YEAR IN REVIEW 1997: SPORTS-AND-GAMES: BOWLING

BOWLING: U.S. Tenpins. The popularity of "arena" settings for the final rounds of Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) tournaments continued to grow in 1996. Under this format the tournament was moved from the bowling centre used for the qualifying round to a nearby site, often a college gymnasium, that would accommodate about 4,000 persons seated on three sides of specially installed lanes. Most bowling centres had space for only a few hundred spectators. The first three arena-style PBA tournaments were held in 1994. There were 9 in 1995, including a meet in Detroit's Joe Louis Arena that attracted 7,212 fans, and 12 in 1996. "Only the cost of installing lanes for one day's use will limit the increase in arena finals," according to PBA Commissioner Mark Gerberich. "We must find ways to assist the local proprietor with this expense." In an arena meet at the Erie (Pa.) Civic Center--the PBA's Flagship Open on April 6--Bob Learn, Jr., an Erie resident, bowled a 300 game against Johnny Petraglia of Manalapan, N.J. (279), and received a $100,000 bonus. Learn then defeated John Mazza of Shelby township, Mich., 270-268; Parker Bohn III of Jackson, N.J., 280-279; and Randy Pedersen of Hollywood, Fla., 279-257 to capture his third championship and an additional $30,000. Learn's 1,129 for four games was a PBA record. With a handful of tournaments remaining, Walter Ray Williams, Jr., of Stockton, Calif., with three championships in 1996, seemed the most likely to succeed Mike Aulby of Indianapolis, Ind., as PBA Player of the Year. Williams earned the honour in 1986 and 1993. Aulby was one of several bowlers with one title in 1996. The increasing interest in mixed leagues--those that include both men and women--was reflected in a record entry of 1,933 four-person teams in the sixth annual mixed championships at the National Bowling Stadium in Reno, Nev. Easy Rollers #3 of Houston, Texas, won the team event with a score of 2,825. (JOHN J. ARCHIBALD) BOXING Included among the biggest upsets in world heavyweight boxing since the introduction of the Marquess of Queensberry rules more than 100 years ago was the overwhelming defeat of Mike Tyson (U.S.) in 11 rounds by Evander Holyfield (U.S.) at Las Vegas, Nev., in November. The victory gained for Holyfield the World Boxing Association (WBA) crown. In winning the heavyweight championship for the third time, he equaled a record previously held only by Muhammad Ali (U.S.). Holyfield had first become champion in 1990 by knocking out James ("Buster") Douglas (U.S.), at the time the only pugilist to have defeated Tyson, but after losing to Michael Moorer (U.S.) in 1994 and again to Riddick Bowe (U.S.) a year later, Holyfield was considered to be in the twilight of his career. It was a remarkable feat to come back and destroy Tyson in his 36th contest, especially given the fact that at one time it was feared that Holyfield would be forced to retire because of a suspected heart condition, which, however, a thorough cardiac examination later ruled out. Tyson had begun his comeback late in 1995 after serving three years in prison for rape. In March he regained the World Boxing Council (WBC) title by destroying Frank Bruno (Eng.) in three rounds. He then chose to take on Bruce Seldon (U.S.) and won the WBA crown, disposing of his opponent in the first round. He gave up the WBC crown to fight Holyfield. Bookmakers in Las Vegas made him a 22-1 favourite to annihilate Holyfield, but the latter's skill and courage won the battle. Nearly 10 years earlier Tyson had eliminated the ridiculous number of heavyweight champions created by the various self-appointed controlling bodies. He defeated the WBC, WBA, and International Boxing Federation (IBF) titleholders to prove himself undisputed champion. Internal disputes, battles for power, and legal threats, however, continued to leave the heavyweight and other weight divisions in chaos, with many mediocre champions. On the same bill as the Tyson and Holyfield promotion were two other "world" heavyweight championship fights. Michael Moorer retained the IBF version, stopping Frans Botha (S.Af.) in 12 rounds. The South African had won the IBF crown by defeating Axel Schulz (Ger.) but lost it in a courtroom after testing positive for steroids. The World Boxing Organization (WBO) champion, Henry Akinwande (Eng.), also kept his title by battering Aleksandr Zolkin (Russia) in 10 rounds. Apart from the heavyweights, two outstanding champions in lower weight divisions became top-class attractions. Roy Jones (U.S.), the IBF super middleweight champion, when defending the title in June against Eric Lucas (Can.), showed arrogance by taking part in a professional basketball match in the afternoon before climbing into the ring to retain his title in 11 laborious rounds at Jacksonville, Fla. He later regained lost popularity by knocking out the top-ranked challenger, Bryant Brannon (U.S.), in two rounds in New York City. He donated his purse (apart from promotional expenses) to various charities and also contributed to medical expenses to assist Gerald McClellan (U.S.), who had received permanent injury during a challenge match with Nigel Benn (Eng.). The other outstanding boxer was Oscar de la Hoya (U.S.), the WBC lightweight champion, who moved up to light welterweight and inflicted a four-round hammering on the legendary champion Julio Csar Chvez (Mex.). Chvez had taken part in 34 title bouts during a career approaching 100 contests. Though Chvez was obviously past his glory days, the ease with which de la Hoya handled him surprised many. Chvez, who earned $9 million against de la Hoya, hoped for a return match, and in October he crushed Joey Gamache (U.S.) in eight rounds. His $1.5 million purse was, however, paid directly to Mexican authorities for back taxes. Another remarkable veteran, Azumah Nelson (Ghana), retained the super featherweight crown at the age of 37, triumphing over Jesse James Leija (U.S.) in six rounds. Leija had previously drawn with and outpointed Nelson, but the Ghanaian proved himself to be one of Africa's best-ever champions. Steve Collins (Ire.) retained the WBO super middleweight title with victories against Chris Eubank (Eng.) and Benn. Both British fighters announced their retirement, but Eubank later made a comeback as a fighter and at the same time also became a promoter, staging the first professional tournament in Egypt. There his low-rated Argentine opponent, Luis Barrerar, was easily disposed of in five rounds. The outstanding British fighter Naseem Hamed continued his winning ways, retaining the WBO featherweight crown with a two-round win over Remigio Molina of Argentina. Hamed hoped to meet IBF featherweight champion Tom Johnson (U.S.) in 1997. The British Medical Association continued its antiboxing campaign with a series of 60-second advertisements to be shown in 100 British movie theatres, but with television offering Holyfield and Tyson millions of dollars to meet again, the chances that professional boxing would be outlawed appeared slim, if not nonexistent. (FRANK BUTLER) BILLIARD GAMES Carom Billiards. In recent years the world's top three-cushion billiard players had steadily and relentlessly pushed the scoring averages upward. In 1986 the record high average points-per-inning (PPI) for a tournament stood at 1.3, the mark set in 1950 by Willie Hoppe of the U.S. Since then the world's top players, led initially by Raymond Ceulemans of Belgium and later by Torbjrn Blomdahl of Sweden, had set new records in almost each major tournament. It was no different at 1995's fourth and final Billiard World Cup Association (BWA) professional tour event in Istanbul, where Blomdahl matched his own existing record of 2.3 PPI for the tournament and also set a new high minimum game PPI standard of 2.1. Blomdahl also held the world 50-point and 60-point game PPI average marks of 3.8 and 3.3, respectively. His victory over Ceulemans in the championship match in Istanbul, along with an earlier tour victory in Halle, Ger., clinched his second consecutive and fifth overall BWA title since the BWA World Cup series began in 1986. The United States Billiard Association (USBA) national tournament was held in Simi Valley, Calif., with the winner to represent the U.S. at the Union Mondiale de Billiard world championships in Viersen, Ger., in 1997. Sang Chun Lee of New York City, USBA champion for the previous seven years, prevailed again with a 50-42 play-off victory over Detroit's Mazin Shooni after the two had tied for best record in the round-robin competition. Pocket Billiards. The three-year joint agreement signed in December 1992 by the American Poolplayers Association (APA), consisting of more than 100,000 amateur players, and the Men's Professional Billiards Association (MPBA)/Professional Billiards Tour (PBT) groups of professional players ended in October 1995. The APA declined to give the PBT control of the Camel Pro Exhibition Tour (an APA-developed concept) as the PBT had demanded, and the agreement was terminated. Unrest in the men's professional ranks did not stop there. The MPBA and the PBT battle over control of the professional men's tour was punctuated by five resignations from the MPBA board of directors in mid-November 1995. The five, all touring pro players, left the organization to protest "a lack of fiscal accountability and the exceeding of proper authority" by the PBT commissioner. Just prior to the year's final PBT Tour event in December, the PBT terminated the Tour-playing memberships of the five, along with those of three others who were rumoured to be planning to bolt the Tour. The players obtained a restraining order, the PBT retained a lawyer, and on the day before the start of the PBT world championship in Winston-Salem, N.C., a local court ruled that the players had the right to play in the Tour finale. In early 1996 the former Tour players did in fact spearhead the establishment of an organization to compete with the PBT, the Professional Cuesports Association (PCA). It proposed to engage in "direct promotions, sponsorship of charitable events, setting of stringent standards in the selection of sponsors and phased-in player drug testing." The PCA's first tournament was held in April in Dallas, Texas, and featured a special $1 million prize to any player who could run off a string of 10 consecutive game wins during the event. Though the odds against doing so were calculated to be as much as 7.8 million to 1, on the first night of the event, Earl Strickland of Greensboro, N.C., promptly stunned the billiard world by running a string of 11 straight games. The World Pool-Billiard Association held its 1996 nine-ball championships in Borlnge, Swed. Ralf Souquet of Germany was the men's champion, and Allison Fisher of the U.K. won for the women. The ongoing quest for pool and billiards to achieve Olympic sport status took a small but potentially important step forward when the General Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF) granted provisional membership to the World Confederation of Billiard Sports. WCBS membership in GAISF allowed organizers of the 1997 World Games in Finland to consider including some form of pool or billiards as a "festival" (or nonmedal) sport. Positive reaction to a cue sport in such a tournament would greatly enhance the likelihood of eventual recognition and inclusion in the Olympics. The Billiard Congress of America inducted Dallas West of Rockford, Ill., as the 35th member of its Hall of Fame. Still active on a world-class level, West won the 1975 U.S. Open 14.1 crown and the 1983 World Series of Tavern Pool, finished second in two world open nine-ball tournaments in 1995, and won countless state and regional titles throughout his more than 40 years of competition. Straight pool (14.1 Continuous) was his strongest game (high run of 425), but he also played world-class carom billiards as well. The 1995 men's and women's Player of the Year awards were won by Efren Reyes and Loree Jon Jones, respectively. It was the first such honour for Reyes, though he had long been widely considered one of the sport's finest all-around players. For Jones, it was her fifth Player of the Year prize in a 15-year span during which she had won 30 professional titles. (BRUCE H. VENZKE) CHESS The world ruling body of chess, the Fdration Internationale des checs (FIDE), finally managed in 1996 to arrange the overdue world title match between the defending champion, Anatoly Karpov of Russia, and his challenger, Gata Kamsky of the United States. Earlier FIDE had accepted an offer from Saddam Hussein in Iraq to be organizer of the match. Angry reaction from much of the world forced cancellation of that bid. Before the cancellation the U.S. Treasury Department advised Kamsky of the huge fine and possible imprisonment that he would face if he took part in a chess match in Baghdad. The match was finally played at Elista, Kalmykia, Russia, from June 6 to July 11. It ended in a convincing 10.5-7.5 victory for Karpov in the 18th game of the scheduled 20. Karpov won six games, drew nine, and lost three. A new feature for FIDE title matches was the absence of the right to take any rest or illness days. The women's world championship was played in January and February at Jan, Spain, and was enlivened by a threat from the organizer, Luis Rentero, to impose a $25,000 fine for any perceived lack of competitive spirit in the early games. Zsuzsa Polgar of Hungary, oldest of the three famous chess-playing sisters, defeated defending champion Xie Jun of China 8.5-4.5. The World Chess Olympiad, contested from September 16 to October 2 at Yerevan, Armenia, again confirmed the strength of the former Soviet republics. Russia won the 14-round contest in a convincing manner. Top scores in the competition for 114 countries were: (1) Russia 38.5 game points; (2) Ukraine 35; (3) the U.S. on tiebreaker with (4) the U.K., each scoring 34; (5-7) Armenia, Spain, and Bosnia and Herzegovina 33.5; (8-12) Georgia, Bulgaria, Germany, Sweden, and Iceland 33; and (13-15) China, The Netherlands, and Argentina 32.5. Georgia won the women's competition, followed in order by China, Russia, Ukraine, and Hungary. Among the strongest tournaments of the year, the 10th VSB event at Amsterdam ended in a tie for first between Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria and Gary Kasparov of Russia, with 6.5 points out of 9. At Dos Hermanas, Spain, Vladimir Kramnik and Topalov scored 6 out of 9 to lead Viswanathan Anand of India and Kasparov by a half point. Aleksey Suetin of Moscow won the world senior championship in November on a tie-break from Anatoly Lein of the U.S., a former Soviet grandmaster, and Janis Klovans, a Latvian international master. The world junior championship, played at the same time in Medelln, Colom., was won by Emil Sutovskij of Israel. The year ended with the Las Palmas tournament in Spain's Canary Islands, a double rounder for six players, which gained the participation of both Kasparov and Karpov for the first time in nearly three years. It ended with a victory for Kasparov, who scored 6.5 points out of a possible 10. Anand finished second with 5.5, followed by Kramnik and Topalov with 5 each. Tied for last with 4 points were Karpov and Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine. Las Palmas hoped to be the host for the projected world "reunification" match in 1997. In other developments FIDE and its president, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, encountered opposition from the European chess federations, the U.S., and Canada. They were so incensed by what they considered irregularities by FIDE that they held a special meeting in Utrecht, Neth., on April 27-28. The meeting called for equal treatment for Kamsky and Karpov, the restoration of the traditional FIDE cycle of qualifying contests leading to the world title match, and a shake-up in FIDE. To reinforce this reformation the Utrecht partners supported a candidate to challenge Ilyumzhinov at the FIDE Congress that took place alongside the World Chess Olympiad. The candidate was Jaime Sunye Neto, a grandmaster from Brazil. Ilyumzhinov was successful in mustering support from the Third World and from Russia, which won him the election 87-46. The financial position of FIDE was not good. There was no restoration of the traditional qualifying cycle, and Ilyumzhinov's own preference for a $5 million knockout contest for the world's top 100 players was deferred from December 1996 until December 1997 with no definite sponsor announced. The Professional Chess Association, Kasparov's organization, was also restricting its activities after it lost its sponsorship from Intel Corp. when Kasparov decided to play an exhibition match in February of six games against Intel's rival IBM, using IBM's new program Deep Blue. After his loss in the first round provoked great interest, especially on the Internet, Kasparov won the match. The final score was 4-2, with a replay scheduled against a new program in 1997. (See COMPUTERS AND INFORMATION SCIENCES: Sidebar.) (BERNARD CAFFERTY) CONTRACT BRIDGE The major event of 1996 in contract bridge was the World Team Olympiad. It was held on the Greek island of Rhodes from October 19 to November 2, and any member country of the World Bridge Federation was permitted to enter two teams, one in the Open Series and one in the Women's. Of some 100 member countries of the WBF, 72 sent teams: 71 for the Open event and 43 for the Women's. (Jamaica sent only a women's team.) The Open title was retained by France, which beat Indonesia 358-269 in the final. Third was Denmark, which lost in overtime against Indonesia in the semifinal. The winning team comprised Alain Lvy, Herv Mouiel, Christian Mari, Frank Multon, Henri Szwarc, and Marc Bompis, with Jean-Louis Stoppa as the nonplaying captain. Playing in its first world final, Indonesia was represented by Henky Lasut, Eddy Manoppo, Denny Sacul, Franky Karwur, Giovanni Watulingas, and Sance Panelewen. The Women's title was won convincingly by the United States, which defeated China 268-198. Canada finished third. The U.S. team comprised Juanita Chambers, Lynn Deas, Irina Levitina, Jill Blanchard, Gail Greenberg (Blanchard's mother), and Shawn Quinn, with Eddie Wold as the nonplaying captain. It was the first time a mother-and-daughter combination had ever won a world title. The Chinese team consisted of Gu Ling, Zhang Ya Lan, Sun Ming, Wang Hong Li, Wang Wen Fei, and Zhang Yu, with Zhang Wei Li as the nonplaying captain. The first-ever world mixed-teams championship was also contested at Rhodes. It was the first world championship in which players representing different countries were allowed to play as pairs and/or teammates. The winners were Heather Dhondy and Liz McGowan of the U.K. and Jon Baldursson, Bjrn Eysteinsson, and Adalsteinn Jorgensen of Iceland. Ragnar Hermansson of Iceland was also on the team but did not play in the knockout stage. In the final they defeated Mark Feldman, Rozanne and Bill Pollack, and Sharon Osberg of the U.S. 66-55. Geir Helgemo of Norway further solidified his reputation as the rising star of contract bridge by winning the Generali Individual competition in Paris in May ahead of 51 of the world's greatest players. The women's event was won by Elizabeth Delor of France. Junior bridge continued to develop strongly in Europe, as demonstrated by the high standard of play at the European Junior (under 25) and Schools (under 20) championships held in Cardiff, Wales, in July. In the first event Norway triumphed, ahead of Russia, Denmark, and 23 other countries. The younger competition was won easily by Germany, in front of Israel, the U.K., and 11 other nations. The biggest contest from the point of view of the number of competitors--more than 80,000--was the Alcatel Worldwide Pairs. It was held in two sessions in many places throughout the world on June 7-8, and the highest score of 81.4% was achieved by Wang Weidon and He Weidong of Beijing. Terence Reese died on January 29 at the age of 82. Arguably the greatest-ever player and writer, he was on the only British team to win the Bermuda Bowl world team championship, in 1955. (PHILLIP ALDER) CRICKET The victory of Sri Lanka in the 1996 World Cup (see Sidebar), though brilliantly achieved and thoroughly deserved, highlighted the increasing division between the one-day and the five-day game in terms of popularity, standards, and marketing. Sri Lanka showed itself the tactical master of one-day cricket and could rightly bask in the glow of being world champion after its seven-wicket victory over Australia in the World Cup final on March 17, but decisive defeats in all three Tests against Australia demonstrated how far the Sri Lankan team was from being a champion of the five-day game. Aware of cricket's need to compete with other, more aggressively marketed sports, its authorities began to heed calls for the establishment of a world championship of Test cricket. "Any team claiming to be world champions can only be considered unofficial champions," Clive Lloyd, the former West Indies captain, said. "But why 'unofficial'? We are not playing unofficial Tests. Some structure should be set up where you play for the championship of the world." While tacitly agreeing that the calendar of Test cricket was coherent, with each nation deciding who it played and when, the International Cricket Council, the ruling body, indicated that in practice it would be difficult to impose a fixture list on the nine Test-playing nations because of financial considerations and a reluctance to cede power to a central body. An unofficial table, based on matches played during the previous four years and compiled by the English magazine Wisden Cricket Monthly, put South Africa on top, narrowly ahead of Australia and West Indies, jointly in second place, and India and Pakistan tied for fourth. Embarrassingly, though doubtless accurately, England was relegated to seventh place, ahead of only Zimbabwe and New Zealand. The World Cup began in controversy, with Australia and the West Indies refusing to play their group matches in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on security grounds, and ended in a fairy-tale victory for the 66-1 outsiders, who gained revenge by beating Australia in the final. Sri Lanka's cricket was inventive and thrilling, and in the portly Arjuna Ranatunga Sri Lanka had a calm and astute captain. Ranatunga became only the fifth man to win the World Cup trophy. Much of the 1995-96 Test cricket was overshadowed by the World Cup, though Pakistan emerged as a Test side of considerable potential under the leadership of Wasim Akram. Having collapsed disappointingly against Australia, for whom spin bowler S.K. Warne was again dominant, Pakistan went to England in the summer and outplayed the home team, winning 2-0. Akram and Waqar Younis proved again that they were the most deadly opening bowling combination in Test cricket, taking 27 wickets between them in the three-Test series, and Mushtaq Ahmed took 17 wickets at an average of 26.29 with his leg-spin. Ijaz Ahmed, who had scored 137 in the third Test against Australia, scored 344 runs at an average of 68.8 to confirm his promise as one of the classiest young stroke makers in the game. Pakistan's pool of young talent knew no bounds, it seemed. Hassan Raza was thought to be the youngest cricketer in Test history when he made his debut against Zimbabwe late in the year at the advertised age of 14 years 227 days. It was later suggested that Raza actually might have been 15, just as Shahid Afridi--who less than two months earlier had hit the record fastest international one-day century, off 37 balls against Sri Lanka--turned out to be 19 and not 16 as first claimed. Not all was lost for England, which had beaten India in the first series of the summer, its first series win in two years, and discovered in N.V. Knight and N. Hussain batsmen of solid technique and good temperament. With D.G. Cork not showing the spark that marked his first year in international cricket, the bowling was more of a problem. Knight scored 113 in the second Test against Pakistan and followed up with consecutive centuries in the two one-day internationals. Despite its defeat, India, too, produced another young player of quality in S. Ganguly, a left-handed batsman who found Test cricket an easy game, scoring a century on his Test debut at Lord's and another in his second Test at Nottingham. In August 23-year-old S.R Tendulkar (see BIOGRAPHIES), who had made his Test debut at age 16, was named India's captain. For sheer determination and application, the innings of M.A. Atherton in the second Test against South Africa deserved better reward than a mere draw. Left to bat out a total of 165 overs with no chance of victory, the England captain made 185 not out in 645 minutes (10 3/4 hours) to steer his side to safety. R.C. Russell, who had earlier become the first wicketkeeper to take 11 dismissals in a match, batted for 276 minutes and 75 overs to score 29 not out. After rain had spoiled the first and third Tests in England's first series in South Africa since 1964-65, the outcome was decided in the fifth and final Test, which South Africa won comfortably by 10 wickets. S.M. Pollock, son of the former Test fast bowler P.M. Pollock and nephew of the great left-hander R.G. Pollock, made an impressive debut in the series, taking 16 wickets at an average of 23.56. A.A. Donald of South Africa and England's Cork both took 19. Among the most noteworthy aspects of the series was the debut of P.R. Adams, a left-arm wrist spinner whose contortionist's action caused almost as much comment as the colour of his skin. Adams was the first Cape Coloured to have broken into the Test side since the end of apartheid and, at 18, was South Africa's youngest Test cricketer. In domestic cricket Leicestershire, led by J. Whitaker, emerged as the surprise winner of the county championship in England. Lancashire won both of the one-day knockout trophies, and Surrey won the Sunday league. South Australia won the Sheffield Shield, that nation's premier domestic trophy, for the first time in 14 years. Auckland claimed New Zealand's Shell Trophy, Leeward Islands won the Red Stripe Cup in the West Indies, and Western Province took the Castle Cup in South Africa. (ANDREW LONGMORE)