Combo

A combined LuLu-Melrose team prevailed by a stroke in the season's opening tournament of the Golf Association of Philadelphia yesterday at Whitford Country Club. LuLu's James Barton and Rick Di Lanzo and Melrose's Joe Fox and Gerry Nelson shot a two-best-ball net 66-70-136 in the Chairmen's Meeting Tournament.

Shareholders at Continental Airlines Inc. and UAL Corp. approve a deal to form the world's biggest airline. Continental officials announced preliminary results of voting during a shareholder meeting Friday in Houston. United shareholders approved it at a meeting near Chicago. The votes clear the way for the $3 billion stock swap to close in about two weeks. It likely will be some time before passengers notice much difference when they fly Continental or United. The combined airline will be called United and based in United's hometown of Chicago, run by Continental's CEO.

Playwrights Horizons, the off-Broadway theater company, and Amblin Entertainment, Steven Spielberg's movie organization, have announced commissions for four plays and a musical - a unique stage and screen collaboration. The commissions are the first implementation of a 2-year-old association between the two organizations aimed at providing new material for both media. The partnership intends to encourage new plays, adaptations from stage to film, and original movie scripts from playwrights.

They came, they listened, and they caught some rays. More than 8,000 sun worshipers descended Sunday on West Chester's Everhart Park for the 11th annual Turk's Head Music Festival. Stretched out on beach towels and blankets, they basked in the sun while sampling tunes from 19 of the area's hottest bands. "You would have thought you were in the '60s there," said Kathleen McBratnie, director of the West Chester Recreation Department, which hosted the event. "It was just a real nice, laid-back day. " Along with the nine hours of music, the festival featured 75 booths with venders offering everything from beaded jewelry and incense to free health and stress screenings.

Zairian soukous star Kanda Bongo Man made his Philadelphia debut Tuesday at the North Star Bar by playing eight songs of roughly the same harmonic design, the same tempo and the same type of call and response between singers. There wasn't one dull moment. In other hands, such repetition would equal boredom. Kanda Bongo Man and his seven-piece outfit used the sameness to create an inescapable trance state in which the slightest rhythmic shift rippled with seismic significance, and dancing - or some kind of body movement - was mandatory.

ince moving to Los Angeles, guitarist and composer Skip Heller has made himself a cataloger of the eclectic. Without kitsch, the former Philadelphian has filled his jazz music with Mexican garage rock, oceanic exotica, klezmer, rockabilly, and cartoony film and TV soundtracks. "I'm not a big one for looking at other people's careers as a blueprint for my own," says Heller, 38, of his past music and collaborations. "You learn to trust your own taste. " No matter how his albums run - whether the creaky country of 1998's St. Christopher's Arms or 2002's blues-bouncing Homegoing - Heller, who will make a rare area visit Saturday at Ortlieb's, remains truest to one sound: the Philly jazz-organ combo he includes on each CD he records.

Daily News All-City Basketball Team THOSE FOLKS inclined to think of Maurice "Doo-Wop" Watson as a pump-machine scorer must not have witnessed the feature attraction of the recent Public League Coaches' All-Star Classic. Or any of his games, really. Yes, Watson scored 17 points that night. But he also dished 11 assists, posting many off passes that caused numerous eyebrows to raise. Nothin' new there. Watson, a 5-10 senior guard/whirlwind from Boys' Latin Charter, is our choice for Player of the Year in connection with the 2011-12 Daily News All-City Basketball Team.

WHILE COACH Dan Brinkley, of Prep Charter High, is positive Akhir "Geedy" Frazier would have played basketball at the Division I level, now those thoughts are secondary. "I'm much more fortunate to have met him than to have coached him," a sobbing Brinkley said yesterday. "This was one great kid. For all the people who knew him, this is hitting us like 9/11. " Frazier, 16, a rising junior combo guard, died late Wednesday night at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, 4 days after removing himself from a neighborhood league game at Hank Gathers Rec Center, 25th and Diamond, and collapsing into the arms of that team's coach as he approached the sideline.

We've all heard how Jacob and Isabella were the most popular names for babies in 2010, but what about twins? Thanks to the Social Security Administration, we now know that Ella and Emma was the favorite combo for girls; Jacob and Joshua for boys; and Madison and Mason for a mixed pair. But the list also reveals that there are 16 sets of twins named Heaven and Nevaeh; 14 pairs named London and Paris, and 12 named Mia and Mya, ranking the combos 18th, 21st and 23rd among top names for twin girls, respectively.

Tylor Love looks like a shortstop and acts like a shortstop. He's rangy, sure-handed, a quiet leader with his teammates' complete trust. Nick Tierno looks like a second baseman and acts like a second baseman. He's quick, athletic, and a little louder than his buddy on the other side of the bag. Put the two of them together on a baseball field, and Eastern coach Rob Christ hears a symphony inspired by their synchronicity. "It's artistry," Christ said of his double-play combination.

S. Jersey's Top Middle-Infield Combos Here are some of the best shortstop-second baseman combinations in South Jersey. Tylor Love, senior shortstop, and Nick Tierno, junior second baseman, Eastern. Love is a smooth defender and tough out at the plate. Tierno excels at turning the double play and is an explosive offensive player. Rob Taylor, senior shortstop, and Joe Lagrossa, senior second baseman, Cherry Hill East. These are three-year starters who combined to turn 22 double plays last season.

John H. Adee, 71, a retired Cigna executive and vice president of West Conshohocken Borough Council, died of cardiopulmonary failure, Tuesday, March 20, at Presbyterian Hospital in Philadelphia. Mr. Adee became involved in borough affairs in 1998, after he and his wife, Annelouise "Pinky," built a home in the Merion Hills section of West Conshohocken. He served on the borough sewer commission and the zoning committee and had been a member of council since October 2010. He cared about borough workers and listened to their concerns, his wife said.

Daily News All-City Basketball Team THOSE FOLKS inclined to think of Maurice "Doo-Wop" Watson as a pump-machine scorer must not have witnessed the feature attraction of the recent Public League Coaches' All-Star Classic. Or any of his games, really. Yes, Watson scored 17 points that night. But he also dished 11 assists, posting many off passes that caused numerous eyebrows to raise. Nothin' new there. Watson, a 5-10 senior guard/whirlwind from Boys' Latin Charter, is our choice for Player of the Year in connection with the 2011-12 Daily News All-City Basketball Team.

SINCE HIS disposition is permanently stationed on the blinding side of sunny, Tyrell Long would have been cool with mostly-a-spectator status through his entire sophomore basketball season. Playing is a whole lot more enjoyable, though, and when you can wind up being a star in a game that goes down in history . . . Euphoria, anyone? Bishop McDevitt High now owns a second postseason win in 49 years of Catholic League hoops membership, and Long, a 6-4, 180-pound forward, was prominent in its attainment.

By TED SILARY Daily News Staff Writer The march to 1,000 points began with a sprint. Even then, there was no guarantee Yahmir Greenlee would be able to begin it on time. Maybe 15 minutes before Boys' Latin Charter was to play Pope John Paul II, of Royersford, in the first round of the PIAA Class AAA state playoffs Friday night at Southern High, scorekeeper Joe Dunn, also BL's baseball coach and athletic director, revealed that Greenlee, a 5-9, 150-pound junior guard, would not be starting due to a "lateness issue.

DERRICK STEWART tried to express his emotions and, for a while, didn't experience a whole bunch of success. That was entirely understandable, considering the amazing circumstances, and that every possible thought was bouncing around inside his head. This cliché. That cliché. This cliché. That cliché. Then the words came tumbling out of his mouth. And when he finished, he flashed the brightest smile, as if he knew his last attempt had been pretty darn good. "I feel like an astronaut," Stewart said.

We've all heard how Jacob and Isabella were the most popular names for babies in 2010, but what about twins? Thanks to the Social Security Administration, we now know that Ella and Emma was the favorite combo for girls; Jacob and Joshua for boys; and Madison and Mason for a mixed pair. But the list also reveals that there are 16 sets of twins named Heaven and Nevaeh; 14 pairs named London and Paris, and 12 named Mia and Mya, ranking the combos 18th, 21st and 23rd among top names for twin girls, respectively.

Coach Doug Collins has been hard at work trying to prepare the 76ers for the NBA season, so much so that he hasn't had much time to do his holiday shopping. But unlike holiday shoppers out mixing and matching gifts, Collins will begin the process of mixing and matching the right players with one another on Friday in anticipation of the grueling, condensed 66-game season that is right around the corner. With just two preseason games on the schedule as a result of the lockout, beginning with Friday's opener at Washington, Collins appears to have his starting lineup set. But he still has a lot of tinkering he wants to do - mainly with different combinations of players - before the season begins in less than two weeks.