The 2008-2009 season lifts off this week for most leagues in Joplin’s three bowling centers: Crown Lanes, Fourth Street Bowl and Carl Richard Bowl East.

Fourth Street Bowl and Bowl East have 14 men’s, women’s, mixed and youth leagues scheduled this season. Crown Lanes, the eight-lane house near Galena, will feature five leagues: a women’s league on Monday, Seven-Point Classic on Tuesday, mixed leagues on Wednesday and Friday, and a men’s business league on Thursday.

Two seniors will not be among the several hundred bowlers launching the new season. Wes Killian, a regular in the Daniels Senior League at Fourth Street, and Dale Kendall, who bowled in the Monday Seniors League at Bowl East, passed away during the last two weeks.

Wes and this writer went head-to-head for years in the Joplin Globe League and the Daniels Senior League. I always enjoyed bowling against Wes, who worked with me at this newspaper for some 30 years. He was a tough competitor who, if his team needed three strikes in the 10th to win a game, more often than not would get them. He always reminded me of Elmer Wiles, who was at his best when the game was on the line.

Wes loved to needle opposing anchors, especially me. I remember once needing a strike in the 10th to beat him. My ball hit the left-hander’s 1-2 pocket but nothing touched the 7 pin.

“If you’d put something on the ball, you wouldn’t leave that pin,” he chided. Then he would laugh. Wes, a right-hander, left his share of 10 pins, but, in his prime, he hardly ever missed one.

I didn’t know Dale that long, but he and wife, Jody, were tough to beat in the Seniors League. Dale was a true sportsman, quick with a compliment after a good shot or a consoling remark after a bad break on the lanes. Win or lose, he was always ready to congratulate the other team.

Gold medal

PBA and USBC Hall of Fame member Walter Ray Williams Jr., has won a career-record 44 tour titles, but there’s one thing missing in his trophy case -- a World Championship gold medal.

“A gold medal in the World Championships would be cool,” Williams told Kevin Hazaert of USBC Communications. “It definitely would be one of the highlights of my career.”

Williams will make his Team USA debut in the World Tenpin Bowling Association’s men’s World Championships, scheduled for August 22-30 in Bangkok, Thailand.

Joining the 48-year-old PBA star on Team USA will be pros Chris Barnes, Patrick Allen, Tommy Jones and Rhino Page and amateur Bill Hoffman.

Bowlers can follow the world tourney by visiting bowl.com for complete coverage once the event begins.

U.S. Women’s Open

Kim Terrell-Kearney, head women’s bowling coach at Delaware State University, defeated Trisha Reid of Columbus, Ohio, 216-189, in Romeoville, Ill., last Wednesday for the championship of the U.S. Women’s Open, a USBC event.