day of the event provided you are there an hour prior to the squad you wish to bowl and there is room. Don’t have a team? You can enter as an individual and we will find a team for you. This is a handicapped tournament. For information, contact Chris Addington at 661/345-1627.

This year’s CUSBC (California United States Bowling Congress) Youth State Tournament will be hosted by the Orange County USBC starting June 23^rd and running every weekend through July 29^th.

Team event will be held at Forest Lanes in Lake Forest, with Doubles and Singles being held at Saddleback Lanes in Mission Viejo.

Every Saturday night during the tournament, Forest Lanes will also host the Queens & Masters, Prince & Princess, and Dukes & Duchess for each age and average group of junior bowlers. Flyers should be available at all local bowling centers or online at email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or download from their website www.calusbc.com. Entries close on May 1, 2012, so get your forms filled out and sent in on time!

Our sincere condolences to the families of Larry Hunt and Jerry Clark whom we both lost recently. Hunt passed away on January 6 and Clark on January 12.

Larry Hunt was still an active member of the African-American bowling league on Friday nights at Regency as he had been for many years.

Jerry Clark had bowled at Regency up until a year or so ago. He bowled in the Royal Mixed Five league and later joined the senior day leagues at Regency.

Several local bowlers took time out of their busy holiday schedule on Thursday, December 22, to schedule a one-on-one lesson with bowling coach to the PBA Stars, Mark Baker at Regency Lanes.  This was the second time Baker came to Bakersfield and this stop was made possible thanks to Diz Francisco.  

The six that took part were Kent Gray, Bette Addington, Carlie Medina III, Aris C. Anadilla, and Barb and Keri Francisco.  (The Francisco’s have had previous lessons from Baker at his famous Camp Bakes which is a four-day bowling lesson extravaganza.) 

Most of the participants have bowled for many years with the exception of Keri Francisco.  Gray, Medina and Anadilla have all competed in PBA Regionals and have had their share of many bowling honor scores over the years.  The Francisco’s and myself bowl State and National tournaments and are league bowlers.  Baker had his share of variety of styles and level of bowlers with this group!

The annual Bowler’s Edge Pro Shop Christmas Raffle had three big winners this year with each receiving a bowling ball and pair of shoes of their choice.

Don Williams, John Lloyd and Bill Mathews were this year’s lucky Grand Prize Winners plus many other nightly and weekly winners.  With nearly $4,000 in winners for the nightly and weekly winners, this holiday season was extra special for many who are already sporting their new equipment.