Mark Howerton posted the biggest numbers during the opening weeks of the 2008-2009 season, but Bill Dickens and Marc Ryals weren’t far behind.

Mark had a pair of big series at Bowl East, rolling games of 265, 258 and 269 for 792 and riding a 300 game to a 758 set. Perfect games are nothing new to Mark. He’s had so many he’s probably lost track.

Bill, also bowling at East, cranked out a 780 series highlighted by a 290 game. Marc Ryals topped the charts at Fourth Street Bowl with a 780 set topped by a 279 game.

There were several other noteworthy series at Bowl East. Kevin Burgess had games of 289 and 269 in shooting 773; Chuck Horner posted a 772 with a 279 high line; Johnny Vickers logged a 728; Wes Barbee had 727, and Jess Gourley, Jonathan White and Karl Bruckmeier shot 710, 708 and 707, respectively.

Candy Brown notched the women’s high series with a 612 at Bowl East. Jimie Banfield had the high line of 220. Angie Ryals had 215-588 at Fourth Street.

Betty Labigang’s 571 series and Kathy Wilson’s 212 game were high for the women at Crown Lanes. Johnny Vickers paced the men with a 629.

Tom Fortson had a solid series in the Monday Seniors League at Bowl East with 631 on games of 202, 203 and 226. Steve Wiles shot 243-634 and Bill Byrd totaled 225-619. Bev Cochran led the senior women with 183-478.

Open in October

With a new sponsor sweetening the prize fund, the 40th annual Carl Richard’s Joplin Open tournament will be held during four weekends in October.

The Joplin Sports Authority will add $1,000 to the prize pot, ensuring that victory in the team event of this long-running tourney could be worth as much as $2,000 in the men’s division and $1,000 in the women’s.

Fourth Street Bowl is the site of the handicap tourney scheduled to start on Oct. 4-5. The entry fee is $22 each for the team, singles and doubles events, and there will be a $4 charge for the optional scratch all-events. A new feature this year will be a handicap all-events for the combined singles and doubles. The cost is $10 per man with $8 of each entry going into the prize fund.

David Fort, manager at the Fourth Street Bowl, said that the estimated first-place cash awards, based on 200 team entries, 500 doubles and 1,000 singles in the men’s division, will be $2,000, $1,500 and $1,000, respectively. First place in the women’s division will be $1,000, $800 and $500, based on 100 team, 250 doubles and 500 singles entries.

Fort said the tournament will pay one place for every eight entries in teams, singles and doubles and one place for every 20 entries in all-events.

Handicaps will be figured on the basis of 75 percent from 210 in singles, 420 in doubles and 1050 in the team event.

Tournament entry blanks may be obtained at the Fourth Street Bowl and at Bowl East. Details: Sonya Fort, Fourth Street Bowl, 624-5681.

Bowling Week

In honor of National Bowling Week, Carl Richard Bowl East will join 3,400 bowling centers across the nation in setting a record for the most games rolled in a single day.

Bowl East invites Joplin and area residents to participate in the annual event next Saturday. Participants will pay $20 for four hours of unlimited bowling and will receive a commemorative certificate.

Bowl East manager Chris Higginbotham said the festivities will begin at 2 p.m. and will conclude at 6.

National Bowling Week and this world-record event are jointly sponsored by the Bowling Proprietors’ Association of America (BPAA), Strike Ten Entertainment, International Bowling Pro Shop and Instructors Association, Professional Bowlers Association and the United States Bowling Congress.

Details: Bowl East, 624-8652.

In the mail

Nearly 36,000 bowlers will get a share of the $5.5 million prize fund from the 2008 United States Bowling Congress Open Championships, and the first of the checks are in the mail.

The tournament was the second largest held outside of the National Bowling Stadium in Reno, Nev., and brought 12,615 teams to the Albuquerque Convention Center in Albuquerque, N.M., between Feb. 16 and July 6. Approximately 11,000 of those teams will get at least one prize check, with 35,888 individual bowlers earning a share of the multi-million dollar prize fund.

The 2008 Open Championships featured 31 perfect games, 11 299s and two 298s, while 27 other bowlers tossed 11 strikes in a row. There also were 663 series of 700 or better, which included two 800s.

Regular Division bowlers in Albuquerque averaged 177.31, and Classified bowlers contributed 155.03 for an overall tournament average of 171.77. In all, 555,408 games were bowled and 95,403,472 pins (score) were toppled. There were 41,966 clean games and 495 clean series, while the overall spare percentage was 56.9.

Address correspondence to Wendell Redden, c/o The Joplin Globe, P.O. Box 7, Joplin, Mo. 64802, or e-mail sports@joplinglobe.com.