TNBA's Reed Hawthorne Singles Classic enters 52nd year

[Theo McNair]

TNBA's Reed Hawthorne Singles Classic enters 52nd year

2/20/11

By Gianmarc Manzione
USBC Communications

CLEVELAND, Ohio—So many people stopped Jesse Smith to shake his hand as he wandered back to the tournament office after averaging 270 in his opening block at The National Bowling Association’s Reed Hawthorne Singles Classic that it took him about 20 minutes to get there.

With high games of 299 and 290, Smith of Garfield Heights, Ohio posted a five-game total of 1,351 to take a commanding lead at Freeway Lanes in Cleveland, and he had done it at one of the country’s most competitive amateur tournaments.

“That’s why I come here. There’s a lot of good bowlers here,” said Smith, who is bowling the tournament for the seventh consecutive year. “There aren’t many tournaments where you can get a whole bunch of good bowlers in one scratch event.”

Anthony Buonanno, who made the trip to Cleveland from Belleville, N.J. to bowl the Reed Hawthorne for the 15th time and shot 300 in qualifying, agrees.

“I come to Cleveland because the shot is usually tougher out here. You really have to make good shots on this pattern to compete,” he says, “and a lot of good bowlers show up for this tournament.”

Now in its 52nd year, the Reed-Hawthorne Memorial Singles Classic draws only the finest amateur talent from coast to coast. They come for the history. They come for the camaraderie. They come because they know that to go home a Reed Hawthorne champion is to go home knowing you have beaten the best that amateur bowling has to offer.

"This tournament has the feel of a PBA Regional; it has that kind of talent in the field," says 2009 Reed Hawthorne Classic Senior Division champion, Ron Holt of Lothian, Md. "Winning in 2009 meant everything to me; this tournament was actually very high on my list of tournaments to win."

This year’s field features a USBC Masters champion in Brett Wolfe, former Team USA members in Fero Williams and Anita Manns, and former collegiate All-Americans such as Kayla Bandy and Steve Novak. Williams began the final day of the tournament in second place behind Jesse Smith, while Bandy, in just her first appearance at the Reed Hawthorne, led her squad after the first block and remains in the top ten alongside perennial TNBA standouts like Manns.

“This tournament has been awesome to bowl,” said Bandy of Pikeville, Ky., who spent four years as a standout on the Pikeville College bowling team. “They have a family atmosphere here even though it gets pretty intense when we’re on the lanes. Overall it’s just a really good time.”

That “family feel” is the kind of atmosphere bowlers have come to expect of the TNBA, a 72-year-old organization that since 1939 has prided itself as a "promoter of sportsmanship, friendship and fellowship." But that doesn't mean it's all fun and laughs on the lanes, says Holt.

"Anyone around here who likes bowling should come and watch Sunday," he said of the tournament's final day, when bowlers battle for spots in the stepladder finals. "I've been coming here every year since 1985, and I can tell you that things get very intense on Sunday."

Vying for his second Senior Division title in three years, Holt finds himself in the top ten as those who made the cut in each of three divisions--Men's, Women's and Seniors--return to Freeway Lanes today for a shot at the kind of glory that Holt seized in 2009. After a block of qualifying this morning, the field will be cut down once again for a final four games of qualifying before the stepladder finals this afternoon. Be sure to check back in with BOWL.com to see which bowlers will be able to call themselves Reed Hawthorne Singles Classic champions in 2011.