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By DONALD MOTTERN | Staff Writer

PELHAM – Pelham residents Rhett Bell and Bailey Bell were recently celebrated for their victorious performance in Pelham Parks and Recreation’s Summer Bowling Neighborhood League.

The celebration came at the close of this year’s inaugural summer bowling league that was presented by Pelham Parks and Recreation and hosted by Oak Mountain Lanes.

A total of six Pelham neighborhoods took part in the competition, with each neighborhood being represented by two regular bowlers and two alternate bowlers.

League play took place every Tuesday night throughout the run of the program, which started June 11 and concluded July 30. Over the course of the games, teams were awarded points each week based on the overall score of head-to-head action between the opposing neighborhoods.

“The High Ridge neighborhood had accumulated the most amount of points over the course of the bowling league,” said Will Mayhall, Pelham’s recreation programs supervisor. “Each neighborhood took part in the eight-week league that culminated with a roll-off occurring on the final week between the top two teams.”

As representatives and players for the High Ridge neighborhood, Rhett and Bailey came out on top following that roll-off and received a trophy engraved with both their names and their neighborhood that is now on display at Oak Mountain Lanes.

This year’s program was the first summer neighborhood bowling league that Pelham has hosted, with the league having been established in response to the involvement and success seen in the city’s first fall league held last year.

According to Mayhall, Pelham’s parks and recreation department is pleased with the community involvement spurred by the league and is eager to see the program grow. Plans are already in place to continue with another summer league next year and to expand the program with other seasons of play.

“We are currently working with Oak Mountain Lanes to plan out a winter league and to grow the summer league,” Mayhall said. “The Pelham Neighborhood bowling league is a fun and friendly non-sanctioned, non-competitive league open to Pelham neighborhoods only.”