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Bowling News USA - May 26, 2009 Joe Ciccone Rolls Virtual Gravity to Victory at RPC!

Joe Ciccone of Buffalo, N.Y., defeated Jim Tomek Jr. of Camp Hill, Pa., to win the Professional Bowlers Association Regional Players Championship and its $9,000 first prize at Thunderbowl Lanes Monday.

Ciccone used the Storm Virtual Gravity while Tomek opted for the Roto Grip Rogue Cell.

"Ciccone captured the 2009 RPC using a Virtual I drilled for him to compliment his other Virtual," said Storm Tour Representative Chris Schlemer. "In doing so he earns a birth to the RPI and chance to get an exemption on tour as well as a T of C birth."

Ciccone, who recently failed to earn enough points to maintain his Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour exemption after six years as a touring player, also earned an expenses-paid trip to bowl in the 2010 PBA Regional Players Invitational where the top seven players will win exemption to bowl on the national tour for the 2010-11 season. He also won his first trip to bowl in the PBA Tournament of Champions, an event for the PBA’s elite champions.

“I’m very happy,” the 34-year-old former Erie Community College and Arizona State University collegiate star said. “And the Tournament of Champions is a very nice bonus, the icing on the cake.”

Ciccone is hoping he won’t need to cash in on the Regional Players Invitational package, however. If he can regain his exemption in the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour Trials later this week, he won’t be eligible for that regional players-only event.

“I’m here, so I might as well bowl (the Tour Trials),” he said. “(Losing my exemption) wasn’t the result I was hoping for last season, but a lot of other guys were impacted the same way. There’s nothing specific about the way I bowled that I can put my finger on, but it would be nice to have the opportunity to do better next season than I did last. I’ll bowl the Tour Trials and if I don’t make it, it’s nice to have the RPI to fall back on.”

The PBA Regional Players Championship drew a field of 207 competitors. Most of the players will now focus their attention on the five-day, 45-game Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour Trials which runs Wednesday through Sunday at Thunderbowl Lanes. The top eight Tour Trials finishers will earn exemptions to bowl full-time on the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour next season.

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