Bowling digest strikes it big

Bowling Digest, Fall, 2004 by Brett Ballantini

BOWLING DIGEST WON FIVE of the top 10 feature writing awards--including the top two--in the 52nd edition of the American Bowler Writing Competition. The results of the annual competition to honor bowling journalists were announced in March. No other publication in the country won as many feature awards as this magazine did.

Chris Capulso earned first-place honors with "Move Over, Walter Ray" [October 2003], a story that detailed the career of Filipino international bowling champion Paeng Nepomuceno. The $300 prize was the first in Capulso's bowling writing career.

Second place and $225 went to Johnny Campos for "If Right Is Wrong, What's Left?" [August 2003]. It was Campos' third career award in the competition, and profiled the forced ambidextriousness of Robert Lawrence's bowling career.

Rounding out our top 10 honorees were Michael Azre, Lydia Rypcinski, and Dick Denny. Azre won sixth place and $125 for his offbeat study of alcohol's effect on league bowlers, "Knocking 'Em Down With Beers, Booze, Bowling" [June 2003]. Rypcinski won seventh place and $100 for her feature on Walter Ray Williams Jr., "The Empire Strikes Back" [August 2003]. And Denny won ninth place and $50 for his story on Ted Hannahs, "From Pigskins to Tenpins" [October 2003].

American Bowler is the official membership journal of the ABC. It took over the yearly awards in 2002, when Bowling Magazine ceased publication.