Senior bowlers display their skills in monthly play
Once a month, the best senior bowlers in the tricounty area put forth their best efforts trying to win cash prizes and bragging rights.
Fort Lauderdale’s Stan Stempien, who serves as director of the Competitive Senior Bowling Tournament at Manor Lanes in Wilton Manors, loves the event asmuchfor the camaraderie as the competitiveness among the senior bowlers.
“It is an avenue for competition for the older guys and gals, but I also think it is great fun (for everybody),” said the 78-year-old Stempien, one of the founders of the nine-year-old tournament. “We have people (up to) 89 years old. The camaraderie is great.”
The invitational handicap tournament is for men andwomen age 50 and over who carry aminimum average of 160 or better. The handicap basis is 80 percent of 230, with an additional 21⁄ percent earned with each additional five years of age.
Stempien noted that the main group of bowlers is in the 60-70 age range.
“We do everything by word of mouth and people are always finding other people to come in,” he continued. “We don’t really need to recruit andwe have new bowlers every month.”
While the majority of participants are from Broward and Palm Beach counties, the popularity of the tournament is far-reaching as bowlers come from as far away as Miami and Port St. Lucie.
Stempien, who himself averages 196 on the lanes, said the monthly play has continued to grow. The first tournament had only eight bowlers, but has expended to the point where over the past three years there have been as many as 50 bowlers for any given event.
With the goal being to provide fair and balanced play, the present format places bowlers of the same age and ability together and includes the staggered handicap system.
“When we started, we had no idea that the tournament would grow like it has,” Stempien said. “We started it because we got tired of bowling against all of the younger (bowlers) ...so we reached out to the seniors and compete against people our own ages and skill level.”
Stempien crafted the first board of directors that includedLonHoehne, Forrest Fitzrandolph, CharlieTodd, Tony Nuzzi, Tony Mincey and Walter Smith. As a group, their first order of business was to approve and ran two test tournaments 2008.
“We have had over 300 participants in all during that time,” Stempien said. “In 2016, we had 154 bowlers and probably averaged over 50 players each tournament.” in June and July of
The tournament takes place on the second Sunday of every month at Manor Lanes. Sign-in is from 9:30-10:30 a.m. and the bowling starts at 11 a.m. Bowlers have four games of qualifying and the top five will move on to the matchplay finals. The $40.
Stempien also mentioned that there isanannualTournament of Champions event where anyone who has won a tournament over the nine years of the monthly games is eligible to entry fee is compete.
For more information, call Stempien at 954-583-7353 or email him at stempiens@comcast.net.
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