2018 Weber Cup Team Selections

source: bowlingdigital
Anthony Simonsen

source: bowlingdigital
Kyle Troup

source: bowlingdigital
L: Tommy Jones, R: Chris Barnes

source: Weber Cup
L to R: Dom Barrett, Martin Larsen, Jesper Svensson, Stu Williams

This year's Weber Cup will take place on June 15 - 17 at Arena MK, Milton Keynes. Team Europe looks to repeat for their sixth consecutive win. Team USA seeks their first win since 2012.

Team Europe's roster remains unchanged for the third year in a row.
Captain Dom Barrett, Martin Larsen, Jesper Svensson and Stu Williams.

Team USA has struggled badly the past three years and hopes to recapture glory days with the return of two former Weber Cup bowlers: Tommy Jones and Chris Barnes. Barnes will resume duties as Team USA's captain.

The only returning member from USA last year is Kyle Troup. This will be Troup's third Weber Cup. New to Weber Cup for Team USA is Anthony Simonsen. I like USA's combination of youth and experience, but not sure it will be enough to match Europe's chemistry, experience and fire power.

As an American, I'd like to see Team USA do well, but I'm partial to Team Europe. Based on the number of blog entries I've written on him over the years, it's been no secret how much I like Dom Barrett. I also think Europe is a better team and predict they will prevail. If they don't, I won't be heartbroken about it either.

Good luck to both teams.

PWBA US Open Championship / Weber Cup 2016 - Congrats Team Europe

source: PWBA
Liz Johnson, 2016 PWBA US Open Champion

source: Weber Cup
L to R: Jesper Svensson, captain Dom Barrett, Stu Williams, Martin Larsen

Big day of bowling in Addison (Chicago area), Illinois and Manchester, England.

CBS Sports broadcasted live this morning the PWBA US Open Championship Finals.

Kudos to CBS Sports Network for bringing in Dave Lamont for the play-by-play call. He's very articulate and has an encyclopedic knowledge of the game. Unfortunately, we didn't get to hear very much due to poor audio throughout the entire match.

Liz Johnson began as the #4 seed to step up the ladder to capture her 5th US Open title over longtime Team USA member Shannon Pluhowsky.

Special recognition to Singapore's Shayna Ng (2nd seed, 3rd place finish), New Hui Fen (3rd seed, 4th place finish) and Jazreel Tan (10th) for their strong Top 10 finish.

Across the Atlantic Ocean, Team Europe for the 4th consecutive year won Weber Cup 19-11 over Team USA. As it was last year, Team Europe was the much stronger, more experienced team.

In my humblest of opinions, if Team USA is going to remain competitive in Weber Cup, they need to reassess the team selection. Maybe even bold enough to include a woman. And for those of you who regularly read this blog, you know I'm talking about Marshall Kent's girlfriend, Danielle McEwan.

Why? She's 24, got tons of international experience and has shown she's bowled well with men in PBA League and tournaments outside the United States. Without pointing fingers, let's just say the frequent flier miles for Team Europe are a lot higher than Team USA's.

Below is one of many Weber Cup matches from this past weekend. Big thanks to The European Bowling Channel for getting the videos so quickly to YouTube.



I'll close with the PWBA US Open semi-final match between Liz Johnson and Shayna Ng. I show this match because it was her third match in the stepladder to get her to the finals. She overcame a foul in the 10th frame and still won.

Thanks again to bowlingvideos4all for your tireless work to get these matches to YouTube as fast as you do.

Weber Cup 2016

source: Twitter @WeberCup
L: Parker Bohn III, R: Dom Barrett

On Friday, August 5, Weber Cup 2016 begins a series of bowling matches between Team Europe (host team) versus Team USA. First match is Baker format (each team member bowls 2 or more frames).

For Team Europe, Dom Barrett (captain), Martin Larsen, and Stuart Williams return from 2015. Sweden's Jesper Svensson will be making his Weber Cup debut. Earlier this year, Jesper was the youngest player at age 20 to win the PBA Tournament of Champions (see February 6, 2016 blog entry)

Team USA will have 2 returning members, Parker Bohn III (captain) and Wes Malott. Making their Weber Cup debuts are Marshall Kent and Kyle Troup.
NOTE: To the Weber Cup webmaster, the US states Marshall and Kyle are incorrectly listed. Marshall is from Washington, Kyle is from North Carolina.

I like that new blood has been brought in. Jesper is 21, Marshall is 23 and Kyle is 24. Last year, Team Europe pulverized (17-8, see October 21, 2015 entry) Team USA and I don't see that it'll be any different this year. Team Europe retained 3 of their 4 from 2015, which gives them a considerable advantage in depth and experience. However, I'd never count out Team USA as underdogs, especially with Marshall Kent.

The other notable change to Weber Cup this year is the World Bowling Tour point system. It was first shown on ESPN in February for the World Bowling Tour Championship (see February 21, 2016 entry).

As explained on Weber Cup's website:
World Bowling Scoring maintains the traditional 10-frame scoring format but awards 30 pins for a strike, 10 pins for a spare plus the pin fall of the first shot in the frame, and actual pin fall after two shots in an open frame. The maximum score is still 300 and this figure is based on the player receiving 10 consecutive strikes with no bonus pins being awarded in the 10th frame.

Like the 2-handed delivery, the WBT point system has its detractors. In my opinion, the sport needs to evolve in order to survive. With the PWBA in its second season and the PBA League now considered a success, evolution of the sport is happening whether you like it or not.

PBA on TV

source: Bowlingdigital.com
Jesper Svensson

Congratulations to Jesper Svensson of Sweden in becoming the youngest bowler (age 20) to win the PBA Tournament of Champions.

As I was at bowling practice this morning, I didn't get a chance to watch today's PBA TOC.  It's programmed in my DVR and will likely watch after the Super Bowl.

With the return of the PWBA and PBA's Summer Swing, it's wonderful for pro bowling followers like me to be able to see bowling nearly year round.

From October to April, ESPN or ESPN2 airs PBA matches on Sundays, From May to August/September, CBS Sports Network airs the PBA Summer Swing and will air PWBA matches.

There will always be complainers that want matches to air live on a broadcast network like ABC (as it did 50+ years ago) or CBS (instead of CBS Sports Network).

I'll put it gently. The 20th century ended 15 years ago. There are too many other sports venues with larger markets where bowling cannot compete. Not going to happen.

I realize CBS Sports Network for many of you is considered a premium channel and isn't part of the standard cable package.

Suggestion: Wait a week or so and watch it on PBA's YouTube channel. Nearly all the televised matches can be found there. Best part, most of the commercials have been taken out. NO TV ads. FREE.

Here's last week's DHC PBA Invitational Finals (bummed Dom Barrett lost, but very happy Amleto Monacelli won) :