Month: June 2009

Anniversary post

It’s been 2 years now since I took the game up again, and my experience in the last year has been well above expectations. My average has taken a couple of steps down since last summer, but I still feel I’m improving my overall game. I still booked my highest average ever this past winter (183), and nearly had my first 700 series towards the end of last summer (my 694, helped out by my closest approach so far to my best game ever, the 265).

As I learned there is no longer a regular bowling column in the Enterprise, I took it upon myself to put a modern spin on that and began regularly posting local bowling news. When I learned where all of the league standings at Westgate Lanes are posted online, I began tracking each winter league and reported on all of the honor scores (mostly 300 games and 800 series) shot at Westgate Lanes. I missed some opportunities to give congratulations early in the winter season, notably Richard Mines’ 300 in the TNBA league. I congratulated him at the BBA’s Hall of Fame dinner a few months ago, and do so again here.

I also follow all of the tournaments at Westgate Lanes (notably the People’s Tournament and NEBA), and also have at least started note all of the local bowlers’ performances when those tournaments are away from Westgate Lanes (when the locals cash). I’ve also found results of the PBA East regional tournaments, and will start trying to note the locals’ accomplishments at that level.

I’m going to keep the list of thank-yous brief, as the important people were thanked last year. I do want to thank a few people again, though, so here’s the list:

  • Ray DiSanto, Jr. again for continuing my bowling education, and also for drilling my new Hy-Road (he did it himself this time rather than having one of his employees do the work).
  • The gang in the Brunswick Mixed League, for welcoming me when I couldn’t get into the Westgate Mixed League. Special thanks go to Helen, Ted, Patrick, and Carl, my first winter league teammates since I returned, for helping make the season fun.
  • Bonnie, Bill, and Rob, my current summer league teammates…here’s hoping we do well the rest of the season.
  • The Brockton Bowling Association, and especially Bob Young, Jr., for recently giving me a link on the association’s new website.
  • The IRC user known as “Heretic,” for alerting me to the woot.com deal on my Canon ZR-950 camcorder, which eventually allowed me to post my own bowling video here.
  • Finally, Chris Marasti-Georg, one of the BowlingFans.com gang, for having the vision to start up BowlSK.com, which has definitely made my bowling blogging easier.

Here’s to another year of good bowling. 😀

300 lightning strikes twice for Brendan Litchfield

This bit of news I received by way of his aunt on Facebook…

Brendan Litchfield has shot 2 300 games in less than a two month span. The first one occurred in the state youth tournament on May 3 at AMF Holiday Lanes in Somerset, and he would then add another one on Friday night at Westgate Lanes in the Friday night summer youth league.

Congrats again, Brendan! 😀 (I’ve congratulated him on Facebook before posting this.)

June 26 league standings update

With “T N T” only taking a single point this week, we lost a place in the standings, with Team 14 (our opponents this week) moving ahead of us. The league championship is starting to look like a runaway for “Phoenix Kings,” as they are now 14 points ahead of a tie for second between “Git R Done” (our opponents next week), “Country Bumpkins,” and “Heaven Help Us” (our opponents in two weeks).

A drought

My Week 7 bowling (BowlSK)

There was not much to like about tonight, as I had no strikes after the 8th frame of the first game. I had reached the conclusion in the second game that my Hy-Road was too strong tonight, so I went to the High Voltage, and the ball change may have been ill-advised, in hindsight. If there was a bright spot, it was the second game, where I had my closest approach to an all-spare game yet, with a big split to open but spares in the other nine frames. My spare game wasn’t that solid, however, as I left the 7 pin four times and missed all of them, including 3 in a very forgettable last game.

Result: 155-173-125=453
Average (21 games): 182 Last 9 games average: 179
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 552

This wasn’t a good night for the team, either, as we only managed a first game tie, and we didn’t learn about the tie until the end of the night, as the other team had a new bowler who had to average in. Team will need to regroup quickly, however, as we face very good teams in the next two weeks.

2009 Massachusetts State USBC Bowling Association Championships results

The Mass. Tri-County Bowling Association has posted the official results of this year’s state championship tournament. The full prize list can be found at the link above, but I’ll recognize the state champions here (with local association represented in parentheses):

Team

Scratch: Sundowners #6 (Mass. Tri-County) 3,588
Handicap: The Hopeful’s (Mass. Tri-County) 3,850

Doubles

Scratch: David T. Juzba, Jr/Todd W. Jordan (Southeastern Mass.) 1,436
Handicap: Eric A. Morin/William D. Sorell (Southeastern Mass.) 1,621

Singles

Scratch: Jeffrey L. Bennett (Mass. Tri-County) 777
Handicap: Dale Hill (Brockton) 863

All-Events

Scratch: Jonathan J. Van Hees (Southeastern Mass.) 2,263
Handicap: Jorge D. Fernandes (Southeastern Mass.) 2,570

Congratulations to all of this year’s state champions, and to all that cashed in the tournament. 😀

June 19 league standings update

My team’s winning night against “Wyld Stallyns” had the net effect of leapfrogging that team into 11th place in the standings, 2 points off of a 3-way tie for 8th. “Phoenix Kings” are really hitting stride now, as they now lead “Heaven Help Us” by 8 points. Next week’s opponents are Team 14, who are behind us in the standings.

Baptism of fire

My Week 6 bowling (BowlSK)

As I noted in the BowlSK comment on the series, this was a nice first league game and set with my new Hy-Road. I knew if I could make good shots and find the pocket, the ball would likely carry, and that was borne out in the first game with a turkey in the middle (after a split) and the final 6 in a row for a 245. Some bad shots hurt me in the second game, but I was even happy with that game, as I got a couple of “messengers” (a “messenger” is when the head pin bounces off the side wall and heads for the 10 pin), even though those “messengers” missed; I hadn’t been getting those with the High Voltage, showing how strong the Hy-Road is.

Result: 245-162-211=618
Average (18 games): 188 Last 9 games average: 183
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 582

This was another good night for the team, as well. The first game set up the night, as everyone was well over average, particularly Rob, who had a 235 himself; we won that game by better than 200 pins. Second game was a disappointment, but I helped carry my team (combined with the other team, who had a pre-bowl and a low-average absentee, not doing so well) to the third game win for 6 points on the night.

Going the extra mile

Today’s practice was spent becoming more familiar with my new Hy-Road, but I wasn’t really happy with the shots I was making, especially early on, so, having only $2 left on one of my gift cards after paying for my usual three games, I decided to waste the $2 on an extra practice game. It paid off, as I was more consistent throwing the ball, and, though I didn’t have much carry for most of it, I did rattle off a turkey starting in the 8th frame to get the game to 200 after a missed spare in the first frame. Knowing a line that has a chance to work, then, I can now think about using the Hy-Road in league for the first time on Wednesday night.

June 2009 NEBA doubles results

NEBA reported that Jay Mahon and Tom Durand were the winners of the June doubles tournament at AMF Cranston Lanes. Mahon and Durand defeated Frank Pawlus III and RJ Broge by a score of 414-363 (both bowlers on a team bowling a complete game) in the title match. For Westgate Lanes, Alex Aguiar teamed with Matt O’Grady to reach the semifinals, and Tim Healey cashed with Matt Janas.

June 13 league standings update

The updated standings were run today, so this is as fresh as it comes. 😀

My team’s winning night meant that we are now all alone in 12th place, 2 points ahead of “The Insiders,” but 2 points behind Team 14 (which is not, as it turns out, Brian and Ralph’s team). “Phoenix Kings” are now the league leaders, 2 points ahead of “Heaven Help Us.” Next week’s opponents are the “Wyld Stallyns,” another middle-of-the-pack team.

Taking a Hy-Road

This title is not a misspelling…

Because of a change of weekend plans on my brother’s part (getting my food shopping done last night), I was able to head to the lanes (and pro shop) today to have my new bowling ball drilled. My choice is a Storm Hy-Road, the first ball with a hybrid reactive cover (hybrid meaning a mixture of solid {the more porous reactive material} and pearl {less porous, like my High Voltage}). It is supposed to be a very versatile ball, but I intend to use it on heavier oil. I hope it becomes a go-to ball for the house shot, but I also had the Monday night/People’s Tournament shot in mind when selecting the ball.

The ball was drilled with the same grip pattern as my High Voltage. The Hy-Road is laid out differently, however. My new PAP (5″ over, even) was taken into account, and I asked for a stacked leverage drilling, which is supposed to give me as much help in the oil as possible while still making the ball suitable for the house shot. What we got was a drilling of 3 3/8″ X 2 1/2″ (remember, the first figure is the pin-to-PAP distance, and the second figure is the center of gravity-to-PAP distance) with a weight hole on the axis. The key figure is the pin-to-PAP…this pin-to-PAP is supposed to maximize track flare, which means the width of the track bands is pretty wide, and, during my trial of the ball, Ray figured I got 4 1/2″ to 5″ of flare (the wider the flare, the more fresh ball surface makes contact with the lane by the time it hits the pins). To save a bit of money, I decided to try the ball without a thumb slug, and the ball does feel good enough that I won’t need a thumb slug unless I need to adjust my span and pitches for some reason.

I rolled three games with the new Hy-Road (including the free one I got from the pro shop) and I must say that I liked the ball reaction I got when I made a good shot. I ended up playing further inside (standing around the 25 board) than I do with my High Voltage. However, the last game, I was fooling around playing inside of 25, and found that I still need to learn how to play in the oil (my target at the arrows has to move inside as I move inside on the approach, as well), and my score suffered. For scores, my first 2 games were in the 190s, with only a single open (a missed single 3 in the first game, and a big split in the second game) ruining those games. I intend to practice with the Hy-Road one more time before using it in league play for the first time.

Author’s note: This is a milestone post, as it is the 500th one I’ve made on this blog. Here’s to many more in the future. 😀

USBC member page alert

If you go to my member information page on bowl.com (linked in the sidebar in the “Author’s links” category) and click the “Leagues/Averages” tab, you should find that my Brunswick Mixed League average for the past season has been posted. Last year’s Wednesday Summer Mixed average still shows 0 because the local association generally does not submit summer league averages.

Cross-training #101

I have made it no secret to my online friends that New Orleans Hornets point guard Chris Paul is my favorite pro athlete not playing for a Boston team because of his position as a USBC spokesperson, and bowling continues to be a part of his charity work, as the Winston-Salem Journal notes that there will be a “Friends and Family Bowling Night” on Sept. 25 as part of Paul’s Winston-Salem Weekend fundraiser for his CP3 Foundation. Additionally, I’d like to note that the PBA has scheduled another Chris Paul PBA Celebrity Invitational for Feb. 7., which should also benefit the CP3 Foundation.

The learning curve

My Week 5 bowling (BowlSK)

I wanted to put what I learned about axis rotation the other day to work tonight, and I did get off to a slow start, but I slowly learned when to make the axis rotation adjustment, along with the other adjustments, and, by the third game, I felt I finally found the right combination of line, speed, and axis rotation, and had my best game so far this summer, a clean 218, as a result. My consistency on spares (except for a couple of missed single 5 pins) was there too; throwing my spare ball like I do my first ball is particularly helping me on my left corner pins (the 4 and 7), as I now have less of a tendency to jerk the shot and find the left gutter.

Result: 151-171-218=540
Average (15 games): 184 Last 9 games average: 178
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 561

The team had our first winning night of the summer, with everyone contributing in some form, but I wanted to mention Rob’s first game (a 206) as a key to winning that game, and Bonnie was steady all night, pitching in in the third game with a 181. As a plus, my cousin Karen and her husband Mark, both also bowlers, came up from Texas to visit, and I happened to notice that Mark was watching my shot in the 3rd frame of Game 2, so I had to remark to him, “Now that’s more like it!” (The strike in that frame came immediately after missing my second 5 pin of the night.)

Elsewhere in the league, we had a couple of flirtations with 300. In the second game, Bob Fosdick, my cousins’ teammate, ran off the first nine before leaving a single pin and whiffing. Sean Richard had a closer approach in the last game, with only a ringing 7 (as a lefty) forcing him to settle for a 299.

Coming soon: I decided to use most of my “Obama stimulus” on a new ball, so, after learning that Ray will be on vacation for a couple of weeks starting next week, I had him lay out one before league. I will post the details on the new ball when it is drilled next week, but I will say my PAP has changed since I changed my release back in February.

My new t-shirt…

…well, the one that Brunswick Mixed League treasurer Mary Ellen LaBelle gave me at the banquet, anyway. You might only be able to barely see the design, so I may post another picture later.

Richie in t-shirt he received at the 2009 Brunswick Mixed League banquet
Richie in t-shirt he received at the 2009 Brunswick Mixed League banquet

June 9 league standings update

Last week’s split with “Going Pro” moved “T N T” into a four-way tie for 12th place, with my team getting the top position in the tie on the basis of pinfall. There is now a tie at the top between “Phoenix Kings” and “Heaven Help Us,” with “Git R Done” and “Shihoots” only 2 points off the pace. We have “Amelia” tomorrow night; I believe that team has the league’s two-handed bowler, Ed Alfieri (I believe…I don’t know for sure if it’s him or Jim Alfieri), so the opponents should be fun to watch.

May 2009 People’s Tournament results

This post is slightly late, as there is an error on the People’s Tournament’s site that points the link to the May tournament results on the “Past Results” page to the results for the April tournament. I have informed Sherm of the error, and will link the correct page in this post.

The People’s Tournament reported Puntep Bhayakaport (201 avg., AMF 34th Avenue Lanes {NY}) as the winner of the May event at AMF Cranston Lanes. Bhayakaport defeated James O’Driscoll (174 avg., Town & Country Lanes) in the title match by a score of 254-224 (with handicaps). It was a bad event for Westgate Lanes bowlers, as no Westgate Lanes bowler reached the final eight. Greg Hudson (195 avg.) and Rafael Cruz (175 avg.) were in the top 16. James Vaughn (172 avg.) represented North Bowl in the top 16.

Into the rotation

My practice today focused on axis rotation, meaning how you manipulate ball reaction based on which finger swings through the ball in the release. I tried index finger, middle finger, and ring finger types of rotation, and found that I got the best results on the house pattern using the middle finger type of axis rotation, which puts some side rotation on the ball (index finger rotation increases the side rotation, ring finger gives the ball more forward roll). This was also something I found useful when picking up spares, as I can kill the hook to a large extent using the ring finger type rotation. I didn’t really care much for scores today, but I did have 2 games over 210 (including a 222 first game) before I made a lot of bad shots in the last game.

A sad note

It is with sadness that I note that I’ve seen several published reports stating that USBC and PBA Hall of Famer Mark Roth, whom I met when he came to Brockton for the December 2007 NEBA tournament (which he won), has suffered a stroke. I hereby wish the 34-time PBA Tour titlist a speedy recovery, and say that I was glad I had a chance to meet him while he was still healthy.

June 3 league night

Giving this post a generic title b/c I have no cute title for this one…

My Week 4 bowling (BowlSK)

I had my worst night in some time, and I kind of sensed it in my warm-up session before the lanes were turned on for league, the second game of which I failed to have a strike. Most of the night’s problems came in the first game, where I seemed to have one lane going, but couldn’t get out of my own way on the other lane, getting only 1 spare and 4 opens. I did seem to get progressively better as my head cleared (I didn’t get much sleep the night before), and I had my only run of strikes near the end of the last game, getting a turkey. Also on the bright side, I did make all of my single pins, and improving on my single-pin spares was something I wanted to work on this summer.

Result: 143-164-189=496
Average (12 games): 185 Last 9 games average: 182
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 561

The team again got a split, but this time via the “hard way,” losing the first 2 games, then taking the last game by enough to also take total. Bonnie was a big part of the last game, as she tossed the last 5 at a point where we needed to get over the threshold for total. Rob also had a great night for him.

2008-09 season recap

I think I’m going to use June 1 each year to wrap up each season, as the winter leagues will pretty much be all over by then. As I did on New Year’s Eve (which I used as an “unofficial” halfway point), I’m going to list the highs at Westgate Lanes for both the men and the women:

Men

High average: 228.3 Sean Richard (Thursday Handicap Doubles)
High series: 817 Sean Richard (Westgate Mixed)
High game: 300 Danny Khuu (Saturday Seniors {youth}), Harry Thibeault Jr. (Westgate Mixed), Bob Hamilton (2, Westgate Mixed and TNBA), Richard Mines (TNBA), Rai Doblmeier (Tuesday Scratch Sportsmen), Tom Hedding (Saturday Seniors {youth}), Steve Healy (Brockton Ten Pin), Dan Esdale (Westgate Mixed)

Women

High average: 218.1 Amy Aldridge (Westgate Mixed)
High series: 735 Amy Aldridge (Westgate Mixed)
High game: 300 Jessica Lowe (Westgate Mixed)

Notes: High averages are based on a minimum of 72 games in the league. When considering high series, the first three games of series in the Tuesday Scratch Sportsmen league was used, as per USBC rule on series awards.