BREWER — The last of round robin play and the opening round of the playoffs began Friday for the Candlepin Bowling World Team Championship at Bangor-Brewer Lanes in Brewer with USA East of Maine and Halifax Fairlanes/A+ of Nova Scotia clinching the top seeds in their divisions.
Both teams receive byes into today’s semifinals.
In the qualifying round of the playoffs, three Massachusetts teams and a Maine team earned victories while three Nova Scotia-based teams were defeated.
Joe Hutchinson rolled a playoff-best 421 series to help lead Vacationland of Saco to a 68-pin victory over MacLaughlin T&T of Nova Scotia. Vacationland beat MacLaughlin T&T 1900-1832 to advance to the quarterfinals.
Other qualifying-round results included Lucky Strike (Mass.) defeating Crazy Train (Mass.) 1876-1819, Total Chaos (Mass.) defeating Rick’s Pallets (Nova Scotia) 1753-1729 and Maria’s Sub (Mass.) beating Big Shot Lanes (Nova Scotia) 1832-1624.
Lucky Strike will play Total Chaos for the right to play Halifax Fairlanes/A+ in the semifinals and Maria’s Sub will face Vacationland to play USA East.
Quarterfinal matches begin at 9 a.m. with semifinals at noon. The championship match will be played at 2:30 p.m.