BREWER -With two dozen lanes, a game room, a restaurant and a bar, the Bangor-Brewer Bowling Lanes building isn’t small, but when the World Team Candlepin Bowling Championships are in town, it’s almost claustrophobic.

It’s rainy and cold outside on this Tuesday in mid-November, but inside it’s hot and humid as sweat-soaked competitors roll ball after ball down all 24 lanes for four straight days from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

“It’s pretty much like work, when you think about it,” said 32-year-old Kevin MacLaughlin, a member of four-time defending World champ MacLaughlin’s Truck & Trailer from Halifax, Nova Scotia. “You’re here for eight or nine hours straight and then you’re right back the next day.”

This “work week’s” first day for the 168 bowlers assembled at the week-long tournament involving 24 teams from Atlantic Canada, Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire went pretty well for USA East, a collection of golfers from Maine and Massachusetts which used to be called Maine Heat.

USA East earned 22 of a possible 24 points by winning all three of its matches and losing just two strings. USA East is atop the Holiday Inn division. Halifax (Nova Scotia) Fairlanes and MacLaughlin’s are tied for second with 18 each, Total Chaos of Brentwood, N.H., is fourth with 17, and Mid Coast Maine of Rockland is fifth at 14. The high game score of the day was turned in by USA East’s Shawn Morrison. He rolled a 192 in his team’s second match.

In the Varney GMC division, Stateside of Bedford, N.H., is first with 20 points, followed by Maria’s Sub of Scituate, Mass.; Vacationland Bowling Center of Saco; Moncton (New Brunswick) Fairlanes; and Woodstock/Kingswood, New Brunswick – all four of which are tied for second with 16 points apiece. The “high roller” in the division was Craig Holbrook of Maria’s Sub with a 180.

The top five teams in each division after three days advance to Friday’s quarterfinals with the top team in each division earning a bye into the semifinal round.

There’s a lot of effort, sweat, and attention exerted at this event, but it’s really anything but work for these guys.

“It’s a chance to have fun and get away for a week. It’s competitive and we have fun bowling, but we have a lot of fun after bowling too,” MacLaughlin said with a laugh. “It’s a pretty rough week after we get back.”

“If you’re not a candlepin bowler, or a bowler in general, you’re not going to understand what this tournament means,” said Rockland’s Tim Matero of USA East. “There’s no tourney out there like this. I’m a golfer, and to me this is the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and the British Open all rolled into one.”

It doesn’t stop there, however. Even the high level of competition is only part of the draw for these guys.

“It really is a reunion for most of us. Some of these guys live 12 to 14 hours away so you don’t see them much,” said Brewer’s Morrison. “It’s almost like seeing members of your family who live far away.

“A lot of guys only get a week or two of vacation each year, and they take one of those this week. It’s a big deal when somebody who has a big deal job and they take their one week off for a bowling tournament. You have be dedicated.”

There’s no shortage of dedication at this 22nd annual event, which began with Monday’s singles tournament and continues through Saturday.

“It’s really difficult because you’re asking them to take a week’s vacation and some of these poor guys don’t get any paid vacations,” said Det Klein, a Marlborough, Mass., native playing for Total Chaos. “One guy is an electrician, so he’s not only losing a thousand dollars a week, he’s taking vacation time to come up here.”

Klein, who has been bowling for 32 of his 53 years, used a week of vacation from his job as a mailman to play in the Worlds for the eighth time.

“I think the biggest draw for the whole thing is you have probably 160 of the best bowlers there are in the game and if you’re a competitor in any sport, you want to play the best,” said Klein, who used to run his own alley. “And once guys have been here, they always want to come back.”

Another thing there’s no shortage of here is experience.

Matero, 35, has been bowling since age 4 and has been on the same team for seven years.

“Everyone on this team has been either a state or a world champ at one time or another,” said Matero, a supervisor for T-Mobile who also takes vacation time to compete all week.

“I’ve done it for 15 years now,” said Matero. “When I met my wife 10 years ago, I told her this is a part of my life. I met her in October, so she kind of got the idea right away. It’s the only thing I do. I don’t go out much, but this is my thing.”

That level of dedication is common on USA East. Morrison is expecting to start overnight work at United Parcel Service from 2 to 9 a.m. this week, and may end up going directly from work, stopping only to change from his brown shirt to the team’s red one.

“Chip Carson on our team has three businesses that he has to leave behind and put on hold for this tournament, so it’s very important to all of us,” said Morrison.

Bowling

CANDLEPIN

22nd World Team Championships

At Bangor-Brewer Bowling Lanes

Day one

Holiday Inn division

1. USA East 22-2, 2. (tie) Halifax Fairlanes 18-6 and MacLaughlin Truck & Trailer 18-6, 4. Total Chaos 17-7, 5. Mid Coast Maine 14-10, 6. Beazley’s Lanes 12-12, 7. Irving Big Stop 9-15, 8. (tie) New Hampshire All-Stars 8-16, Fat Boys/Speedy’s 8-16, and Line-M-Up 8-16, 11. Fenway Painters 6-18, 12. Short & Curly’s 4-20

TEAM high series: Halifax Fairlanes 1994; High game: USA East 715; High Average: MacLaughlin’s 626

INDIVIDUAL high series: Nate Nealey (USA East) 443; game: Shawn Morrison (USA East) 192; average: Matt McPhee (Halifax Fairlanes) 144.44

Varney GMC division

1. Stateside 20-4, 2. (tie) Maria’s Sub 16-8, Vacationland Bowling Center 16-8, Moncton Fairlanes 16-8, and Woodstock/Kingswood 16-8, 6. Colonial Bowling Center 12-12, 7. (tie) Maine Heat 11-13 and Moncton Gunz 11-13, 9. Town Delivery 10-14, 10. (tie) TNT Funtime 6-18 and Team USA 6-18, 12. Saint John Vipers 4-20

TEAM high series: Maria’s Sub 1971; game: Stateside 692; average: Stateside 650

INDIVIDUAL high series: Craig Holbrook (Maria’s) 459; game: Craig Holbrook 180; average: Jeff Surrette (Stateside) 140.78