At Sunday night’s draw party at Bayside Bowl to determine the Round of 64 pairings for the Professional Bowlers Association Xtra Frame Maine Shootout, Terry Robinson of Gray learned he would compete the following morning against a Hall of Famer with more than $4 million in winnings.

“I don’t know every guy up on that board,” Robinson said, “but Walter Ray (Williams Jr.), I followed him as a kid.”

Robinson, 39, not only bowled against a man he called an idol.

He beat him.

Alternating between Lanes 9 and 10 late Monday morning at Bayside Bowl, Robinson overcame a shaky start and rallied to beat Williams 219-203 and 234-194, finishing off the match with six consecutive strikes to the delight of family and friends cheering him on.

“I told him that it was a huge honor to bowl against him,” Robinson said of Williams. “I have so much respect for these guys and the level that they bowl at.”

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Robinson was one of 10 Mainers who joined the 64-bowler single elimination tournament made up mostly of PBA Tour players, ponying up a $500 entry fee for the chance of a lifetime. The bracket-style event similar to the NCAA’s March Madness basketball tourney came on the heels of a made-for-ESPN team tournament featuring 40 of the top bowlers in the world on eight five-man squads.

The only other Mainer to win a match Monday was Scott Moore, 44, of Lewiston. After advancing through his first-round match against a regional bowler, Moore knocked off a former PBA Player of the Year, Sean Rash, in three games to advance to Tuesday’s Round of 16.

During the raucous team finals Sunday night, Moore was among the boisterous spectators who alternated between sing-song chants and cheers.

“There’s not too many professional events where you can hang out with the athletes while the event is going on,” he said Sunday night.

Bowling alongside them the following day, Moore said, was “very exciting, almost surreal.”

Outside the glass windows of Bayside’s industrial brick edifice, snow swirled on a cold, gray morning. Inside, however, were shouts and clinking glasses and a pub-like atmosphere interrupted but cacophonies of crashing tenpins.

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“For most of us,” said Jimmy Clark of Topsham, “it’s like a dream come true for them to come to Maine.”

Clark, 36, rolled the highest first-round scores of any of the Maine contingent, but had the unfortunate luck to be paired up with 26-year-old Anthony Pepe of Elmhurst, New York.

Pepe, one of 14 bowlers neither from Maine nor involved in the weekend tournament, was just a little bit better and won the first game by one point (259-258) and the second by six (229-223). Sporting long black sideburns and tattoos on each forearm, the left-handed Pepe said he knows Clark well from New England Bowling Association tournaments.

“I knew it was going to be a tough match,” he said. “When you’re in your hometown and you have a big crowd behind you, rooting for you, you feel looser with your swing, more comfortable. Things become a lot easier.”

Robinson needed a few frames before settling into a groove. After three spares, he left an open frame on a split. He didn’t roll a strike until his 11th ball. Meanwhile, Williams threw strikes in three of his first four frames.

In practice on Sunday, Williams said he was locked in. On Monday, however, he found trouble on Lane 9, to the left of the ball return.

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Rick Campbell, 57, of Phippsburg bowled along with Robinson and Williams. (Four bowlers share two lanes, alternating sides each frame.) A machinist at Bath Iron Works, Campbell said he was stubborn about delivering the ball outside as well, until it was too late.

“I know he can adjust better than he did (Monday),” Campbell said of Williams, who muttered to himself more than once during the match against Robinson. “I know he expected the ball to react a little differently than it did.”

Growing up in Brewer, Robinson started bowling at 8 in the former Heritage Lanes, an alley built by his grandparents. He moved to Portland a dozen years ago and bowls in two leagues. During the day, he’s a mortgage loan officer.

Until Monday, his only brush with the PBA Tour was competing in the 1999 U.S. Open in Connecticut as a star-struck 23-year-old. Now married with two young daughters, Robinson kept his cool throughout Monday’s match while a few of his buddies whooped and hollered at every strike or spare.

“When he’s locked in and he’s delivering it in the pocket, it’s something beautiful, it really is,” said Travis Bullard, 39, of Portland, a teammate of Robinson on the Strikes of Hazard. “We bowl with him weekly and we know how strong he is. He’s a powerhouse.”

Although Robinson lost a three-game Round of 32 match to Dan MacLelland of Windsor, Ontario, the morning victory over Williams gave hope to all the Mainers, including Moore, who took the day off from his job as inventory control manager at Hancock Lumber in Brunswick. He won his afternoon match over Sav Telesco of Stamford, Connecticut, despite not scoring higher than 203. Telesco had the first game in hand until leaving the 10th frame open, allowing Moore to steal a 186-179 victory.

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“I was getting ready to lose,” said Moore, who drew inspiration from 21-year-old Aaron Thiboutot of Brunswick pushing Rash to a third game in the opening round as well as Robinson advancing past Williams.

“It kind of gives you a little bit of the ‘It can be done’ thing,” he said. “If you can take out Walter Ray, the greatest of all time, then everybody’s vulnerable, right?”

On Monday, a pair of Mainers proved they belonged with the best of the bowling world. For a day, at least. And possibly two.

The championship match is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

“That was crazy,” Moore said Monday night. “In the first match, I don’t think that guy was a pro. But beating Sean Rash? That’s unbelievable.”

 


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