Nabi

The Inner Circle Club Tournament presented by National Amateur Bowlers Inc. at Crofton Bowling Centre drew 487 entries last weekend.To be eligible for the tournament, each competitor had to have bowled 21 games in the NABI 1993 tour.In addition to cash prizes, the top five bowlers received an all-expenses-paid trip to the 1994 NABI Nationals in Las Vegas. That $900 package includes round-trip airfare, a hotel room for eight nights at the Showboat Hotel, Casino and Bowling Center and entry into the 1994 NABI Nationals.

The National Amateur Bowlers, Inc. tournament at Fair Lanes Ritchie drew 158 entries, and director Joe Doctor paid out over $4,000 in prize money.Steve Schuman of Baltimore won the first-place prize of $1,000.David Page of Laurel captured second place and a check for $250. He bowls at the Bethesda Naval Hospital lanes in the Friday Navy Men's Mixed and carries a 192 average. In February, he placed third in the NABI tournament at Ritchie."Steve [Schuman] bowled well," Page said. "Earlier in the tournament I let him know that he should keep his ball speed up, maybe increase it a little.

Anybody who thinks amateur handicap tournaments are fun but you can't really win much money in one is wrong.Just ask any of the bowlers who took part in the National Amateur Bowlers Inc. New Year's Tournament at Crofton Centre. Better yet, at 2 p.m. Saturday, you can watch the finals of the tournament on Home Team Sports.You can watch bowlers you know, bowlers from the center where youbowl, or your teammates win some fantastic amounts of money.Thatmisconception about the amateur tournaments being small, poorly run affairs is wrong, too. There's been nothing but praise for the NABI tournament that Joe Doctor presents.

The biggest. In the words of one of the bowlers, "the best yet."Over a four-day period, Thursday through Sunday, 539 tenpin bowlers went to the Crofton Bowling Centre to bowl in Joe Doctor's NABI Tournament, the biggest such tourney to date in the Baltimore-Washington area.There was $16,170 paid out in prize money. The winner, Billy Wilson Jr.of Magnolia, Del., picked up $2,000, while runner-up John Woodard of California, St. Mary's County, won $1,000. Third-place money of $600 went to Joe Gonzales of Waldorf.

Joe Doctor's National Amateur Bowlers Inc. Tournament at Rinaldi's Riverdale lanes drew 165 entries and paid out $4,138 -- most of that money being gobbled up by the women.Reginia Carrick took first place and the $1,000 prize; Carol Barber of Clinton was second; and Sandra Kuplis of Silver Spring was third.Jerry Finster of Crofton won $110 for finishing in fourth, and Bob Briggs of Bel Air, winner of the Fair Lanes Seminary NABI Tournament a few weeks ago, took fifth place.Carrick lives in Davidsonville with her husband, Gary, and bowls in the Monday Budweiser League and the Thursday Early Bird League at Fair Lanes Annapolis.

"I'm satisfied with the way the NABI tournaments are run," Gerry Feilteau said. "I was hoping that a little competition would help my game when I joined NABI last February."On Sunday, Dec. 8, Feilteau won the $1,000 first prize in the National Amateur Bowlers, Inc. eventat Fair Lanes Annapolis. I guess he is satisfied.He finished second in his first NABI tournament in February. Lessthan a year later, he's winning tough tournaments.Feilteau livesin Annapolis with his wife, Eleanor, and is employed as senior plantoperator at Anne Arundel County's Department of Utilities.

"The three P's of the Monday 8:15 Mixed League outdid themselves, leaving the men in the dust," said Liz Pence of Greenway Glen Burnie.They sure did. On Feb. 24, the three women did some fancy duckpin bowling. Peggy Quinlan, Pat Trabert and Paula Buchanan shot three finesets on the same night in the same league.Quinlan lives in Glen Burnie with her husband, John, and carries a 121 average. She's had a 200 game, and this year in the Monday 8:15Mixed, she shot a strong 460 series.The S.R. Simon & Co. employee has been "bowling a long time."

Las Vegas. A little luck. $40,000.No, this is not a story about gambling. It's a story about Larry Deacon and Kathi Livingston and the National Amateur Bowling Association. And, one of the lucky tenpin bowlers who compete in the weekly tournaments.Deacon and Livingston live in Millersville, and each weekend they conduct a bowling tournament, often in an Anne Arundel County center.Steve Trimble, bowling since he was 5 years old, bowls in the NABI tournament "just about every weekend."A civilian employee of the Army, Trimble carries an average that's at the top of the NABI limit of 199. He has a career-high game of 290 and high set of 764.That's why it wasn't much of a shock when Deacon called from Las Vegas and shouted: "One of our guys won the National!"

Nabi Biopharmaceuticals of Rockville announced yesterday that it is exploring strategic alternatives that include selling or merging the company, and it named a new president and chief executive officer. Raafat Fahim is the new CEO for Nabi, which has been reshaped during the past two months. Fahim joined Nabi in 2003 and has held several executive positions, most recently chief operating officer and general manager of the biologics unit. That unit was sold in December to Biotest Pharmaceuticals Corp.

Last month National Amateur Bowlers Inc. drew 216 entries and paid a prize fund of $4,320 at its weekend tournament at Annapolis Bowl."I try to bowl in every NABI tournament," said Dawn Petr of Annapolis. "I think I've only missed one since I joined the club."And it has paid off. Petr fired a 640 series to qualify for the stepladder finals and, while defeated by Jacqueline Hartman, Petr took home a check for $110 for fifth place.Petr, an ex-duckpin bowler, has been throwing the big ball for "about 20 years."