STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Jim Elliott is a lot grayer now than he was 50 years ago, but Father Time hasn\u2019t diminished his love for running the New Year Singles Classic.<\/p>\n
The annual event, which is staged at Rab\u2019s Country Lanes, has quietly turned into Staten Island\u2019s longest running open tournament in which thousands of Islanders have competed through the years. And hundreds of those same bowlers compete every year. <\/p>\n
They come back for the competition, the prize money and of course, for how well the tournament is run — which is all Elliott. <\/p>\n
He\u2019s most proud that keglers from all over the metropolitan area \u201clook forward to January to compete\u201d in his event.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have entries from New Jersey, Long Island, Brooklyn and Queens as well as Staten Island,\u201d he continued. \u201cI am glad I posted the rules for all to follow as many times I have had to act like a lawyer and make reference to the tournament laws.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tourney has been held every year since 1976 (when Mike Rossman\u2019s 691 was the high qualifying series), except in 2021 when the pandemic caused its cancellation, thus making this one the 50th edition.<\/p>\n
To kick off the 50th anniversary of the tournament this year, Country Lanes proprietor Frank Wilkinson and his staff didn\u2019t let the special anniversary go unnoticed during the tourney\u2019s always popular opening qualifier on Jan. 3. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey had a large cake that fed the entire first squad and a grand ceremony honoring all previous champs on hand,\u201d said Elliott, who doubles as the longtime owner of Just For Kicks sporting goods in Grant City. <\/p>\n
Reflecting on the 50-year run of this great event, here are questions and answers with Elliott that tell the story. <\/p>\n
Q. What changes have there been to the tourney in the 50 years?<\/p>\n
A. The tournament was first held at Bowling on the Green. The alleys were oiled by hand, not by machine. I used to pay people to keep score during the qualifying ($2.00, now automatic scorers do the work). The initial entry was $22 (now it\u2019s $60) It was $3.00 for three games for lineage. The qualifying squads started on Friday nights at 11:30 p.m. after the Classic League. Qualifying was three weekends with three squads each day — much too long (compared to two weekends now and two qualifiers each day). Just this weekend, I had three bowlers take me back 50 years to the first finals and how they did. There are a number of bowlers on the champions board that are no longer with us but their names will always be remembered on the New Year Singles Classic list.<\/p>\n
Q. Do you have any regrets about running the tournament?<\/p>\n
A. No regrets. I am very proud of the success over the years. To hear bowlers talk about the tournament and looking forward to January is a great feeling. It does hurt to remember those that helped over the years, my father John, my uncle Ed, my best friend Frank Parello, and my brother Jack, all no longer with us. The Staten Island Advance has covered the tournament forever. Other than Joe D\u2019Amodio and Joe Loverde, I can hardly remember all the sports writers that wrote about the results, but all did it well. To the sports department, I give a gigantic thumbs up.<\/p>\n
Q. What is one record you think will never be broken in the tournament?<\/p>\n
A. George Cretella\u2019s record of six wins will never be broken. Jeff Scire is going for three this year. <\/p>\n
Q. Who would you like to thank the most with helping run your tournament? <\/p>\n
A. I must give credit to management at both houses. It is ironic that Rab Wilkinson was a great help when I first started at the Green and then moving to Country Lanes where Frank Wilkinson (Rab\u2019s son) and staff have been so very cooperative.<\/p>\n
Q. How long will you continue to run the tournament?<\/p>\n
A. I\u2019d like to finish No. 50 before I think about next year. Eventually, I will have to sit back or move over just being a consultant but I\u2019ll leave that thought to the future. January is a busy month for the Elliott household but with the cooperation of my wife Carole, my daughter Alyssa who helps run Just for Kicks and my granddaughter Hailey who helps with tournament registration we make it through.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
Extra frames The match-game Top 24 finals begin at 3 p.m. at Rab\u2019s Country Lanes. All finalists have been notified to be at the lanes at 2:30 p.m. for instructions.Top qualifier Joe Lampariello will be joined by his wife Dawn and son Robert in the finals field, which could make for some interesting matchups.George Cretella, who always seems to make the finals of this event, is back to improve on his tourney-high six titles.Two junior bowlers, Justin Arenas and Robert Werling, made it to the finals and any money they earn would be deemed scholarship money to be used for school.Three perfect games were rolled in qualifying by Joe Lampariello, Arenas and Mickey Endress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Jim Elliott is a lot grayer now than he was 50 years ago, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62822,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-101551","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}