By NOLAN HUGHES
PBA Communications
HELSINGBORG, Sweden — Raymond Teece realized a dream on Monday evening.
The 38-year-old Englishman won the Storm Lucky Larsen Masters to earn his first PBA Tour title.
Teece defeated Sweden’s Carl Eklund in the semifinals, then Finland’s Tomas Käyhkö in the championship match at Olympia Bowling.
With the win, Teece netted $21,750 USD (200.000 SEK) and a piece of PBA history.
Teece joined his brother, Richie, as a PBA Tour champion. They are the second pair of brothers to each win PBA Tour titles and the first in nearly half a century.
Nelson Burton Jr. won 18 PBA Tour titles during his Hall of Fame career. His brother, Neil, won the 1980 ABC Masters.
“You dream about this,” Teece said.. “You play this moment over in your head, over and over and over as a player in practice. It doesn’t go exactly how you think it will, but when it’s done and the emotion comes out, it’s indescribable.
“This is what I’ve wanted since I was a teenager. It’s taken (me) a lot longer than it takes for some people. Obviously, it doesn’t happen for everybody either, and that’s what it felt like to me after missing out on the TV show last year. I guess that it’s never too late.”
More than 350 players entered at least one of the 27 qualifying squads held between Aug. 21 and 29.
Teece shot the first 300 game of the tournament and later qualified 28th overall to earn a berth in Final Step 1.
Fifty-five players advanced to Sunday’s competition. Teece advanced to Final Step 2 after a five-game advancer round, then punched his ticket to match play as the No. 5 seed.
Teece has experience on this stage, losing to eventual champion Sean Rash in the quarterfinals last year, and with team Full House in the renowned Swedish League.
He utilized his knowledge of the bowling center to his advantage, taking down 2024 SLLM runner-up Teodor Samuelsson and qualifying leader Tomo Gaber Pinteric in his first two matches.
Those wins netted Teece a berth in Monday’s championship round along with Finland’s Tomas Käyhkö, and Sweden’s Carl Eklund and Albin Gullstrand.
All rounds of the Storm Lucky Larsen Masters were livestreamed on their YouTube channel.
Teece described the upcoming semifinal and championship match as “the biggest, potentially, two games of my career.”
“I’m just going to try and focus on what I can control,” Teece told Bowling Life’s Erikas Jansonas. “But if it all goes well for me, if it works out for me, then it would be a dream come true. It would be a lifetime of dreaming, a lifetime of working and a lifetime of, shall we say, emotional torture through my career to get here, and hopefully take it home.”
In the opening match, Teece’s experience proved invaluable against the 20-year-old Eklund.
Teece started with three strikes and two spares, while Eklund had two spares and two open frames before tallying his first strike in the fifth frame. Teece cruised to a 235-179 victory.
The semifinal between Käyhkö def. Albin Gullstrand proved to be much closer. Käyhkö doubled in the eighth and ninth frames to earn a narrow lead in the back-and-forth affair.
Needing strikes to keep pace with the Finnish two-hander, Gullstrand left a pocket 6-8 split in his ninth frame. That open frame ended the 20-year-old’s chances of a first career title.
Strikes were hard to come by in the title match, though not as difficult as Käyhkö’s lone previous title match appearance in the 2004 PBA Delaware Classic.
A miss on a 10-pin spare attempt put Käyhkö in an early deficit. Teece managed to stay clean on a tricky left lane, sparing in his first four attempts, to maintain his lead.
In the eighth and ninth frames, Teece delivered the biggest pair of strikes in his career. He tripped the 9-pin in the ninth frame and unleashed the preamble to his championship celebration.
Teece left the 2-7-8 split in his closing frame, knocking over the necessary two pins to claim the title.
He celebrated the win with his wife, Cydney, seven-month-old daughter, and his parents.
Teece’s parents traveled a slightly shorter distance from their native England for Raymond’s win in Sweden compared to Richie’s 2017 PBA Shark Championship victory in Reno, Nev.
Championship Round Results
Semifinal Matches
Raymond Teece def. Carl Eklund, 235-179
Tomas Käyhkö def. Albin Gullstrand, 255-209
Championship Match
Raymond Teece def. Tomas Käyhkö, 195-191
Final Standings
- Raymond Teece, $21,750 USD (200.000 SEK)
- Tomas Käyhkö, $14,150 USD (130.000 SEK)
- Carl Eklund, $10,345 USD (95.000 SEK)
- Albin Gullstrand, $10,345 USD (95.000 SEK)
See complete standings for the Lucky Larson Masters events here: https://sllm.bowlres.se/allresults.php?contestid=107