Camaraderie And Fun All Part Of Bowling Competition At National Senior Games
The medal rounds for men’s and women’s doubles teams in bowling were contested Wednesday at the 2019 National Senior Games presented by Humana. The atmosphere was nothing short of electrifying, and this feeling was furthered significantly by the return of some Senior Games heavyweights in the sport of bowling.
One such bowler is Wyatt Jarvis, 53, of Orlando. Jarvis arrived at The Games as the National Senior Games bowling record holder in his age division, 50-54.
“The competition is great, and meeting different people from different states (is always fun),” he says. “We all like to bowl. No matter how good, bad or indifferent, we all love to bowl.”
Florence Dufek, 75 of New York, repeated the sentiment, saying, “It’s not for the money, it’s for the medals! But more importantly, it’s for the camaraderie.”
Wyatt played at the 2017 National Senior Games, where he met Margaret Johns. Margaret is now Wyatt’s mixed doubles teammate for this year’s Senior Games.
On the other end of the age spectrum are bowlers Rose Roylo and Beverly Moss, both from Kentucky. Rose and Beverly, 90 and 86 respectively, both won silver medals at the 2015 National Senior Games and gold medals at the 2017 National Senior Games.
The two won in their age division again in Albuquerque, but they did face some challenges along the way. At one point, Rose knocked the only remaining pin after it wobbled back and forth for what seemed like an eternity, exclaiming, “I can’t believe that didn’t fall!”
Two bowlers present who seemed to be having almost no difficulty at all are doubles teammates Loring Deazagio and Don Clayton of Maine. Don and Loring are National Senior Games record holders and previous gold medal winners for the 65-69 age division. This is the third time that Don and Loring have bowled doubles at the National Senior Games, and the pair picked up another gold medal this year.
Loring told the Games Daily News that he felt his performance was “overall good,” following with, “In doubles though, Don really carried me.” Asked if he had any comment, the humorous reply came flatly as “No.”
Another exhilarating duo to watch is Shirley Focht and Sheila Stormo, though Sheila says you can call her Shirley and vice-versa adding, “We’ll answer either way.” Sheila and Shirley won gold at both the 2015 and 2017 National Senior Games but did not come out as victorious this year.
Bowling is already exciting enough to watch, and action continues at the Santa Ana Casino until Friday’s mixed-doubles team bowls.
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