BOWLING / DANA HADDAD : Canadian Customs Pins Crime on Tour Players

Fellow bowlers were calling Ron Winger unstoppable after his victory in the Wyoming Valley Senior Open at Wilkes-Barre, Pa., earlier this month.

Sixteen years on the PBA Tour produced no championships until May, when Winger won in Chicago. Anticipating his second victory in as many tournaments, Winger of Tarzana rolled a 300 game in the televised stepladder finals at Wilkes-Barre.

Unstoppable? One day after his perfect game on July 1, a Canadian border official found Winger quite stoppable. In fact, the officer arrested him.

Winger was driving a rented van to the Canadian PBA Senior Open in Montreal on July 2 when he was apprehended by Canada Customs at the Landsdowne, Ontario, border station.

A Canadian immigration spokesman confirmed the arrest but said Canada Customs policy prohibits the release of any information, including cause for arrest.

Apparently, Winger, 51, bowling’s newest hero, was arrested for lying.

“To this day I don’t know what I did,” he said. “I guess I lied under customs laws.”

Winger and two Senior PBA players from the Valley who rode with him--Delano (Hobo) Boothe of Canoga Park and Dennis Greene of Sherman Oaks--told a patrolman they were visiting Canada during the routine border stop.

Winger said the patrolman was suspicious of three men in their 50s on vacation without wives or children and sent them to a secondary checkpoint where their van was inspected.

When the officer found the vehicle loaded with bowling equipment, he escorted the bowlers to the Landsdowne station, where they were booked and questioned.

Boothe said they tried to reason with the officer by telling him they take vacation time from work so they can compete in tournaments.

“He was really mad,” said Boothe, 56. “And he kept trying to provoke us. He never did understand. We were all on vacation, but we were also bowling.”

Winger, Boothe and Greene were taken to separate rooms and questioned. After two hours, Greene was released from his cell to go to the bathroom. As he headed unescorted to the bathroom, Greene spotted a pay phone and called PBA headquarters in Greendale, Wis.

Within minutes, PBA Director of Operations Mark Gerberich placed a call to Canada Customs to negotiate their release but was told charges already had been filed. About 2 1/2 hours after the arrest, however, the immigration officials decided to drop the charges and let Winger, Boothe and Greene continue to Montreal.

“I guess it’s a big deal when they get celebrities at the border--and they consider pro bowlers celebrities,” Gerberich said. “Their press and TV would have been all over it if they went to trial.

“The officer (who made the arrest) was a bowling fan and said he liked bowlers and let them through all the time.”

Gerberich said he will remind all bowlers never to lie to Canadian Customs. But Winger and Greene insist they did not lie and still want to know what was written on their arrest report.

How did the trio perform in Montreal after the ordeal? Boothe took home a $1,600 check, finishing 12th while averaging 220.5 for 42 games. Greene and Winger couldn’t crack the top 53 and finished out of the money. Not only was Winger arrested, he left his best two balls in Wilkes-Barre after his $26,000 payday there.

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Bowling home the bacon: Eddie Williams is grateful that his father gave him a few pointers when he was first learning to bowl 12 years ago.

And seven sanctioned 300 games and five series of 800 or better add up to a lot of gratitude. The most recent feat by the Van Nuys resident came three weeks ago in the Thursday night league at Mission Hills Bowl.

Williams, 27, scored a 279, 279 and 267 for an 825 series--one pin short of his all-time best.

Eddie’s hot shooting couldn’t have come at a better time for the Williams household. Eddie’s father, Ulysses, lost his job last month, so Eddie chipped in the $5,000 he earned that month in prize money.