Social call

I wanted to show off the bowling t-shirt I received for Christmas to the management at the lanes, so I took it with me, and Junior and Bev (the control desk person when I practice) got a kick out of it (a picture of it is coming, folks…just waiting for it to be emailed to me). I did not start using my gift cards today, and I knew I would be charged the full rate today, with this being a school vacation period. My next-door neighbor did give me a free bowling coupon that was on a Banquet frozen dinner box that he bought, so one of my games was free.

As I walked toward my locker to get my equipment out, I ran into Si, and it turned out he was going to give practicing a try, so, with his OK, I had Bev move me to his pair of lanes. Before I go into my own performance, I should note that he said this was the first time he picked up a bowling ball since a year ago in May, so his performance was a bit off. He told me he thought it was more of a footwork issue, though, especially early in his outing. He did get his legs under him somewhat, though, toward the last game, and had a few nice shots in the third game to recover a 142. If he’s reading this, I’d like to say I wish I could do that well after a long layoff. 😀

I pretty much stayed around my average today, but I was missing too many easy spares for comfort. I did make a nice ball speed adjustment at the end of the last game, though, and strung together three in a row before leaving the 6-7 split with the first fill ball in the 10th frame. The turkey before that was enough to recover a 156, though.

Result: 152-169-156=477

Running average (39 games): 163 Last 9 average: 167

After we finished bowling, Si and I discussed what we may be doing for leagues in the future, and I mentioned that my cousins were thinking of bowling the Wednesday night Westgate Mixed league (which Junior told me was 4-person teams) this summer and that I wanted to join them. Si then pretty much said he’d be agreeable to joining that league too, so there may be more than two familiar faces in the league I make my return to. Si also offered a ride home, which I accepted, saving me the return bus trip.

Christmas gifts

Between my nephews and my brother, I received $100 worth of gift cards for Westgate Lanes. I estimate, given that I usually practice on half-price Mondays, that they should last me until about the time summer leagues start. My sister and her husband also gave me a “Split Happens” t-shirt from the “What In The World” t-shirt catalog. I will try to get a picture of myself in the t-shirt for future posting.

Speaking of Christmas, I saw my cousins David and Debbie at my aunt and uncle’s house for the annual Christmas Eve family get-together. They plan on continuing bowling this summer, though they were not sure in which league. I recommended the Tuesday night His & Hers league (which goes to 4-person teams in the summer), but they were leaning toward bowling on Wednesday nights. As I’m not sure about the format for the Wednesday night summer league (it might be a mixed doubles league), that’s something I’ll have to ask Junior or Marcia about. I promised Debbie that I would be in touch as the end of April and the beginning of May approach to get our summer bowling plans sorted out.

Practice summary, 12/17/07

Not much to “write home about” today, but I did stay around my average for two games. I was having a pulling problem in the third game, which led to the weak 10 (where the 6 pin settles into the gutter instead of taking out the 10 pin) mocking me on the left lane, and I kept missing it with my pulling problem.

Result: 177-161-134=472

Running average (36 games): 164 Last 9 average: 169

Notes:

With Christmas Eve falling next Monday and my sister usually picking me up for a late afternoon church service on that day, I will not be practicing next week.
The Northeast Amateur Tournament was ready to go yesterday, but nobody showed up due to the nor’easter that was pounding the region, so the tournament was canceled. NAT’s next visit to Westgate Lanes will be in April.
Being my last visit to the lanes before Christmas, I left a card for the management and staff with Marcia in the office. She told me it was appreciated. 😀
Also, this likely being my last blog entry before Christmas, I’d like to wish my readers a happy holiday. 😀

Update on December 2007 TPT at Westgate Lanes

The People’s Tournament’s site reported that Michael Coren, based out of Boston Bowl, was the winner of the December TPT at Westgate Lanes. Coren was reported to have a 144 entering average, which should show you that anyone can win a handicap tournament if they bowl well enough. 😀

For the locals, David Diamond (203 entering average) was reported as Westgate Lanes’ best finisher in 9th place.

Getting there

In the regular practice today, I posted a 202 first game, thus starting off with a game over 200 for the first time since my return. I still had a fall-off in the second game, but it wasn’t that bad, as I still came within a few pins of my practice average with a 157. Then I just missed having a series with 2 games of 200 or better by 5 pins, posting a 195 final game for a 554 series, my best series post-heel fractures to this point. I continued to make progress with my spare shooting as well, as, after failing to convert it in previous attempts, I converted the baby split (the 3-10 leave for right-handers, one of the easier split leaves) twice today.

I’ve so far proven that I can start off hot, have a good game in the middle, and finish strong. All I have to do now is put it all together. 😀

Running average (33 games): 164 Last 9 average: 177

Some changes

I made some changes to earlier posts, including noting the full names of the pro shop people in their first mention in this blog, and linking the Northeast Amateur Tournament’s site to my mention of them in the “Tournament scene” note in the post about my new ball. As the NAT site is now known, I have also included the link in the sidebar list.

A Sunday morning at the lanes

With “The People’s Tournament” in town today, I wanted to head to the lanes this morning with hopes that I would be able to bowl in one of the qualifying squads as a pacer (pacers are used in tournaments sometimes when a pair of lanes has less than the full complement of bowlers assigned to it). The part of the morning I could blog about actually got started when I left the house, as Simon Rosenthal (I call him Si), another old bowling friend, was driving the taxi I called for to get there. I mentioned I wanted to return to the game, and he told me he was actually taking the year off from bowling after averaging only in the 140s the previous season when he’s usually somewhere in the 180s.

When I got to the lanes, I told Junior about my intentions, but he replied that the tournament officials may not let me pace. I was OK with this, but I proceeded into the party room (which is used as the check-in room for tournaments) to meet the tournament director for TPT, Sherm Cowan. I let him know that I was considering bowling TPT in the future, and that I had linked his site on this blog. He thanked me for the link and wished me well.

I also stopped in the pro shop to talk with Ray about the previous week. Si had mentioned in the cab that reactive balls wear out quickly, and I asked Ray about this. Ray replied that those balls don’t wear out, but rather soak up oil, and said the pro shop has something called “The Rejuvenator” that will help restore the ball. He recommended that I do this every 60 games, and since a run in the Rejuvenator is only $5, I won’t mind the occasional additional expense.

Getting coffee at the snack bar, I ran into Sean Richard, who was warming up for the tournament on one of the lanes. He recognized me as the new blogger and we exchanged pleasantries. I finished my coffee, then headed back to the control desk to set up a two-hour rental (Westgate Lanes runs a lane rental special on Sunday mornings.).

There was nothing special in the practice session, but I did make my spares consistently, which helped my games stay around 180 for the most part (I had a 144 middle game, as I’ll recap below.) What I learned is that I definitely prefer a drier lane, as that is usually the condition in my Monday afternoon practices, and will probably bowl in late squads in tournaments rather than early ones. Despite doing fairly well, I wasn’t up to practicing for more than 3 games, so I asked Junior for a $10 credit (I had originally paid $20 for the two hours.). The printer at the control desk was also having problems, so I had to write the scores down on the business card Sherm Cowan gave me. I wished Sean luck in today’s tournament on the way out.

Result: 180-144-179=503

Running average (30 games): 163 Last 9 average: 164

Link added

I forgot that I may be entering “Virtual Tournaments” on occasion once I return to league bowling and establish an average, so the link to VirtualTournaments.com has been added to the sidebar list.

I also edited various earlier entries to include full names of various people mentioned in this blog that I come into contact with at the lanes, including my cousin and his wife, who I still intend to bowl with in the future. The exceptions to these edits are the pro shop people (who are only mentioned by first name for now), and my brother and sister, my best friend Ed, his wife, and her sister (in order to protect their privacy).

Mark Roth, Part Deux

I didn’t think there would be a Part Two to my Mark Roth story, but as I walked into the building on my way to the control desk for today’s practice session, there he was giving someone a lesson (Why didn’t you tell me he was sticking around, Junior & Marcia?!). I waited until he had a moment, then said hello, shook his hand, and complimented him on the show he put on with Sean Richard the other day. If I had known he was sticking around, I might’ve thought twice about skipping the opportunity to get pointers from him, but I wanted to conserve my cash for the holidays.

As for the practice session itself, I definitely feel better about it than I did last week’s session. I started the session with a 189, easily my best starting game so far. I had a let-down the second game and only shot a 139 (three different splits didn’t help matters), but I recovered in the last game, getting 5 in a row from the 7th frame to the 2nd ball in the 10th. I wanted to repeat the “half-perfect” feat from an earlier practice, but I missed my target well right on the last ball and only fell 6 pins to finish with a 212 and a 540 total for the three games. I caught Ray from the pro shop on my way out, so I had to brag a little bit to him. 😀

Running average (27 games): 162 Last 9 average: 165

EDIT: A quick check of the New England Bowling Association site (see sidebar for link) finds that Mark Roth also competed in, and won, the NEBA tournament @ Westgate Lanes this past weekend. Congrats Mark! 😀

Note about Walter Ray Williams Jr.

Before I went to work on the blog today, I watched (via VCR delay, as I was watching the Celtics game when it was live) the Great Lakes Classic, this week’s stop on the PBA Tour, won by Walter Ray Williams Jr. for his record 44th PBA title. The guy is simply amazing…he was winning PBA titles 20 years ago, around the time I started league bowling, and hasn’t stopped. With 4 TV appearances so far this season and 2 more titles, he’s still near the best in the game, if not the best.

Links added

I’ve added some bowling links that I may or may not visit fairly frequently to the blog’s sidebar. All of them are on the bowling page of my site, but are included here for easy reference. The obvious national sites are there (including the USBC and the PBA), but as I want to reference local bowling happenings fairly often, some of them are more local in nature.

EDIT: Made a slight tweak to the link listings when I noticed you can set the “_blank” target. After doing so, links will now open in a new window (or a tab if your browser supports them and you have new windows set to open in tabs in your browser options).

Mark Roth’s visit

I have to do this from memory, so don’t consider this an accurate account of what happened in the exhibition match at Westgate Lanes today between PBA Hall of Famer Mark Roth and local bowler Sean Richard, but it was a pretty tense match. Sean Richard ended the first game with 6 consecutive strikes to take that game, then Mark Roth came back to win the second game. Could there be a fitting end? Yes; the third game ended in a tie. Both bowlers shot in the 220’s and 230’s in each game, so they really put on a good show. I didn’t hang around to get Mark Roth’s autograph, though, as I had to leave for lunch w/ my brother, then get the groceries, which I bought before I went to the exhibition, put away (it was cold enough today to leave the groceries in my brother’s car while I was out & about). Maybe they’ll have another “name” pro come visit next year. 🙂

As an aside, I saw another old friend from my previous bowling life, Brian Earle, known as “Hawk”, today, and we exchanged the usual “get caught up” chatter. He was there to bowl in the NEBA tournament, so good luck w/ that “Hawk”. 🙂