Archive for February, 2008

A two-handed approach

February 17, 2008

Thought I’d post about Australian sensation Jason Belmonte, who was recently named as a USBC Youth ambassador. Why the sensation? He uses a two-handed delivery with the skill and results that put most of us one-handed bowlers to shame. Below is a YouTube video showing Belmonte in action against England’s Paul Moor in the finals of last year’s World Tenpin Masters…

EDIT:  Just as I posted about this style, it seems, Walter Ray Williams Jr. tries a shot like that in the Pepsi Championship final today.  It was a throwaway shot, as he did it in the 10th frame after he had already lost the title to Mike Scroggins.

Blogroll started

February 16, 2008

I’ve added the “Striking Difference Experience” and “Bowling Balls and Info” blogs to the sidebar, becoming the first blogs to be included in this blog’s proper blogroll. “Striking Difference Experience” is the blog of Brian Chilcutt, a USBC Gold coach based out of Illinois, while “Bowling Balls and Info” appears to be focused on bowling news, especially in the area of bowling equipment. Great to have you two aboard! :D

“Clash of Champions” follow-up (with other note)

February 16, 2008

According to this Q&A with the USBC’s Tom Clark, the upcoming “Clash of Champions” event will be contested on the 2008 USBC Open Championships oil pattern, which should be both challenging and fair.

Also, according to this article, the USBC Masters will be reunited with the Open Championships next year at the Cashman Center in Las Vegas, with the Masters, still a PBA major tournament, taking place on Feb. 8-15, the week before competition begins in the Open Championships. The Masters will not be contested this calendar year, but the tournament will still be a part of the 2008-09 Denny’s PBA Tour. It is hoped that running the tournament after the Super Bowl will increase the television audience for the most prestigious event in bowling.

Practice summary, 2/11/08

February 11, 2008

I was hoping for a good practice today coming off my 2 good games w/ my brother on Saturday, but afterwards, I kind of wished the 2 games Saturday counted toward my practice average. I had to play straighter at the pins again, but I was getting less carry today, with a 121 first game being my worst game in quite a while. While I’m not quite at the 60 game mark with my new ball, it may be becoming time to put it in the “Rejuvenator” for the first time.

Result: 121-166-160=447

Running average (54 games): 164 Last 9 average: 165

I had seen Marcia put up a few photos of a familiar face up near some of the league standings sheets. Figuring some photos of the recently-deceased Bill Fisher might be going up at various places in the building, I asked Marcia after practice if that was, indeed, Bill Fisher, and she told me it was. It turned out I knew him after all, but never from actually bowling with him, and not by his full name…he was a familiar face from seeing him at the lanes during my practice sessions in my youth.

I also caught Bobby during a free moment before I left the lanes. I asked him which of the named PBA oil patterns the shot I’ve been seeing most resembles, and he told me it was close to the “Viper” pattern. The Viper pattern is known for being able to be played from many angles, and the typical league oil pattern would have to be just as fair.

Errata: The Boston Bowling Senate No-Tap tournament at Westgate Lanes in March is a doubles tournament, so forgive me if forgetting to note that it was a doubles tournament led anyone to believe it was a singles tournament.

Holiday note: As next Monday is the Presidents Day holiday, I probably won’t be practicing next week.

Showing off

February 9, 2008

My brother was down for my usual bi-weekly shopping trip, but when we got done with the food shopping and were on our way to lunch, he asked me if I wanted to go bowling after we were done with lunch. I took him up on it, figuring it was as good a chance as any to show how much I’ve improved since our last bowling outing last July.

We only took a single lane for two games each (he usually wants to head back into Boston early, so I don’t usually try to talk him into three games), so I wasn’t about to count this as a regular practice. Still, I wanted to do well, and I didn’t disappoint him. My first game was a 188 and could’ve easily been into the 200s if not for a spare miss and a few single 4-pin leaves (I made my single pins).

My second game was almost a beauty, as well; I alternated strikes and spares until the 7th and 8th frames, when I posted a double. After leaving the single 6-pin and picking it up in the 9th, I needed just a mark with fair count for 200. However, I left the 5-7 split with the first ball in the 10th. It was a split I have a decent chance of making if I shoot at it like I’m trying to cover a single 9-pin. However, my ball hooked just enough to hit the 5 full and I missed the conversion. These were the best games any family member has seen me roll, however, so I was very pleased. :D

New domains

February 8, 2008

I’m not what you call a “domain name snob,” but I felt I wanted a couple for this blog, so I had tenthboard.net and 10thboard.net registered and mapped to the blog. tenthboard.net will be the primary URL (as I have the ordinal spelled out on my header graphic), but 10thboard.net will redirect to tenthboard.net, as will the old 10thboard.wordpress.com URL. Either three will work, but those of you who are subscribed to this blog’s RSS feed may want to update your subscriptions to reflect the new URL.  Both domains were functioning properly when I checked, but it may take some time for the domain names to propagate through the DNS system, so if the new names don’t work, give it time. :D

“Bowling’s Clash of Champions”

February 8, 2008

USBC to present “Bowling’s Clash of Champions” on CBS in May

I’m pretty excited about this. Not only is bowling returning to network television and will have some familiar faces, but bowlers who might not otherwise receive television exposure, such as 2007 USBC Open Championships Regular All-Events winner Mike Rose Jr., will be featured. According to the article about this on BowlingDigital.com, if you entered a major USBC championship event or a US Open in 2007, you were entered in this event and are represented by your event’s champion. Future bowling programming on network television may depend on how well this event draws, so if you bowl, show your support of the game by watching on May 10 & 11.

My bowling shirts

February 5, 2008

Figured I’d post today to show off a little from my bowling past. I’ve kept the score sheets from my notable performances (personal best games and series, the tournament win), but most of those are on old overhead transparencies, which are now creased from being stuffed in a manila envelope and difficult to keep flat on a scanner, and some of them are done in yellow scoring pencil, which may not show up on a scan in any case. The next best thing, then, I feel, is to post some pics of me in my bowling shirts. I have two of them, a red shirt I had done by the old pro shop which has my ABC award patches (the ABC was the American Bowling Congress, which governed men’s ten-pin bowling in the US until the merger with the Women’s International Bowling Congress (WIBC) and Young American Bowling Alliance (YABA) to form today’s USBC), and the black trophy shirt I received for my LBT win, which I’ll post first…

Front view of the shirt…a small version of this picture will also go on the “About” page (which is why this post also appears in the “Administravia” category…I’ll be updating that page when I finish with this post).

Richie In Trophy Shirt (Front view)

Back view of same shirt…

Richie In Trophy Shirt (Back View)

This is me in the red shirt. The red patch on the pocket (as well as on the other shirt) is an Amateur Bowlers Tour patch, which was (and probably still is) required by bowlers participating in ABT events.

Richie In Red Shirt (Front View)

Back view; I liked the black-on-red color scheme because those are Brockton High School’s colors.

Richie In Red Shirt (Back View)

A couple of closeups now…first, the 150-over-average series award patch…

150 Over Average Series

I was awarded this patch for a 605 series I shot in April of 1989 (my first of 3 600+ series), about 6 months before my LBT win. I was averaging 145 at the time, and the series was paced by a 244 first game, which almost won me the patch I’ll show next. The 605 helped me earn the most improved bowler honors in my league for that season.

100 Over Average Game Patch

I received this patch for the 268 game I shot in November of 1990. I remember having two bad games that night, but I figured out the pair and got into a groove, getting the first 8 in a row (ESPN’s Rob Stone might call that a “double hambone” now…hehehehe!) before leaving a 3-6 in the 9th frame, which I converted. I finished up with a strike on the first ball in the 10th, then left the 3-6 again with the second ball, which I again made. I was averaging 157 going into that night.

Hope no one minds me reminiscing. BTW, you might’ve guessed I forgot to close the bathroom door b4 taking these, but I was hoping the bathroom wouldn’t show in these photos…I wanted a white background for these. Thanks to my best friend Ed for obliging me by taking these photos with my digital camera.

Practice summary, 2/4/08

February 4, 2008

I resolved to practice today no matter how much sleep I lost from the Super Bowl last night. It was a pretty cool day, but warm and dry enough to take the bike to the lanes, so that helped me wake up a bit.

It turned out to be a pretty strange practice session. I had been setting up around board 18L (that would be the 18th board in from the left gutter) and going for a second-arrow shot, but my ball just wasn’t making it back to the pocket, with my first game suffering because of it. In the second game, I experimented with a couple of first-arrow shots, setting up around board 15R and not getting anything better, so I decided to go back to a second-arrow shot but move to somewhere around 18R. The adjustment was enough to get a couple of games over average, with the last game threatening a 200 after a turkey starting in the 7th frame. I needed a double and count in the 10th for the 200, but didn’t get it, only converting a spare with a 6-fill for a 183.

Result: 137-171-183=491

Running average (51 games): 165 Last 9 average: 169

Upcoming tournaments: Here’s a list of upcoming tournaments of interest to bowlers in my area…

  • Brockton, Foxvale, and Tri-City mixed doubles, Feb. 23-24, Westgate Lanes
  • Brockton Bowling Association Championships, Mar. 15-16, AMF Taunton Lanes
  • TNBA Boston Bowling Senate No-Tap*, Mar. 29-30, Westgate Lanes
  • Mass. State Championships, Apr. 5-May 18, Gardner Ten Pins
  • New England Bowling Association, Apr. 19-20, Westgate Lanes
  • People’s Tournament, Apr. 27, Westgate Lanes
  • Mass. Women’s State Championships, May 3-18, Town Line Ten Pin, Malden

Schedule subject to change, of course. If the Northeast Amateur Tournament reschedules a tournament at Westgate Lanes, I’ll pass the information along. Also, there’s no word on if USA Bowling Pro Shop is still running the monthly “King of the Hill” tournament at Westgate Lanes, so I’ll have to ask Ray about that next time I see him.

*”No-Tap” means nine pins on first ball counts as a strike.

I may have a special post or two coming in the next few days, so stay tuned!


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