Top Topplers Toppled

Chicago's gilded old Auditorium, built for the voices of Caruso and Adelina Patti, echoed last week with the contralto exclamations of bowling pins. The best bowler in the U.S., 46-year-old Johnny Crimmins of Detroit, was trying for the national match-game championship. During the year, he had won 15 major tournaments, averaged 207 pins per game, earned $5,000 in prizes. He was out to beat 33-year-old Ned Day, who had held the title since 1938.

Champion Ned Day has practically retired from tournament play. In partnership with Comedian Harold Lloyd (Hollywood's best bowler) and onetime Champion Hank Marino, Day operates a profitable "bowling establishment" at Santa Monica, Calif., within earshot of Douglas Aircraft war workers. But to help swell the gate receipts of this year's All-Star Bowling Tournament (for the benefit of Chicago's Service Men's Center), Champion Day was persuaded to defend his title once more before entering the Navy --not only against Challenger Crimmins but against the ten highest scorers among the 100 All-Star entries.*

In a 90-game match with Crimmins, Day managed to keep his crown, 399.49 points to 398.28. But in the round, robin that followed, he and Crimmins both bowed to a comparative upstart, 25-year-old, 230-lb. Connie Schwoegler of Madison, Wis. Rolling a very slow ball with a slight hook, Schwoegler averaged 217 for 72 games. His score of 368.37 was 36 points better than Runner-up Frank Benkovic's, 39 better than Challenger Crimmins', 49 better than Champion Day's.

* Bowling's biggest tournament, the American Bowling Congress free-for-all that attracts some 30,000 pin-topplers every spring, has been canceled for 1943.

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