Simpson Leads in Amateur Bowling

After rolling a 300 game and registering 15 strikes in a row a day earlier, Tammy Turner seemed to be breezing toward a the No. 1 spot for Saturday’s finals of the U.S. National Amateur Bowling Championships.

But when bowling the first 12 of 24 match-play games at Brunswick Premier Lanes Thursday, Turner felt a cool draft in the air.

It wasn’t the air conditioning, it was Joey Simpson breezing past her. Simpson blew through her 12 games, posting single-game scores of 248, 267 and 279, and turned a 193-pin deficit to Turner into a 165-pin lead.

“This is the best I’ve bowled in my life,” said Simpson, who was named Joyce but was tagged Joey because her parents wanted a boy. “I’ve never been away from home alone and bowled like this.”

She posted a 223.6 average in her six-game morning block then came back with a 222.6 in the evening, capping the day with a 279. Without the entourage that normally would have included her fiance, David Shuey, and her parents, this 5-foot-3, bespectacled bookkeeper from Lexington, Ky., was hardly noticed.

“I almost didn’t come, because (Shuey) couldn’t come with me,” she said. “But he told me to go and do the best I can. I know what this is all about--I was in this tournament two years ago--and I guess I’d be crazy to miss it.”

Simpson, 20, had no reason to skip it. She’s finished all the planning for her Sept. 5 wedding, which will include a honeymoon in the Bahamas. If she finishes in the top six here, she’ll also be making stops in Europe, Africa and the Far East as a member of Team USA.

The only way she’ll miss is if she gives up 355 pins to seventh-place Nancy Ennis of Clyde, Calif., in the final 12 match-play games today. Turner of West Palm Beach, Fla., is second, holding a 23-pin advantage over Leslie Beamish of Wichita, Kan.

“I’ve just got to make my spares and take my strikes as they come,” said Simpson, who filled her scorecards with X’s Thursday. “I want to coast (today). I want to have fun.”

In the men’s competition, David Garber of Bedford, Tex., moved from fourth to the top spot but leads Vince Biondo by only 10 pins through two match-play blocks.

Garber, 22, who plays at Wichita State, was No. 1 after the qualifying round but had to rally Thursday night after a cold morning session. He averaged 194.6 in his first six-game block, 218.5 in the second.

Biondo of Hoffman Estates, Ill., jumped from 12th to second with six 200-plus games in the second block, including a 259 and a 266 while averaging 237.1.

“The lanes were very slick this morning,” Garber said. “They oiled them out to 42 feet. Tonight, they cut it back to I think 34 feet. That’s a condition I prefer.”

Bowling Notes

The top six male and female finishers in this tournament will make Team USA, an amateur all-star squad that trains one week each year at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs and competes in international tournaments. There will be at least seven new names on the Team USA roster; five current members have qualified. But defending amateur champions Paul Fleming of Lincoln, Neb., and Julie Gardner (two years running) failed to qualify for match play, despite getting exemptions. . . . The atmosphere here was subdued because of the unexpected death of one of its officials. Colleagues said Dave Dodd of San Diego, secretary/treasurer of the San Diego Bowling Assn. since 1986, died at home early Thursday. He served as co-chairman of the host committee in the tournament.