Five or six blisters on his right hand were worth $525, Jason Silva said last Sunday after winning the eighth annual Champion of Champions’ men’s division at Tenpins & More.

“Fourteen games is a lot to bowl in one day,” he said, examining the blisters that played havoc with his grip. “It’s called grinding it out.”

It would have been hard to have had a better start: Silva, 21, rolled a 289 in his first of 14 games that day, and nailed a perfect game in his fourth game, giving him “six or seven” in his career.

Jason Silva emerged as the men's division's "champion" on Dec. 28.

Not bad for a guy that was seeded 14th in a 14-man field – and a guy that aspires to someday bowl professionally.

Silva, a student at the University of New Mexico, is part of the family that owns Silva Lanes in Albuquerque’s Northeast Heights. He said he’s been bowling for about 15 years and naturally gets a lot of free bowling. He said he’d won a Roto-Grip tournament at the 2008 United States Bowling Congress Championships in Albuquerque, but added, “It’s nice to win some tournaments like this."

Tenpins & More manager Steve Mackie said this was the best field in the event’s history, with only three of the 14 finalists carrying less than a 175 average.

Each bowler faced the other 13 in the men’s division one match at a time, with actual scores added with each bowler’s handicap – they ranged from 11 to 66; Silva’s was 22 – for a match score, and each match victor received a 30-pin bonus. The final game of the day matched 1 vs. 2, 3 vs. 4, etc.

By day’s end, Silva had won 10 of his matches, worth an extra 300 points, and finished with a score of 3,718. Bob Dillman, who defeated Silva in the finale, finished with a score of 3,582 and won $$385. Dave Wiley (3,539) was third, worth $150, and XXX Brandt (3,489) won $140 for finishing fourth.

Rounding out the 14-man field were, in order, Reg Card (3,439), defending champ Luke Richard (3,374), Marty Martinez (3,356), Justin Medina (3,326), Joey MacPhee (3,313), Willie Edwards (3,308), Doug Tennyson (3,247), Kevin Kaminski (3,199) and John Lund (3,129).

Other divisional winners from earlier in the month, with the cash won, were: Lee Gangloff, who won $332 for his seniors victory; April Trudell ($396) in the women’s division, Hannah Dowd ($155 in scholarships) in the girls’ division, and Ryan Scheer ($228) in the boys division.

Nobody matched Silva’s rise to the top from 14th seed, but Trudell had been the 10th seed, Scheer had been the ninth seed, and Gangloff rose through the ranks from the sixth position. Janeyl Carper and Dowd had been 1-2; Carper wound up finishing second in the girls division.

Bowlers qualified for the Champion of Champions tournament by qualifying earlier in the year, often by winning a previous tournament. All told, there were 77 bowlers competing in the event this year. Total prize money doled out by Mackie amounted to $4,000.

Although the economy has taken quite a hit lately, and Tenpins & More isn’t an exception, manager Steve Mackie said his bowling center has fared better than most businesses.

Quoting an estimate of sales being down some 8 percent in 2008 compared to 2007, Mackie said his bowling center’s business has been down only about 1.5 percent, “and that’s not bad.

“It’s been an interesting year. It’s been a challenging year,” he admitted, unhappy about some layoffs at the center.

“There’s talk of a recession but I’ve chosen not to participate,” Mackie quipped, adding that he’s noticed, “An election year is very disruptive to businesses and I don’t care what kind of business it is.”

To combat fewer dollars in people’s pockets, Mackie has kept the Rio Rancho center, which he purchased late in the 20th century, open on the same schedule it’s been known for and sought ways to entice bowlers, whether they’re regulars or newcomers to the sport.

“Every day now I’ve got some kind of special,” Mackie said. “Specials” include reduced prices at non-peak times.

“And I’ve gotten creative with the leagues,” he said.

Tenpins & More has staged tournaments on 49 of the year’s 52 weekends, which has helped, he said.

“I think ’09 will be a pretty good year. Our winter leagues look larger than in the fall,” he said. “We had four new leagues that weren’t in it last year. We’ve definitely had more youth bowlers – high school bowling has been a help to the industry in this state. And they bowl in leagues, too. There are, I think, 31 schools now (with bowling teams) in New Mexico.”

Mackie said he’s kept his prices the same as in the past, which has helped his throng of senior bowlers, many of which are on fixed incomes. “It’s on the very reasonable side of affordability.”

Although Mackie had to postpone some improvements to his center in 2008, he is planning to have new paint inside and out this year, when he also foresees having the lanes resurfaced and some lighting fixtures changed.

“There’s about $80,000 that I’d like to spend on major items,” he said. “I’m hoping for a decent winter. It’s hard to cut expenses at a bowling center. Stuff that gets broke still needs to be fixed.”

Tenpins & More will again be the site of the annual New Mexico Open, in which Mackie is hoping – providing sponsorship dollars are again available –- to increase the prize money to $40,000.

Open frames: The first New Mexico Activities Association Foundation Bowl-A-Thon runs Jan. 10-11 at Tenpins & More. Bowlers may choose which day to compete as part of a five-person team, rolling three nine-pin, no-tap games. The entry fee is $300 per team, with $750 going to the winning team, $500 to the second-place team and $300 to the third-place team. The proceeds will go to the NMAA Foundation, which awards scholarships and grants to participants of 12 interscholastic sports and 24 school activities. Check-in begins at 11:30 a.m. each day. For more information, call Tenpins & More at 892-7117 or Mario Martinez of the NMAA at 923-3275.