Tonight was the position round night for the Wednesday Summer Mixed League, and I told my teammates that, since my birthday will be on Friday, doing well tonight would be an early birthday gift for me, and they all said they hoped they could accommodate my wish. I had all strikes in the warm-up session before scoring started, so I was really hopeful I could do my part.
Things started well, with a double in the 2nd and 3rd frames after leaving a 6-10, and my first mistake came in the 5th frame, where I chopped the 3 off of the 3-6-10. There was a miss of a 10 pin in the 7th frame, but I got back on with a double in the 9th and first ball in the 10th before leaving a 4 pin, taking the spare for a 191. Ron Haynes, the lead bowler for “Shake ‘N Bake”, had a nice game for his team, and they needed it, as the first game wound up being close, taken by “Shake ‘N Bake.”
My only major mistake in the second game was missing another 10 pin in the 8th frame, but an earlier double (in the 5th and 6th frames) countered that miss, so I was able to save a 193 out of that game. Brian really was clicking in this game, going in the 230s, and we won the second game by something like 30 pins, so we had a slight edge for total going into the last game.
I had my worst shot of the night to start the third game, hitting the nose to leave a 4-6-7-9 split, and I decided not to try to be a hero and just got my count for that. The highlight for me of the night came as a result of another split in the 5th frame, this time the 3-6-7-10, which I converted, giving myself a lift, as I was able to piece together a turkey from that point before leaving a 6 pin in the 9th. I had a strike in the 10th, but left another split, the 4-6-7, in the 11th frame. I went for count again, but pulled the shot, which ended up in the left channel, giving me a 204 last game of the season…not a bad way to end after the way I started out the league.
“Shake ‘N Bake” took the third game, but it was again a close one, and they did not win by enough to take total. Getting total would prove to be important, as Team 12, the 7th place team going into tonight, won 6 points from “Fun and Games” and, being 3 points behind us going into the night, fell a point shy of tying us for 5th place, which would’ve meant 5th place for them if they had 107 more pins than us on the night. If Team Amelia, the 4th place team going in, got swept, we actually still catch them for 4th place, but I did not think to ask them how they did…I guess we may see on Friday, when the final standings should be posted online.
Result: 191-193-204=588
Final average (39 games): 197 Last 9 average: 204
All-in-all, I have to be very pleased with the summer overall. Personally, I exceeded all of my expectations, finishing with the highest league average I’ve ever posted (albeit not as “official” as a winter league average would be). I was only under my average on 4 of the 13 nights. As I’ve noted earlier, my best-ever series going into this league was a 634, and I beat that score four times this summer, including a new best-ever 694 series a couple of weeks ago, and I also came within 3 pins of matching my best-ever game on that night. I really found a line I could be comfortable with, and stuck with that most of the time. As a team, we finished in the top third of the league, so I had to be pleased with that, as well. At this point, I’d like to extend thanks to Brian, Joy, and Ralph for a great summer league season. I know I won’t be bowling with Joy again (unless I move where she is), but I hope to bowl with Brian and Ralph again down the road (maybe next summer? 
).
How do I build on that? The shot in the Westgate Mixed League is also the house shot, so I know I can keep playing the same line, but my spare game will have to improve if I want to continue the momentum. I am setting a modest (now) goal for that league of averaging 200 or better, meaning I will need to improve on my summer league average by 3 pins, but I believe it’s an easily reachable goal if I continue to improve steadily.
Payout night for the league is next week, and it looks like we’ll take home some extra cash, as our early 958 game with handicap as a team looked likely to stand up as high on the season. As a final note about the league, Sean Richard nearly had a 300 game in his last game of the season, leaving a solid 8 in the 1st frame (which he made), but getting the last 11 in a row for a 290. Good bowling Sean!
Photo to be added to “scrapbook”: Before bowling tonight, I grabbed a candid of Ray helping a customer in the pro shop, so I will be uploading that to the “scrapbook” page after posting this.
