Don Blatchford returned to the winner's circle Sunday when he claimed the title of the West Coast Senior Tour bowling event at La Habra "300" in the Orange County city of La Habra.
The right-handed Blatchford of Santa Monica was the WCST Super Senior bowler of the year in 2012 when he won five tour championships.
He started the new year with a seventh-place finish at last month's WCST competition at Montclair, Calif., but he prevailed Sunday with a strong performance in the finals after qualifying fifth on Saturday.
He averaged 227.5 during qualifying, which was led by Joe Merrill of Henderson, Nev., who averaged 245 for 10 games. But Blatchford averaged a strong 232.1 for the eight games in the finals, while his opponents faltered. Blatchford earned $800 for his 11th WCST championship.
Darron Peters of Lake Elsinore was a distant second to Blatchford. Peters averaged 220 in the finals after qualifying third with a 235.2 average. Peters won $575.
Winnetka's Johnnie Englehart finished third and won $450. He averaged 217.5 in the finals and qualified fourth with a 227.5 average.
Merrill ($355) was fourth, and Marlow Dinger ($330) of La Habra was fifth.
Left-handed Kevin Gannon of Lakewood, who won last month's tournament at Montclair and is the WCST's all-time money winner, failed to qualify for the finals. He finished 26th out of the 33 entries during qualifying, averaging 199.4.
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