Romeo Rolls On to Victory in Her Spare Time : Bowling: She caps an eventful 10 days by beating top-qualifier Daniels in final, 214-205.

Call it a story with a happy ending or call it Robin Romeo’s fantasy come true.

Romeo, a 17-year veteran of the Ladies Pro Bowlers Tour who lives in Newhall, defeated Cheryl Daniels, 214-205, Wednesday to win the $60,000 California Classic at AMF Rocket Bowl.

That Romeo would win the first LPBT event in the Valley since 1989 seemed an all-too-perfect ending to a whirlwind 10 days back home.

Within that time frame, Romeo was engaged to be married and was elected to the Women’s International Bowling Congress Hall of Fame.

And for the first time in six years, Romeo’s entire family this week was able to see her compete.

She didn’t disappoint them, and didn’t leave a pin standing against Daniels, of Detroit, the tournament’s top qualifier. Romeo built a 28-pin lead after hitting strikes in the third, fourth and fifth frames, then hung on for the victory.

“It’s incredible,” Romeo said. “I said the ultimate would be to make the show and win this tournament. It’s been an incredible week and I don’t want it to stop.”

But it ended with Romeo completing a spare in the 10th frame and hoisting her arms and pumping her fists at her father, Ray, and two nephews who were seated three feet behind her.

“At first I was a little nervous, but I had a lot of adrenaline going,” said Romeo, who carried a 216.6 average through 42 games in match-play qualifying. “It makes me feel good with all these people cheering for me.”

Romeo trailed by two pins after the second frame, but it could have been worse. In that frame, she left the two, four, five and eight pins in a circular formation, or what bowlers call a “bucket.” Romeo picked up the difficult spare.

Then in the third frame, Daniels missed the 10-pin, an easy spare. She blamed the error and the loss on unpredictable lane conditions under the television lights--not the resounding cheers of Romeo rooters.

“The approaches were so sticky, that’s what troubled me,” Daniels said. “And I couldn’t get the ball to slide. You have to do a lot of guessing, and you’ve got to guess right.”

To get to the final, Romeo defeated Tammy Turner of Palm Beach, Fla., 223-196. In this match, Turner converted a nearly impossible spare--two, four, eight and 10--in the fourth frame and trailed Romeo by three pins through most of the game. The two matched strikes in the sixth, seventh and eighth frames, seemingly setting up a 10th-frame shootout.

But Turner faltered with open frames in the ninth, a three-six-seven-10 split, and 10th.

The victory for Romeo was the 16th of her career. She became the first player on the LPBT this year to win two tournaments. She captured the $60,000 New Orleans Classic on March 9.

Romeo also won the last LPBT event played in the Valley, the Canoga Park Classic, in 1989.

Romeo said she will donate $5,000 of her $10,800 winner’s check to the families of victims in the Oklahoma City bombing. She said the donation was an idea she recently shared with her fiance, Bill Mossonte, the proprietor of Mission Hills Bowl and Valencia Lanes.

“Things are going so well and I feel so good about myself . . .,” Romeo said.

“Maybe that little extra gesture kept me going. It’s something I really wanted to do.”