Talavera joins 300-game club

Robert Talavera became the latest kegler to roll a perfect game, accomplishing the feat in the most recent Wednesday Night Mixed League held at the Saipan Bowling Center.

Playing for defending champion TJ5 Star, the lanes supervisor of SBC knocked down 12 straight strikes on the same No. 1 and 2 lanes Jonathan Hensley rolled his perfect game on Feb. 10, 2004.

With the sign marking Hensley’s feat hanging above, Talavera rolled strike after strike after strike, but it didn’t occur to him that he was on the verge of something special until after another perfect roll on the 7th frame.

The 36-year-old native of Minalin, Pampanga in the Philippines said his hands began to shake in the 8th frame and by his 9th and 10th attempts, which Talavera also cleaned out, a small army of fellow bowlers and admirers have already congregated behind the two lanes to show their support.

In his penultimate try, Talavera checked his nerves and marked yet another strike on the acetate. He tried to catch his breath in between lanes and with the crowd cooperating nicely by keeping silent, Talavera made it 12-for-12 to complete perfection as the venue exploded in a torrent of applause.

Talavera now joins Hensley, Benny Pangelinan, Jaime Sasamoto, and Danny Robles in the elite club of bowlers who have rolled a perfect game of 300 in the CNMI.

Pangelinan has the honor of rolling the Commonwealth’s first-ever perfect game, turning the trick in March 10, 1982. Lo and behold, just nine days later, Pangelinan’s performance was duplicated by Sasamoto in March 19.

It took nearly 22 years before Hensley duplicated the feat exactly two years and five days predating Talavera’s perfect run.

The bowling community didn’t have to wait another two decades for perfection to strike again, as Robles made it a four-man club last Aug. 26 when he became the first bowler to score 300 at the Capital Bowling Center in Garapan.

Pangelinan, Sasamoto, and Hensley all achieved every bowler’s dream at SBC.

Talavera is expected to get a bundle of cash from his perfect game, as Benjamin “Kappon” Sablan promised shortly after handing Hensley his $3,000 check in 2004 that he would be raising the perfect game prize to $5,000.

Saipan Bowling Association treasurer Ross Zapanta also said that his organization would kick in $250 to sweeten Talavera’s prize pot.