After giving up his lead in the first game of match play and trailing for much of the round, Norm Duke nudged back into the top spot in the last game of the block Friday at the 2019 PBA Jonesboro Open.

Duke finished the opening round of match play with a 4-4 record and total of 5,043, a 223.77 average, at Hijinx Family Entertainment in Jonesboro, Arkansas. The 54-year-old PBA Hall of Famer also had the lead after the conclusion of qualifying Thursday night.

All 16 players in the match-play field will return for the final eight games of match play today at 3:30 p.m. Eastern live on FloBowling. The top five players after this afternoon’s block will advance to the stepladder finals Sunday.

Results: PBA Jonesboro Open Match Play Round 1

Duke got off to a slow start to match play, losing his first three matches, including a 263-204 opening defeat against Anthony Lavery-Spahr, to give up his lead. Despite losing his final match of the block to Richie Teece, 224-185, Duke was able to slip back into the lead by two pins over Kris Prather.

Prather held the lead for much of the first round of match play but struggled down the stretch, shooting 177 in a loss in the last game of the block. He finished with a 6-2 record and a total of 5,041.

Tom Daugherty also went 6-2 in match play and made a huge jump from 15^th place entering the day to third with a total of 4,884. Marshall Kent jumped from 10^th place to fourth place with a 4-3-1 record and 4,881 total. Anthony Simonsen rounds out the top five with a 4-4 record and 4,856 total.

With eight games of match play remaining, Sean Rash, Shawn Maldonado, EJ Tackett, Shota Kawazoe and Kyle Sherman all sit within 100 pins of fifth place.

For the second straight week, the field is facing mixed lane conditions with the 48-foot Shark pattern on the left lane and the 36-foot Viper pattern on the right lane.