300 Bowl – August 22, 2026

By Ken Wyatt | August 24, 2026

Congratulations to Jim DePlanche on his 1st SSO title as he defeated Ed Austreng 214-194 at 300 Bowl in Waterford. The championship match looked like it might be a rout as Austreng started strong with strike, spare, double, while DePlanche started with three straight ten pins, missing one of them in the 2nd frame. Both bowlers finished the match struggling to put strikes together, however the turning point was the 7th frame, Austreng hit the pocket but left an unfortunate 8-10 split, while DePlanche was fortunate to carry a Brooklyn strike in the 8th frame, which he capitalized on by throwing strikes in the 9th, 10th and 11th frames to seal the victory. DePlanche received the first-place check of $1,000, while Austreng, looking for his second SSO title, collected $500 for second. We had 89 entries at 300 Bowl, thank you to everyone for your continued support of the SSO!

During qualifying, Jerry Sikora led the way with an impressive 6 game block of 1515, followed closely by Hall of Famer Gerald Johnson with 1477, and Jeff Austreng with 1476. High game of the day was 300 shot by Kris Warner in game 1 of qualifying and Gerald Johnson in game 4 of the qualifying round.

The cut to make the top 22 was 1345 (John Howcroft). Our extras out of the cut to move on in the elimination rounds: In the Senior division (50+) Steve Boos (1333); Super Senior division (60+) Rick Gregor (1333), Ken Wyatt (1330), Bill Stephenson (1323), Brad Gray (1320), and champion Jim DePlanche (1308); In the super-super senior division (70+) Dan Mayer (1276) and Ron Burgess (1261); In the women’s division was Stacey Timmer (1258).

Thank you to Ed and Jeff Austreng and their great staff at 300 Bowl for hosting the SSO. The SSO would also like to thank our staff and our sponsors; Brunswick Bowling Products, Red Robin, Beyond Borders, Turbo 2 in 1 Grips, Hamtramck Singles Classic, A.M. Total Being Fitness and Dilaura Brothers Bowling Supply for their support of our tournaments.

Our next tournament will be the Midwest Senior Masters on August 29-30, also at 300 Bowl. The format of this tournament – 6 game qualifying squad on Saturday with the top 32 bowlers returning on Sunday for match play. Match play will be double-elimination, 2 game match against an opponent until we crown a champion.

Our next SSO tournament will be held at Town N Country Lanes in Westland on September 19th. If you would like to bowl in either of these tournaments, please sign up on our website (ssopen.org), text me at 586-871-7651, or send me a Facebook message. Thank you!