Maine Heat rolls to third after first day

BREWER – One day gone in the World Team Candlepin Bowling Championships and the defending champion Maine Heat find themselves in third place in the Holiday Inn Division after rolling out to a 16-8 mark Tuesday at Bangor-Brewer Lanes. But they also found out they have a bull’s-eye on their collective back.

Handi’s Rebels of New Brunswick lead the division with a 20-4 mark while Rockland-based Mid-Coast Maine was second at 18-6. Lite Control of Massachusetts leads the Varney GMC Division at 20-4 and 2000 champion Vacationland of Saco is fourth with an 18-6 record.

The Heat rolled through the morning and midday phases of the first day earning 14 of a possible 16 points. But in the afternoon session, the Heat ran into a good Park Place/Travel Anywhere squad that put together a 673 third string that gave them six out of eight available points.

Jeff Surrette of Tewksbury, Mass., threw a day-high single string total of 179 in the third string for the Haverill, Mass., based team. The 179 speaks loudly of how the pins weren’t going down easily. But it was also 59 pins more than any Heat bowler could manage in that string.

Surrette’s teammate, Chris Sargent of Haverill, Mass., said that bowling against the defending champs gave his team added incentive.

“You get up for the match,” Sargent said. “You know they won it last year and you want to show them.”

Still, Maine Heat’s 18-6 mark and its 5,555 pin count for the nine strings was OK as far as team captain James Milan was concerned.

“Just that last string in the last match and they beat us. And we had a couple of guys who didn’t bowl well. We did well. They just bowled extremely well that one string. Hey, that’s going to happen. It takes quite a team to do what they just did,” Milan said.

The day session and midday sessions went extremely well for Maine Heat. The team lost just one of the six strings. Its one loss was by a single pin.

The day was made even better when, amid some good-natured grumbling that a fix was in, Maine Heat was announced as the midday session 50-50 drawing winner.

The team put together a day-high series total 1,914 pins and Nate Nealey tossed a 168 for the second high single game of the day.

Nealey’s return to the team strengthens an already strong squad. Nealey missed last year’s world tourney in Sydney, Nova Scotia, when he decided to take time off from bowling to concentrate on his golf game. Nealey, of Westbrook, is a scratch golfer playing out of the Gorham Country Club.

“Getting him back is an unbelievable help,” said 23-time Maine state champion Charles Milan III. “He’s such a fireballer. He’s one of the best bowlers in the state of Maine. Another young guy. Those young arms. I can give you three good strings but he can produce every string.”

His return also gives James Milan reason to believe that this may be his strongest team yet. In past years, Milan talked in terms of his team having a chance to win or being “pretty good.” But now Milan said simply that Maine Heat is good.

“Well, we’re the champions. It helps. There’s an intimidation factor. So, maybe the teams don’t bowl as well when they bowl us,” Milan said.