I returned to practice today, and it was a rather strange one, with a couple of splits per game ruining rather decent games. That wasn’t the half of it, however…in the second game, I was shooting at a 7-10 split and got the 10 to bounce out of the pit, but in the wrong direction: it came back toward me and ended up settling in the right gutter not far down the lane from where the oil pattern ended. Other than leaving splits, the practice was decent, making more spares than what I normally make.
A strange day
December 1, 2008 by RichNov. 29 league standings update
November 29, 2008 by RichUnlike us, “The Handicaps” won a point this week and closed ground in the race to stay out of the first half basement. “The Handicaps” happen to be our opponents this coming week in what will likely be a preview of a position round match (which is in 3 weeks).
Lost and found
November 26, 2008 by RichNot much can be said about my second game, as I just completely lost it, doing everything I could to get untracked, but largely failing. About the best that can be said is that I woke up enough in the third game to threaten 200, but I needed to bowl one of my best games to save 500 by that point. The team lost all of the points, and in the third game, JoAnn, Shawn’s wife, had a game in the 180s where she never had better than a 120 before, to help the other team put a hurting on us.
Result: 150-134-195=479
Average (39 games): 179 Last 9 games average: 174
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 572
As a holiday bonus, I decided tonight would be the night I continue the tradition I started in my summer league: posting a team photo here sometime during the season. So without further ado…
The Pin Pals: (L to R) Patrick Padula, Carl Benson, Helen Sprissler, Ted Sprissler, me
I took some other shots as well, and those will be added to the “scrapbook” after I post about tonight on the forums.
I’d like to take this opportunity to wish my readers (my American ones, anyway) a happy and safe Thanksgiving holiday. 
November 2008 People’s Tournament results
November 25, 2008 by RichThe People’s Tournament site reported Nancy Nunez (AMF Silver Lanes {CT}, 134 avg.) as the winner of the November event at E. Providence Lanes. Nunez defeated Al Brown (Town Line Tenpin, 194 avg.) by a score of 237-203 (with handicaps) in the title match. Representing Westgate Lanes, Terrance Williams (180 avg.) was in the final four, and Jason Sherwood (210 avg.) also made the top 8.
Additional note: The December People’s Tournament at Westgate Lanes will be a year-end special, run on Dec. 6th and 7th, with a guaranteed first prize of $5,000. See the tournament site for entry details.
Thought on Ultimate Scoring Championship
November 23, 2008 by RichESPN aired the tape of the finals of the Ultimate Scoring Championship today, which was meant to demonstrate the scoring potential of a typical league condition. However, this was not something we call a THS (Typical House Shot); a good-scoring house shot typically has an oil volume ratio inside boards to outside boards of 20:1. It was suggested by one of my chat mates that the ratio of the USC shot was on the order of 6:1, making it more like what the Coke Classic League bowlers are seeing on Monday nights here. Scores have been generally down in that league this year (I haven’t had an honor score to report from that league to date this season), so I wasn’t as surprised as others that the pros on today’s show didn’t score as well as one would have thought they would.
Nov. 22 league standings update
November 22, 2008 by RichMy team may have only taken 1.5 points this week, but “The Handicaps” can’t seem to buy a point, so we ended up increasing our margin to last place and are now 3.5 points out of the basement. This coming week has us going up against “DNFTD,” the league secretary’s team. The position round for the first half is in 4 weeks.
Edit to “Having a ball”: The post from last year, titled “Having a ball,” has been edited with the original link to a description of my Circle High-Voltage now pointing to the description of the ball that was on the old Circle Athletics site (thanks to Archive.org). The description on the new page is more technical than the old one, noting the specific coverstock formula, as well as a cross-section of the ball that shows the shape of the ball’s core. I hope this gives readers better information on what I’m throwing out there.
Getting unraveled
November 19, 2008 by RichTonight was just a serious case of my spare game largely deserting me after the first game. My one split was a makeable type and I had a couple of washouts, but it seemed every time I left more than one pin standing, I had trouble. I left my problem 2-4-5 five times and only made it twice, and also missed a 2-4-5-7 (my only open of the first game). It might be time to see Ray about my spare system, but with a class reunion (the 25th of the class before mine) and the holidays approaching, I don’t want to commit cash to a coaching session right now.
Result: 191-167-143=501
Average (36 games): 180 Last 9 games average: 182
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 550
My team had a rare point-and-a-half performance tonight, with the half-point coming as a result of a tie in the second game; I left one of my washouts in the 10th frame of that game, and if I had just hit the head pin on that, my team would’ve won, but I got left of the head pin and only took the 2 and 4.
As Brian pre-bowled tonight, Carl brought me home from bowling for the first time this season. Brian and I like to chat about our respective nights during my ride home, but the ride with Carl was still enjoyable.
Next week is a pre-Thanksgiving feast night, where bowlers in my league are encouraged to bring food to share with the other bowlers, and I have bought a couple of bags of Fritos for this. I am also debating bringing my camera for a team photo and other shots for the “scrapbook.”
Cross-training #71
November 18, 2008 by RichThis Green Bay, WI TV station report notes that the Packers, led by cornerback Al Harris, raised $10,000 with a bowling event to help needy children in the Brown County area buy Christmas gifts for their families.
Nov. 17 practice
November 17, 2008 by RichI’d consider today’s practice productive, even though I didn’t score that well. In my first ball work, I was focusing on maintaining my balance at the foul line (something I tried to do on second ball, as well). I’m also starting to get my left side spares figured out, as I only missed the 2-4-5 once in three or four tries. I also left the 2-5-7 split a couple of times and made it the second time.
Unexpected outing
November 15, 2008 by RichToday was the usual shopping day with my brother, but, as he was running late and we couldn’t hook up with our sister for lunch, we decided to have a late lunch without her and go bowling after shopping. My performance in the outing was pretty non-descript, with only one game over my league average, while my brother had 2 games 20 pins or more over 100, so he probably would’ve carried the day had I given him handicap. One thing I did get sorted out in the outing, however, was how to make my 2-4-5 leave, which has been giving me all sorts of problems. I missed one, but made an adjustment in my stance for two others, both of which I made.
Nov. 15 league standings update
November 15, 2008 by RichThis update is a day late in coming, mostly b/c I let it slip my mind. My team continues to hold 9th place, 2 points ahead of “The Handicaps.” With a 241 score with handicap, I had the second best handicap game for the men this week, and was only 5 pins off of the high scratch game. For the second week in the last three, we face the team in second place, “The Mustangs,” next week.
Cross-training #70
November 14, 2008 by RichI’ve mentioned Boston Red Sox reliever Manny Delcarmen’s “Bowlin’ Strikes for Schools” event before, but the Boston.com events calendar also notes that this year’s version of the event will take place tomorrow night, also at Kings.
Cross-training #69
November 14, 2008 by RichI actually heard about this on the radio, but this Boston.com calendar item notes Celtics captain Paul Pierce’s “The Truth Strikes Again” celebrity bowling event at Kings on Monday, which will benefit Pierce’s “The Truth Fund.”
Breaking the mental barriers (slowly)
November 12, 2008 by RichI had a shot at breaking two mental barriers I had going into tonight and got one of them. The one I got was my first clean game in the league, that being a 225 second game. The one I missed was my first 600 in the league, largely on my missed spares (3 of them in the first game and another 3 in the last game). Night ended up being enough to raise my average a couple of pins instead of just one.
Result: 203-225-163=591
Average (33 games): 182 Last 9 games average: 187
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 580
The league was divided into average classes for both the men and the women after last week, and I ended up being in the men’s Class A. This will have a bearing on individual prizes at the end of the season, but they start to matter next week, as the bowler in each class with the most pins over average next week will win a $20 prize. I’m not sure how many times in the season they’ll do this, but I’m thankful for this opportunity.
As for the team, we only won the second game point, with our hopes mostly lying on a split of the points after getting creamed in the first game. The third game was close, but I’m kicking myself for not putting much pressure on the other team’s anchor bowler at the end.
Cross-training #68
November 11, 2008 by RichHow did World Series champion and first-time Gold Glove winner Shane Victorino of the Philadelphia Phillies celebrate his accomplishments? By bowling with family and friends at the Red Rock Casino (home of the PBA’s Tournament of Champions), according to the Las Vegas Sun. Victorino is a resident of the Las Vegas suburb of Summerlin, NV.
