THE FIRST LEAGUES OF THE 21st CENTURY AND THE
FUTURE OF AAXS BOWLING
The
year 2000 generally speaking was a successful year for the fifth AAXS Bowling
League, though it did have the distinction of producing the first runaway
champions. Unlike the other leagues which were more competitive and in which the
winner was not decided until the last few weeks, Batch '75 won the trophy for
the first AAXS Bowling League of the 21st Century in such dominating fashion
that just halfway through the regular playing schedule, their lead was too far
for any other team to overcome. This was an auspicious beginning for the league
as it entered the new millennium, and Batch '75 certainly stamped its class on
the rest of the league for the year 2000!
After the fifth league, a new set of officers were elected to the AAXS Bowling Club. The new President was now Raymund Tan ('77), the previous year's Secretary. Dexter Que ('78) was his Vice President; Edward Lim ('87) the new Secretary; Philip Laude ('81) was still the Treasurer; Richard Lim ('72) was the PRO; and Edison Go ('74) was still the Tournament Director.
Because
of the dominating way in which Batch '75 won the previous year, Batch '73, the
host batch for the sixth league in 2001, came up with the idea of having a
stepladder finals, similar to the format that the Professional Bowlers'
Association. A stepladder format puts the top six teams into the finals, with
the sixth place team up against the fifth place team and the fourth place team,
the winner of which goes up against the third place team and the second place
team. The winner of which faces the first place team, and the winner
thereafter is the league champion. This format has the added suspense of being
unpredictable, as even the sixth-place team, if playing on a hot streak, could
find itself upsetting the higher seeded teams and claiming victory. It was
anybody's ballgame to win or to lose, and Batch '86 emerged as champs for this
year.
Some criticisms were leveled against the unpredictability of the stepladder format at the end of the sixth league, so in 2002, for the seventh league, host Batch '74 eliminated the stepladder finals and reverted back to the old all-games-count format. There were no runaway champs for this year, and the eventual winner was not decided until the final game of the final week of play. This year marked not only the first time that the AAXS Bowling League had repeat champions, but also had its first back-to-back champions, as Batch '86 won it all once more in a suspenseful and exciting finish to the league.