Andover, Massachusetts – May 11, 2009 – With his win Saturday at Bowling’s Clash of Champions tournament, Team Dexter’s Chris Barnes kept the title within the family for a second straight year.

Chris Barnes’ wife Lynda, also a member of Team Dexter’s Pro Staff and one of the premier female bowlers in the world, took home the title in last year’s Clash of Champions when she defeated Team Dexter’s Sean Rash in the finals. This year, Chris kept the title in the Barnes’ household by defeating collegiate star Rebekah Diers 257-207 in the title match.

Bowling’s Clash of Champions, a unique made-for-television event put on by the United States Bowling Congress, aired Saturday on CBS Sports. The field showcases sixteen champions of various events, ranging in age from teenagers to seniors, and features a generous total prize pool of $100,000.

“Rebekah bowled just terrific and her first six frames were way better than my first six frames,” said Barnes after their championship match. “She sure didn’t seem nervous about bowling (against) me in those first few frames.”

Rebekah Diers didn’t appear to be too nervous about bowling a former PBA Player of the Year. If she was, she overcame it early by opening with four consecutive strikes to start the match. However, in the seventh frame, Diers left a very difficult 4-6-7-10 split that she was unable to convert, thus sealing her fate for the match.

Barnes earned $50,000, and another impressive win to add to his astonishing bowling résumé.

Congratulations Chris!

Andover, Massachusetts – April 13, 2009 – After winning back-to-back titles for the first time in his career, Chris Barnes was named Bowling Writers Association of America’s Kegel Bowler of the Month for March.

Along with his two victories at the Don Johnson Buckeye State Eliminator and the Go RVing Match Play Championship, Barnes also used a third place and a fifth place finish to take home Player of the Month honors. His strong month also propelled him to 3rd in the PBA Player of the Year points race.

Congratulations Chris! Excellent job!

Andover, Massachusetts – April 13, 2009 – Carolyn Dorin-Ballard, one of the most successful women bowlers of all-time, won the inaugural PBA Women’s Series Showdown on Sunday.

Dorin-Ballard, the number one seed in the tournament, scored an 11 in the championship round to get past Jodi Woessner and Stefanie Nation. The 11 that she rolled was one shot away from being perfect in the unique Johnny Petraglia scoring system, which was unveiled for the first time on national television for this event. Under the Petraglia system, players receive one point for each ball thrown in each frame, and the lowest total score wins.

Carolyn struggled in the first match, as she was the 5th out of five bowlers to move on, narrowly edging Michelle Feldman 17-18. After that, Dorin-Ballard picked up her game by rolling a television record twenty consecutive strikes (including 11 in a row in the Wild Card match) to secure the victory.

“I’m glad the women are back on television,” said an ecstatic Carolyn Dorin-Ballard after the championship match. The Women’s Series Showdown was an event in which the top six performers during the 2008-09 PBA Women’s Series could showcase their talents on a national stage. “With the help of the PBA, USBC, Brunswick, Dexter, Turbo and Kegel, it’s just a matter of time before other sponsors come forward and see the value of the women’s tour.”

Congratulations Carolyn on a well deserved win!

Andover, Massachusetts – March 23, 2009 – Chris Barnes, the reigning PBA Player of the Year, appears unwilling to give up that title without a fight. After winning the Go RVing Match Play Championship on Sunday, Barnes has vaulted himself back into the discussion for PBA Player of the Year Honors.

The Go RVing Match Play Championship is the PBA’s version of “March Madness” where 64 bowlers competed in a bracket style tournament for a $25,000 top prize and an exemption for the 2009-10 PBA Tour season. While some big names (Pete Weber, Sean Rash) were ousted in the first round of the tournament, third-seeded Chris Barnes and fifth-seeded Walter Ray Williams, Jr. met in the finals. The Team Dexter Staffers engaged in a three-game, total pinfall format in the finals to determine the winner.

Walter Ray got off to a tremendous start by striking in nine consecutive frames to start the opening game. In the tenth, he left the seven pin, and then uncharacteristically missed the single, leaving the door ajar for Barnes. Williams built a 26-point lead after the first game, besting Barnes 267-241, but with two games to go, Barnes seized the opportunity and took advantage of Williams’ mistake. Chris turned the tables and opened with nine consecutive strikes at the beginning of game two, while Walter Ray struggled, giving Barnes a 266-192 advantage in game two and a 48-pin lead into game three. While Walter Ray out-bowled Chris in game three 234-215, Barnes had built too big of a lead, and took home his twelfth career PBA Tour Title with a 722-693 victory.

“Three games was a big deal for me,” said Barnes after his win, acknowledging Walter Ray’s outstanding game one performance. “It gave me a chance to win.”

By virtue of his win Sunday and his victory two weeks ago at the Don Johnson Buckeye State Eliminator, Chris Barnes has now won back-to-back titles for the first time in his illustrious career. These two victories have suddenly positioned Chris to be a major factor in this year’s PBA Player of the Year race. Barnes trails only Wes Malott and Norm Duke in the points race, and he knows that the only way he’ll have a chance to retain his Player of the Year crown is to win the upcoming U.S. Open.

“Things seem to be going my way right now,” Chris said on Sunday. “The U.S. Open is the toughest tournament of all to win. I will need that to happen to have a chance.”

Before taking his best shot at the U.S. Open, Chris and the other PBA stars will stop in West Babylon, NY for the next PBA Tour stop and compete in the Bowling Foundation Long Island Classic. The championship round will be televised on ESPN on Sunday, March 29th.

Andover, Massachusetts – March 9, 2009 – Chris Barnes was in an almost no-win situation coming into the 2009 Buckeye State Eliminator in Columbus, Ohio. The reigning champion of this event, Barnes would have to temper the expectations of repeating as champion and overcome the burden of not winning this season despite his five previous television appearances. With all of those intangible factors floating around, Barnes honed in and focused on the task at hand, winning for the first time this season by overcoming the Eliminator format.

Getting to the TV final has not been the issue for Barnes, as he made his 6th appearance this season under the lights in Columbus on Sunday. Unfortunately for Chris, the grueling stepladder tournaments have been difficult to navigate. Sunday brought a change – the eliminator format – in which all bowlers would bowl a game and the lowest score would fail to advance to the subsequent rounds. This format lasts all the way until the championship round when it reverts to a standard match format. First, 2007-08 PBA Rookie of the Year Rhino Page was eliminated by virtue of his 202. In the next round, Mike Scroggins was shown the door after his 218 left him on the outside looking in. It then came down to two – Chris Barnes and Mika Koivuniemi – for the championship.

Chris Barnes and Mika Koivuniemi have a relationship that goes back years. The good friends are Team Dexter Staffers and PBA Tour roommates. On Sunday, both bowlers were looking to capture their ever-elusive first title of the 2008-09 season. Both players got off to solid starts, but Barnes capitalized during the middle of the game as Koivuniemi struggled to put together strikes. Mika had four consecutive nine-pin spares during the middle of the game, a stretch in which Chris responded with four consecutive strikes on his way to a 258-172 victory, his first of the 2008-09 PBA season.

“The hardest thing to do is to repeat with all the expectations that come from winning,” Barnes said after the match. “I survived. I have been there enough to put up with the heat. I like the competition and love bowling on Sunday. Chris also attributed some of his success to retired PBA Tour star Mark Baker, with whom he has recently worked to improve his game.

Were you paying close attention for Dexter sightings this weekend? If you were, you may have noticed that all four competitors – Page, Scroggins, Koivuniemi and Barnes were all wearing Dexter bowling shoes. Chris Barnes was even wearing the NEW SST8 in the white/black color. Watch for those to hit pro shops in July 2009!

Congratulations to Chris and Mika for their excellent performances this weekend, and continued success as the PBA Tour season hits the home stretch.

Andover, MA – March 4, 2009 – The Bowling Writers Association of America have named Team Dexter’s Lynda Barnes the 2008 Female Bowler of the Year! It was her first BWAA Female Bowler of the Year title. She can add that to her three BWAA Amateur Female Bowler of the Year titles, which she won in 1991, 1998 and 2001. Lynda beat out Liz Johnson and Dexter’s Carolyn Dorin-Ballard for the award.

The Barnes family almost made it a complete sweep of awards, as Lynda’s husband Chris, the 2007-08 PBA Player of the Year and fellow Team Dexter staff member, finished second in the BWAA Male Bowler of the Year chase behind Norm Duke. PBA All-Time wins leader Walter Ray Williams, Jr. finished fourth in the voting.

Congratulations to Lynda, Chris and Walter Ray for a great 2008!

Andover, Massachusetts – January 12, 2009 – All-Time PBA wins leader Walter Ray Williams, Jr. is considered by some to be the best bowler to ever grace the lanes. Walter Ray has exhibited undeniable talent, an ability to come through in the clutch, and has benefited from a few breaks along the way. On Sunday, at the PBA National Bowling Stadium Championship, Walter Ray was unfortunately on the wrong end of a historically bad break.

After a tremendous week of qualifying, Walter Ray secured the top spot of the stepladder format, where he awaited one of Wes Mallott, Chris Barnes, Patrick Allen and Bill O’Neill. Coming from the 5th slot, Patrick Allen dispatched of O’Neill and Barnes before defeating Mallott and setting up a showdown with the all-time wins leader.

In what was shaping up to be a back and forth match, both bowlers threw some great shots but also showed some vulnerability. Walter Ray got off to a somewhat slow start giving Allen, a guy who was pretty locked-in after previously bowling 3 matches on these lanes, an early lead. After Allen stumbled to the finish line, Walter Ray needed to double in the tenth for an unprecedented 46th career PBA Tour victory. In the tenth, his first shot was pristine, carrying all ten pins with an ease and grace expected from a battle-tested bowler like Walter Ray. Then, the unthinkable happened. On his next shot, Walter Ray left the 8-10 split, a virtually impossible spare pickup, and left the title for Allen with a 225-223 loss.

“I drifted a hair left on the second ball and didn’t get it to the right spot,” said a dejected Williams after the match. “Seeing the 8-pin standing was like somebody shot me. I got a few good breaks this week, I just needed one more.”

While Walter Ray was visibly frustrated about not winning career title #46, he did take home $13,000 for his efforts. Reigning PBA Player of the Year Chris Barnes took home a fourth place finish and $5,500. They will try to get back to the winner’s circle next week in Medford, Oregon at the Bayer Earl Anthony Classic.

Andover, Massachusetts – January 6, 2009 – What does it take to roll a perfect game? It undoubtedly takes careful strategy, undeniable skill, solid execution, and perhaps a touch of good fortune. Well if that’s the case, then what does it take to bowl THREE perfect games in a row for an astonishing 900 series? Maybe that’s a question that should be posed to Rich Jerome Jr. of Baltimore, Maryland.

On Monday, December 22, 2008, as he does every Monday, Rich went to Brunswick Perry Hall Lanes in Baltimore for his Monday Night Mixed League. In his first game, he bowled twelve strikes in a row, for an unblemished 300 game. Cool? Yes. Unprecedented for Rich? No. Over his eleven years previous years of bowling, he has bowled a perfect game ten times, so he wasn’t exactly in uncharted territory. Even after his second perfect game in a row, Rich remained calm and unfazed. After all, he had rolled his way to five previous 800+ series before, including a career-high 857 highlighted by two perfect games on November 3rd. His groove then continued as he worked his way into the third game.

“I started realizing I might have a shot at it in the seventh frame of the last game,” said Jerome, Jr., who admitted that he tried to just concentrate on the pins and not the mass of people that began to accumulate near his lane.

Rich’s focus and talent persevered as he finished his night with 36 (36!!!) consecutive strikes and a perfect 900 series. “After I finished, I looked around and it seemed like everyone there was on the settee area with me. It was very exciting,” Rich said afterward.

Rich has been competitively bowling for eleven years, and through all the perfect games and devastating splits, there has been one constant: Dexter bowling shoes. After bowling his perfect series, Rich decided to personally contact Dexter and thank them for continuously providing the best bowling shoes on the market today. Via email Rich said, “I was wearing a pair of Dexter SST7s [when I bowled my 900 series] and have been wearing Dexter shoes since I started bowling 11 years ago. I wanted to contact Dexter to personally thank you [Dexter Bowling Shoe Company] for putting out a quality shoe that enabled me to reach most bowlers’ dream of reaching a perfect set.” Glad we could help, Rich!

Rich is the second bowler in just under three years to attribute Dexter Bowling shoes as part of the equation for rolling a perfect 900 series. On February 13, 2006 Lonnie Billiter, Jr., of Fairfield, Ohio rolled a 900 series while wearing his trusted SST5s.

“First of all, congratulations to Rich Jerome, Jr. on this remarkable accomplishment,” said Bud Clapsaddle, Vice President of Dexter Bowling. “Dexter is proud to be a part of this special achievement with Rich, and we wish him continued success on the lanes. We promise to be there to provide him the best performance bowling footwear available anywhere!”

Andover, MA – December 8, 2008 – As one of the biggest ambassadors for the sport of bowling, Carolyn Dorin-Ballard has become revered for her work with the USBC and her work away from the lanes. On Sunday, however, she once again was a star on the lanes where she made a name for herself and built her legendary career.

In the PBA Women’s Series in Cheektowaga, NY, Carolyn Dorin-Ballard took home the Cheetah Championship title with a narrow 208-204 victory over Stefanie Nation. After striking to open the 10th frame, Carolyn made a great shot to pick up the spare, but also left the door open for Nation to walk through and grab the title. Nation threw her shot right in the pocket, but left the solitary 10-pin to give Carolyn the victory.

“The lanes were tight and if I didn’t catch it the way I needed to, I wouldn’t have gotten the strikes,” said Dorin-Ballard following the match. “Stefanie did really well in the 10th, but I got a break and took it (the match).”

The win Sunday was Carolyn’s second victory in this, the second year of the PBA Women’s Series. Last year, Carolyn won the Great Lakes Classic.

“It’s great to see Carolyn get back to the winner’s circle,” said Bud Clapsaddle, Vice President of Dexter Bowling. “She keeps adding to her legacy on and off the lanes, and we’re proud to support her.”

On the men’s side, Brunswick Shoe PBA Staff member Parker Bohn III won the Cheetah Championship title with a 242-198 victory over Mike Scroggins. The win now gives Parker 32 career PBA victories in his storied bowling career, placing him 3rd on the active titles list behind only Walter Ray Williams, Jr. and Pete Weber. He looks to continue his winning ways next week in Baltimore at the Shark Championship.

Congratulations to Carolyn and Parker on their impressive victories!

Andover, MA – November 11, 2008 – With his win on Sunday at the Lake County Indiana Golden Anniversary Championship, Walter Ray Williams, Jr. collected his record 45th career PBA Tour singles title. The victory gives Walter Ray at least one win in each of the last sixteen PBA Tour seasons.

“When I first joined the PBA Tour years ago, I thought I’d win four or five titles,” said Williams, Jr. “But now I’ve won 45 titles and I feel great. Anytime you can win, it’s great.”

In the semifinal, Walter Ray faced a tough charge from Mike Scroggins. As the match unfolded, Scroggins kept pace, eventually cutting Walter Ray’s lead to a measly 13 pins heading into the 9th frame. But as the all-time PBA Tour wins (and earnings) leader customarily does, Walter Ray slammed the door shut on his opponent, this time by finishing the match with five consecutive strikes for a 258-222 win.

Set to face Walter Ray in the Finals was the 2005-06 PBA Rookie of the Year Bill O’Neill. The championship match went back and forth early, but midway through, Walter Ray looked like he had really figured out the intricacies of the lanes, and built a modest lead. In the 10th frame, O’Neill left a difficult 2-4-8-10 split, and failed to convert, giving Williams the chance to close him out. Walter Ray came through, defeating O’Neill 246-202, for his record-setting 45th career PBA Tour victory.

“Things have been going my way, the pins have been falling down,” said Walter Ray after the match. “I feel like I should be bowling with the seniors, my knee is sore, my wrist is sore, but it worked out okay.” His fellow competitors would argue that the pins have been falling down for him ever since he joined the PBA Tour in the early ‘80s.

“It was a great day for Walter Ray and Dexter Bowling,” said Bud Clapsaddle, Vice President of Dexter Bowling. “We’re obviously thrilled for Walter Ray, and we were extremely proud to see that all six bowlers – the 4 PBA stars and the 2 Senior Tour bowlers – were wearing Dexter. That speaks volumes about the confidence that the pros have in our footwear.”

Walter Ray will look to make it two wins in a row next week at the Chameleon Championship in Taylor, Michigan.