You simply cannot take it away from him, Dean Lightbourn has proven over and over again that he is Bermuda's king of bowling.

Lightbourn's latest accomplishment was his undisputed victory in this year's American Airlines Bowling Spectacular.

His 784 series was enough to win top prizes in both the handicap division of the tournament as well as the scratch division.

His games of 258, 248 and 278 that gave him the his series was enough to set a new record for the 24-year-old tournament. Lightbourne's shortfall of a mere 16 pins from the elusive 800 series is a dream of even the professionals.

No Bermudian bowler has ever achieved this goal on the Island, although Kevin Swan is on record as having a 799 series bowled earlier this year in the men's association championship tournament.

Lightbourn has, however, had an 800 series on one or two occasions while participating in tournaments abroad.

The icing on the cake is that this is Lightbourne's third win in the tournament. Under his belt is his 1989 win and his 1993 win, both in the handicap division.

Last year he won the top prize in the scratch division. All of his wins gave him a roundtrip airline ticket that allowed him to fly to any city within continental USA, Canada, Mexico or the Caribbean.

This year, however, Lightbourn has to forfeit one of the tickets as the rules of the tournament specify that no one person may win both tickets.

As the handicap division of the tournament is the main event and the one in which the championship records are recorded and maintained, he has decided to accept the top prize in this division. Therefore, he will have the honour of being installed as the 2002 champion.

Standing in second place in the scratch division is Jackie Miller who had a 706 series, and will receive the roundtrip ticket so graciously forfeited by Lightbourn. Miller will also receive a high second-game prize for his 258 game, but Lightbourn will receive top high 1st and 2nd game prizes for his 258 and 278 games respectively.

In second place in the handicap division is Steven Harvey who is also a two-time champion of the tournament having achieved this in 1996 and 1997. He trailed Lightbourn by 19 pins in this division, but did so with a 87 pin handicap allowance compared to Lightbourn's zero allowance. A handicap allowance is based upon one's seasonal average. Lightbourn's average was too high to receive a handicap.

Other prizewinners are Maurice Caines (759); Shane Williams (759); Quinton Mallory (757); Jackie Miller (754); and Rickai Binns (735). High handicap games were bowled by Maurice Caines (290), Gladwin Harvey (288) and Shane Williams (279).