No, this time the cream indeed rose to the top at the Bermuda Southern Region PBA Open at Warwick Lanes, with Florida-based professional Sam Zurich proving a notch above the rest.

Producing a startling display of consistently spectacular bowling, the hulking Zurich mastered all challengers to seize his first Bermuda title and 25th career regional award -- tying him with Guppy Troup for all-time career wins -- while ending Bermudian dominance of the event.

Zurich devastated fellow American David Watson in the final, opening with eight consecutive strikes on his way to a convincing 279-161 triumph.

Watson had earlier downed fifth qualifier Bobby Hall 192-190, but encountered a red hot Zurich, last year's leading tour money winner.

Still Zurich noted it was a hard earned triumph, despite numbers to the contrary.

"It's a tremendous feeling,'' said Zurich, who totalled 5,815 total pins -- excluding the final. "We had a very tough field of bowlers out that were continuously on my tail.

"Fortunately I was able to lead the tournament from the first block and, basically, from wire to wire, so in that respect it was a tremendous feat and a great feeling to do that, but all the time they were nipping at my heels and at any given time it could have gone either way.'' With Zurich opening with an array of strikes and Watson stumbling from the blocks it became rapidly apparent where the title would rest.

The champion said that considering the good condition of the lanes there was great likelihood of a big game by either him or his opponent and he wanted to make the early statement.

"I felt I had to come out there for the final game and make some kind of an effort to post a good game and I was fortunate that it worked out my way,'' continued Zurich, who pocketed the $4,000 first prize cheque.

"In the back of my mind I knew that it was a high scoring environment for this tournament. I came out and threw some really good shots and my opponent had some misfortune the first frame.'' Watson collected $2,000 for placing second, with Hall third ($1,500), Brian Brazeau fourth ($1,200) and Troup fifth ($1,000). Top Bermudian finisher was Ty Williams, who placed 13th ($525), while 1995 winner Dean Lightbourn ended 17th ($225).

Well out of the money was last year's champion Antoine Jones, who rated a disappointing 42nd overall.