The Silver Sliders claim the AALC!

In what proved to be an exciting fun filled 2 days in Springfield, IL, the Silver Sliders of Cambridge House Maryville took the highly coveted inaugural AALC Illinois State Wii Bowling Championship over the Eagle Ridge Eagles. The atmosphere at the Abraham Lincoln Hotel was competitive down to the final frame, but even during the most fierce moments of competition, sportsmanship and camaraderie were ever present.

The championship round was followed by a luncheon celebrating the four finalist's accomplishment of making it to the Finals, as well as the overall success of the AALC "Missing Piece" Week. Trophies were passed out, speeches were made, and even a birthday was celebrated!

A special thanks goes out to Wayne Smallwood for organizing the AALC Wii bowling tournament and putting all of the pieces in place in order to host such an amusing and amazing 2 days.

Our Champions: The SAS Strikers
Congratulations to the SAS Strikers for a successful defense of their title as National Champions of the National Senior League. Over the course of 7 weeks these folks kept themselves in the hunt and qualified as one of the top 64 teams out of 144 for the playoffs. It was here that their experience as the title holders began to pay off. As the field narrowed down after each round the Strikers continued to advance and most importantly, IMPROVE. Coming into the final 4 they faced the improbable task of defeating the highest scoring team in the league, the Cedar Creek Crushers. NOT PHASED EVEN A LITTLE they came out on top. Next task, beat the team that finished ahead of them in their conference. "BRING THEM ON!" was heard coming from the Boca Raton area.
The Strikers took a quick and sizable lead over the Wood Choppers in game 1 behind the perfect game of Ace bowler Joe Riccobene. After 1 game they lead 1009 to 886 as some early game jitters hit the rookie playoff team from Lakeland. Coach Oris Martin let the Strikers know that victory was in their grasp. A little further north coach Jerry Schmidt let the Wood Choppers know they no longer had any pressure left on them as the game was not so much theirs to win now as it was the Strikers to lose. What a brilliant strategy on his part as the Wood Choppers put up an impressive 1000 points to 926 for the Strikers.
We had a split match at this point with the Strikers taking game 1 and getting 2 points and the Wood Choppers taking game 2 and getting 2 points. Do the math and the Strikers get 1 more NSL point for having a 1935 total for the match to 1886 for the Wood Choppers. This gave them 3 NSL points and the victory.

Thank you so much to everyone who bowled, cheered, organized, and reported. We hope you had fun and will be back in August when we do it all again.