News

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!