PAENG NEPOMUCENO

Rafael  "Paeng" Nepomuceno of the Philippines was named The Greatest International Bowler Of All Time by the prestigious Bowlers Journal International in its September 2003 issue. Paeng is a six-time World Bowling Champion He is the only four-times winner of the World Cup of Bowling and he's done it in three different decades. He has won in 1976,1980,1992 and 1996.Paeng also won the Worlds Invitational Tournament in 1984 and the World Tenpin Masters Championship in 1999.

Paeng is my good friend and a very humble one. He's not spoiled by his success in his chosen sport. He is the highest awarded athlete in Philippine Sports history. In 1984, He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Merit by President Ferdinand E. Marcos. President Joseph E. Estrada awarded him The Philippine Legion of Honor in 1999 and in 2008, President Gloria-Macapagal Arroyo awarded Paeng the Order of Lakandula with Class of Champion for Life and was declared the Best Filipino Athlete of All Time. Both the Philippine Senate and the House of Congress have declared Paeng "The Greatest Filipino Athlete Of All Time".

He was also named Athlete of The Century by the Philippine Sports Writers Association in 1999 and Athlete of the Millennium in 2000. Paeng was named Philippine Athlete of the year in a record five times by the Philippine Sports Writers Association and the first athlete to be inducted to the association's Hall of Fame in 1993.

The World Bowling Writers awarded Paeng the Mort Luby Jr. Distinguished Service Award for his lifetime contribution to the sport.He was honored by the same body naming him World Bowler of the Year three times in 1984, 1985, and 1992. He was also the first inductee to the World Bowling Writers Hall of Fame in 1993 making him the first and only bowling athlete to received all awards in all categories of the World Bowling Writers.

My good friend Paeng at 54 is still active in competition. In fact last May 5,2009, he rolled games of 300, 299,268 and 256 for an average of 280.75 thereby establishing a new four game Philippine National Record. In that series, he bowled 23 strikes in a row when he bowled a perfect 300 followed by a near perfect 299 game.

The Guinness Book of World Records listed him in three records: 1) for winning the World Cup four times 2) for being the youngest ever to win the Bowling World Cup at 19 years of age and 3) for having won the most number of bowling tournament titles.

Paeng is the only bowling athlete to have won or awarded titles in the U.S.,Europe, Asia, Middle East and Africa. He has a total of 124 career bowling titles to his credit. I think my good friend Paeng is not done yet. I believe that he is going to win his 5th World Cup Bowling Title very soon. He is a very disciplined athlete. He keeps himself physically fit all the time.So what do you think guys? Is he gonna do it again?

A PERFECT GAME!!!

In bowling, a score of 300 is considered a perfect game-the highest possible score in a game. It is achieved by bowling 12 strikes in a row. A bowling game consist of 10 frames. So a perfect game has one strike each for the first nine frames and three more in the tenth frame. When a player gets a strike of his first ball in the tenth frame he gets two more extra shots.

Many great bowlers have yet to experience the thrill of rolling a perfect game. I myself has not rolled one. I got 11 strikes in a row for around nine times already but I always ended up short on the twelfth. Historically, a perfect game was dauntingly difficult to achieved. But with the advent of new technology starting in the 1970's it has become a slightly easier goal even for the advanced amateur or the semi-professional players. Such technology include the use of more active synthetic bowling pins, more favorable lane conditions and most importantly bowling balls with modern coverstocks that allow greater hooking action and consequently better strike carry on less-than-perfect hits. Indeed, there is a certain amount of luck involved to score that magic number of 300 but a bowler can improve his chances of rolling a perfect game with the right equipment and state of mind and maybe a favorable lane condition.

IN LOVE WITH BOWLING

I think everyone of us has a personal choice of a certain kind of sport that we like  irregardless  of our involvement with it whether we are active or not. Our involvement in sports is influenced by the kind of environment that we have , by the kind of friends that we have, the school, media, our physical fitness and of course our economic standing.

For me, bowling is the sport that I fell in love with. It's the kind of sport that I would love to play for as long as my body have that energy to lift my ball. The first time that I got to play bowling right there I realized that I'm in love with the sport.

For the love of this sport, I would like to share with this blog the rudiments of the game. The bowling enthusiasts, beginners, and even the advanced  players will certainly find this blog helpful to improve their game. 

Watch out for my next post!