Gotencio and Edwards climb qualifying standings in Godfathers Tournament

Emerson Gotencio and AJ Edwards moved into prime position to advance directly into the third round following the latest night of qualifying Monday in The Godfathers Tournament, currently being played at Funland Centre. Needing to finish in the top two of their respective groups in order to bypass the ensuing second stage, Gotencio and Edwards each put in fine performances to keep their hopes alive of claiming such a privilege. Gotencio rolled the daily high series of 727 amongst the elite bowlers of Group A while Edwards had a 618 score to top the beginners of Group C. With both trials, both bowlers climbed to second place in their division standings with only two days remaining in the qualification stage.

The current phase ends Wednesday (May 29) night. At the end of this, behind each group’s top two, those ranked third through 12th move on to the second round of play. Round Three then follows, after which the Step-ladder Final Round will take place. These stages will be held on Thursday and Friday (May 30 and 31) at Funland. The Godfathers Tournament is being held in memory of the late Murtadha Qudrat Rasti and the late Shaikh Ebrahim bin Mohammed Al Khalifa. In Group A of qualifying on Monday, Gotencio’s 727 was his best of the tournament to date and it added to his other top scores of 717 and 710.

The Philippine national team bowler improved to a 239.3 average and 2,154 total – just three pinfalls shy of matching division leader and Bahraini star Fawaz Abdulla. Abdulla boasts a 239.7 average and 2,157 total from his best three games. Both he and Gotencio will be hoping to hold on to their top places with many of their rival bowlers still within striking distance. Among them is Abdulla Abdulkarim who ranked third with counts of 238.6 and 2,147, while American Dante Tisdom was fourth and Filipino JM Villanueva fifth.

Sixth through 12th at the end of Monday night were Yousef Falah, Mohammed Al Mannai, Ahmed Fareed, Ahmed Algaoud, Ahmed Almalki, Abdullah Aldulaijan and Ahmed Alkhaja. In Group C, Edwards’s 618 was his top score of the competition. His others were 550 and 543, and it helped raise his average to 190.1 with a 1,711 total. The American remained behind leader Hisham Mohammed who owns a 196.3 average and 1,767 total, while fellow-Bahraini Layla Janahi was ranked third with marks of 187.4 and 1,687.

Leah Siruno, Maricel Sultan and Ahmed Refacs were fourth through sixth, while completing the top 12 with a chance to move on to the next round were Joses Garcia, Albert Barrozo, Ali Mahmoud, Ahmed Alansari, Khalid Al Qaed and Cora Jabile. Meanwhile, also excelling on Monday night was Joel Bacunawa, who played the day’s high series of 652 amongst the intermediate bowlers of Group B. Bacunawa had his best trial of the tournament thus far, having added to his other top scores of 645 and 592.

He improved his average to 209.9 from a 1,889 total as he inched closer towards a place in the top 12, having climbed to 15th place. The top three remained unchanged with Mustafa Qaed (230.7, 2,076) leading the way, followed by Ali Abdulla (225.7, 2,031) and Abdulrahman Alali (224.0, 2,016). The rest of the group’s best 12 include Mohammed Mahmoud, Essa Taqi, Patrick Toney, Abdulla Almurbati, Shaker Daraj, Mohammed Alansari, Siddiq Siddiq, Tin-Tin Cruz and Isa Khalid.