The Tenth Board

I was recently contacted by one of the authors of the new “Dummies” book on bowling to give it a review, and, being one that likes anything that helps neophytes get into the game, I agreed and was sent a copy of the book a month or so ago.

Overall, the book does tell a lot of what a new bowler needs to know starting out. It goes into the many benefits of bowling (and I did like that they mention the social aspects), what to look for in equipment (both at the center and when you’re ready to get your own stuff), and the basics of bowling form (I especially liked how they illustrate the motion involved in a hook release). They even mention the fact that there is oil on the lane, something most casual bowlers don’t know about, and the basics of handicapping (explained in the chapter on league bowling), which I felt could make a newcomer to league bowling feel more comfortable. They also explain what to look for in a bowling coach, should the reader decide he/she would like to have one.

This book was not without its flaws, however. They said a right-hander’s hook ball curves to the right, when it’s actually a right-to-left motion at the end (it should be said that it was correctly shown in an illustration, however), and, while they correctly use a four-step delivery as the basis of explaining bowling timing, they fail to mention that other steps are possible in a delivery (remember, I use a six-step delivery myself). It was the chapter on spares that I had the most problems with, however, and a lot of that is technical in nature. For instance, they use the 4-7-8 leave as an illustration for a right-hander as a basis for explaining how to pick up clusters when a right-hander will actually leave the 2-4-5 cluster far more often; the book makes similar assumptions for other types of leaves. As I said, however, my problem is just a technical one, but using an illustration for the more common leave might have helped. Also, none of this paragraph should be taken as though I didn’t like the book; I did, and noting what I felt were flaws in this review is just done in the hope of improving future editions.

To reiterate, the book does a solid job of explaining most of the basics of the game to the beginner, and I would recommend it to someone who wants to go from being a casual bowler to a more frequent, serious one.

Just to make things clear, the note about my ball damage problem was not meant to negatively reflect on the management and staff of Westgate Lanes; the problem was relatively small, and they were aware of it and were working to resolve it. My apologies go to the Minassian family.

As I write this, I’m giving a Coby HD pocket camcorder its first charge. I felt I needed another camcorder because my new computer didn’t have a Firewire card and I was skittish about opening my new computer’s case to put the card from my old computer in; the new camcorder should be easier to work with because it has a USB connection (actually how I’m charging it) and the fact that it can use SD/SDHC cards, which my new computer can read from a standard media card reader. I’m not sure if the video quality will be as good as my Canon, but I hope to test it out and have more video to post soon. If I didn’t have to bowl Wednesday nights, I’d even post video of other bowlers in the area doing their thing, especially stuff like the 10th frame of 300 games.

I also finished my “spending spree” by (finally) subscribing to Bowling This Month…hopefully, I can get some good tips, especially considering I now have access to the archives online.

Well, folks, it’s been three years today that I’ve been back to the game I love. The last year saw a couple of good things on a personal level: First was the 267 game, a single pin off my personal best, in winter league just after Christmas, when I had the nine strikes in a row to end it, prompting me to post about it on my BowlSpace blog rather than here. The second was being on the team that won the inaugural BowlingCommunity Mixed Virtual League, which I was also bowling for in my normal league play much of the second half of the season.

There won’t be many thanked in this post specifically, but a few people/groups deserved special mention:

• Again, to everyone who participated in the virtual league, but also to my online friend Chris for volunteering to be the league’s secretary, without which the league might not have been possible.
• My new bowling friends, John and Eileen Ruhl…your presence on my team last winter made the league even more fun for everyone in the league, and I’m glad that it has carried over into the summer.
• Lastly, Rob Dickens, who has come to be one of my best bowling friends for being around on some Mondays to practice together.

This happens to be the first anniversary I will have also bowled in league on, so I’m hoping for something big tonight (possibly my first 700 set? )

This post is not about my actual league bowling, even though it has to do with my league performance, so I decided to categorize this as “General” rather than “League”.

I said I’d analyze my league performance more fully, and I’m using this post to do it. Thanks to BowlSK, I can get all sorts of stats, so I can make some comparisons on stuff between this year and last. First, some first-ball numbers (first set of numbers before the pipe | character will be last year’s, after the pipe this year’s):

Strike percentage: 42.4% | 44.8%
Pocket shots: 63.4% | 73.1%
Carry percentage: 64.8% (443/684) | 58.8% (475/808)
Double rate: 45.7% (205/449) | 43.3% (208/480)
Average first-ball count: 8.8 | 8.9
Average first-ball non-strike count: 7.9 | 8.0

Clearly, I was finding the pocket more often this year, and, while I didn’t carry at the same rate as last year and didn’t string them as well (as reflected by the double rate), my counts were higher (as reflected by the last two sets of numbers), meaning not only that I filled frames with more pins, but my leaves were more manageable in general, as well.

On to the second-ball numbers:

Overall spare percentage: 55.1% (323/586) | 57.1% (332/581)
Single-pin spare percentage: 69.2% (164/237) | 73.5% (200/272)
Multi-pin spare percentage: 58.3% (151/259) | 56.3% (120/213)
Makeable (non-split) percentage: 63.5% (315/496) | 66.0% (320/485)
Split conversion percentage: 8.9% (8/90) | 12.5% (12/96)
Washout conversion percentage: 24.1% (7/29) | 6.5% (2/31)
Percentage on single 10 pin: 64.6% (51/79) | 68.6% (70/102)
Percentage on single 7 pin: 50.0% (19/38) | 56.4% (22/39)

One of the best ways for a novice to intermediate bowler (I consider myself to be on the high side of the intermediate level) to improve his average is to become a better spare shooter, and I improved a bit this year, with most of the improvement coming on single pins, where I not only made more, but had more opportunities. My percentages on multi-pin spares were down, but I also left fewer of them. The ultimate test of a spare shooter is if you can make the makeable ones more often than not, and I made more of my makeable spare opportunites this year. I was also a bit better on splits, but suffered when I left a washout-type leave, as I made them less often in more opportunities than last year. The last thing to note are the last two sets of numbers, which reflect my single corner pins. I had thought the 7 pin was my nemesis all year, but I actually made it more often in about the same number of opportunities. I improved noticeably on my single 10 pin as well, something I take some pride in working on.

I hope to continue this track of improvement next year, but I hope this doesn’t become “paralysis by analysis.”

The Brockton Bowling Association held their third annual Hall of Fame dinner last night, and the theme that seemed to run through the event was friendship, especially with Mike Litchfield speaking of his on, off, and back on friendship with Bill Major, the honoree this year. Another part of that theme was put together when Bill’s first youth league team was reunited for the dinner. All-in-all, it was a good night.

I got one photo of Bill, and I’ll post it below, but the BBA has promised more photos of the event, taken by Mike Litchfield, on their website later.

Bill Major, 2010 inductee into Brockton Bowling Association Hall of Fame

My brother was going to be in Brockton all Easter weekend, so, having time after grocery shopping, we got a few lines in today. There were a couple of highlights: in the first game, I picked up a split that I don’t even remember making in my former bowling life, the 4-9, and my second game was clean w/ a 4-bagger going into the 10th frame, but a 4-10 split bit me and I had to settle for a 215. I lost it quite a bit in the third game, but bounced back to finish with a game in the mid-160s.

The fourth edition of the Chris Barnes Challenge took place in Norwich tonight with Alex Aguiar as Barnes’ opponent, and Aguiar continued his domination of Barnes from their earlier encounter in the Match Play Championship. I never got the final score on Xtra Frame, but an early sign of how the night was going to go for Barnes was when he whiffed on a 10 pin in the second frame, and Aguiar remained clean throughout to win the first game 224-192. Aguiar converted a couple of splits early in the second game, but suffered a 2-8-10 near the end of the game. Aguiar still won that game 178-166 to take a 44 pin lead into the third game (402-358), and then sealed the win by running off the first five in the final game while Barnes had no answer.

The match should soon be archived on Xtra Frame for those who missed it.

Today was another outing with my brother, and I used the opportunity to practice playing the deep inside line on the house shot. By the third game, playing in around 31, I took a 270 possibility into the 10th frame. I got overconfident, however, and left a “fast 8″ (the 4-7). I picked up the spare, and the game should’ve still been in the 240s, but I threw the fill ball in the ditch for a 238. OUCH!