BY EARL WRIGHT

JEDDAH — JP Gilas IV fought a neck-and-neck battle for Team of the Week honors with tailender Crime Buster before getting its share of the weekly awards during the 13th session in the FTBJ-ICBL 39th Conference bowling tournament at the Sultanah Mall’s Bowling City on Tahlia Street here.

On the day, both teams had their chances of a breakthrough victory but Gilas was the one to pull through, scoring 41.5 points to Crime Buster’s 40.

Ekis Reload, which struck for victory during the third week, was a distant third on 29 points followed by league leader The Synergy International 27, Lance &3rdy 26 and FGS Bowlers, who returned 25.5 points.

Dabarkads posted 20 points in seventh place during the session while the previous week’s honoree Bowling City was 2.5 points back on 17.5. Mixed Nuts tallied 15 points with Cash Pinas-Fawri and Jeraisah the last two to check in with 14.5 and 8 points respectively.

Rene Punzalan was on the money, rolling the high series of 718 to complete a Team of the Week and men’s Bowler of the Week double for JP Gilas, which was pushed all the way by Crime Buster until it shot the better output of 2, 968-2, 961 for the first-place points of 11.

On a day when the Punzalan family of bowlers had a blast Rene’s wife Lourdes tallied 529 and their son Mark added 54.

Randy Mata and Jeanette Cerbito carded 592 and 590 to lend strong support to Rene in the Friday afternoon league event sponsored by by Harvest Coconut Water juice drink, distributed by Binzagr Co., through Marketing Manager Raju Nair.

Crime Buster while it missed out on team honors had a reason to cheer after Babes Yushimie claimed the ladies Bowler of the Week plum on 607. Luz Pagaran made it a ladies’ day at Crime Buster after her 602 ranked in the top two scores along with Yushimie’s 607. Lito delos Reyes had 579 and Jaime Reynoso added 572 to go with the 212-181 by Jimmy Urbano and 196 by Lito Zamudio.

Faisal Relativo sustained his Bowler of the Week award-winning display from lat week by shooting 616 at the helm of Ekis with Malu Relativo and Alma Bacero, from the distaff side, backing Faisal up with 568 and 522 respectively. George Mangaliman contributed 560 as the other player to do full games while Zaldy Bacero made 202-203 and Fadi Al Hadad had 162.

TSI bowlers had Shams Mustafa as the top scorer on 453 in the five-man rotation that included Nor Azmi Rodin 587, Abdul Rashid 563, Rozana 538 and Grace Funtilon 512.

Team standings (Week 13):

1. The Synergy International 412.0 points 2. Lance &3rdy 376.5 3. Bowling City 328.0 4. Ekis Reload-4 326.5 5. FGS Bowlers 318.0 6. JP Gilas IV 318.0 7. Dabarkads 302.5 8. Cash Pinas-Fawri 282.5 9. Mixed Nuts 274.5 10. Jeraisah 269.5 11. Crime Buster 229.0