I had hoped that the standings would be posted on LeagueSecretary.com by now, but they haven’t, so the only thing I have to go on is the sheet on BowlerExpress. According to that, my team remained in 8th place last week, 13.5 points off the pace, represented by “The Mustangs,” who are now 3 points ahead of “The Dynasty.” “The Badgers,” our opponents this week, sit in 6th place 2.5 points ahead of us, so I’d like to see my team at least take 3 of 4 from them this week.

My Week 28 bowling (BowlSK)

We lost the night 2.5-1.5, but what made the night fun was my being able to stay with Eric, if not actually beating him (I’m not sure what he ended up with in the last game, but I should find out in the next couple of days). The three makeable spares I missed weren’t fun, but I still shot in the 620s, and, except for the first game, every game came right down to me and Eric. I actually screwed up in the 10th of the second game, one of the few times I haven’t been clutch in the 10th when my team needed me, but my team still ended up winning that point. To turn the tables a bit in the last game, I struck out in the 10th to force Eric into a strike to win situation on his last ball; Eric left a ringing 10, so that’s how we got the half-point each.

Result: 212-201-208=622
Average (84 games): 183 Last 9 games average: 202
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 572

The sweep at the hands of “The Dynasty” meant that my team fell back to 8th place, now 11 points off the pace. “The Dynasty” could only keep pace with “The Mustangs,” as the latter team also executed a sweep of “8 Is Great,” whom, as I have mentioned, we face next week. The week after next could be important for position, as we go up against “The Badgers,” who are tied with “DNFTD” for 6th place, a point ahead of us.

My Week 27 bowling (BowlSK)

Tonight, I had one of the most consistent spare game nights that I can recall having. Except for a chop of a 6-10 at the very end to leave the 10th frame of the third game open, I made every spare leave that wasn’t a split. I made all 7 of my single pins, and most everything else except the 4 splits, including a 2-4-8 partial bucket that I hit dead on. I mixed in enough strikes to get all but the second game over average, and I didn’t miss my average by much in the second game.

Result: 191-180-192=563
Average (81 games): 182 Last 9 games average: 198
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 558

We got swept by one of the more dangerous teams in the league tonight, so we will have to regroup next week, and “8 Is Great,” the team which Eric, the Sprisslers’ nephew, is on, will be our opponents. Patrick was the only member of the team to have a really good night, so it wasn’t a total loss.

This update is late because the standings had not been posted on LeagueSecretary.com until Sunday night.

Our winning night last week was good enough to improve our position one spot to 7th, 7 points behind “The Mustangs,” who are now in sole possession of first place by a point over “The Dynasty,” who we face this week.

Individually, my night was good enough to run the board last week, taking high scratch game and series as well as high handicap game and series. A member of “The Handicaps,” Rob Dickens, has been showing steady improvement of late, and he won a couple of USBC awards last week, a 500 series (he qualifies for the award w/ a 129 average) and a 180 game (also based on the fact that he had an average lower than the cutoff for the award).

Despite not getting the full sweep against us, “MT Bed” grabbed sole possession of the second-half lead this week.  My team slipped back down to 8th, 7 points off the pace.  None of our bowlers present (myself, Patrick, and Carl) had a performance worthy of a high for the week.  We face “Team 3,” the 4th place team, next week.

My Week 25 bowling (BowlSK)

The night felt strange for a couple of reasons: 1) I was still somewhat sapped from battling a cold during the latter part of last week and most of the weekend, and 2) we didn’t have our full complement, as Helen and Ted were completely absent, and Patrick had to miss the first game because of his job. More on what #2 meant for the team later in the post, but I was having some trouble bowling at a quicker pace so soon after recovering from my cold. I still managed a night well over average, but missed more spares than I would like, which prevented me from going 600+.

Result: 198-189-196=583
Average (75 games): 181 Last 9 games average: 198
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 586

As for the team, we had to forfeit the first game because of having only 2 bowlers (me and Carl), so “MT Bed” had to bowl within 50 pins of their average to take the point, which they didn’t. First game was not a win for us because of the forfeit, but that just meant “MT Bed” didn’t get the point either. We had our legal line-up for the other two games, but still lost those, although the last game was pretty close. As a result, “MT Bed” wound up winning the night 3-0 (the forfeit meant we couldn’t take total, as well).