The Tenth Board

GoBowling.com added to sidebar links

Rich — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 21:41:36 +0000

The site in the post title came to my attention in a comment to a recent post, which I approved, and it appears to be a good general bowling site, with a bowling center locator, tips, and a blog (though this site won’t be part of the blogroll), as well as a Twitter feed (I don’t use Twitter, but have thought about it as an adjunct to this blog because you can post via text message, but I’m not at the bowling center for leagues often enough to make a Twitter feed really useful.) and a Facebook page (which should be linked on the site). The site was added to the sidebar under the general “Bowling Sites” category.

Another change to the blog was an oversight in re-categorizing a post in the month of March of 2008 to add the “Youth” category last summer; I have done so with this post today.

May 31 Adult/Junior note

Rich — Thu, 31 May 2012 22:26:46 +0000

This post doesn’t fit into the “Honor Scores” category, but I did find something in the first week results of the Adult/Junior League that stood out: Shane Litchfield had a 237 high game in a 668 series, which was better than the older boys in the league. WTG Shane…you’ll have your first 7 before too long!

2011-12 season recap

Rich — Thu, 31 May 2012 20:59:43 +0000

With all of the winter leagues having ended, it’s time to recognize everyone who performed the best this year, whether for one game, one series, or the full season, by listing the high averages, series, and games for both the men and women. As usual, average is based on a minimum of 72 games in the league, and youth bowlers were included with their gender where applicable; series consideration for the Tuesday Scratch Sportsmen and BBIS leagues was based on the first three games.

Men

Average: 232.9; Sean Richard (Westgate Mixed)
Series: 836; Carl Nordstrom (Thur. Hcp. Doubles)
Game: 300; Greg Rand (2; Boston Rhythm & Bowling, Thur. Night Patriots), Jim Donaher (2, Brockton Ten Pin), John Mayo (2, Thur. Night Patriots), Dave Chalifoux (Coke Classic), Danny Khuu (Coke Classic), Mike Fowler (Thur. Night Patriots), Rob Roy (Thur. Night Patriots), Mike Trent (Thur. Night Patriots), Jay Krushas (Thur. Night Patriots), Alex Aguiar (Tue. Scratch Sportsmen), Donie Corneau (Tue. Scratch Sportsmen), John Kunan (Westgate Mixed)

Women

Average: 211.8; Shirley Major (Thur. Hcp. Doubles)
Series: 771; Danielle Barros (Westgate Mixed)
Game: 290; Tina Gannon (Coke Classic)

If I missed mentioning a game or series that was bowled as a substitute, please let me know. As an additional note, Carl Nordstrom’s 836 series was not only the high series in the house this year, but the entire Brockton Bowling Association, as well.

Readers interested in a particular league should check the standings sheets, linked in the list on BowlerExpress. Congrats again to everyone mentioned!

Bob Hamilton, Sean Richard throw perfect games

Rich — Thu, 31 May 2012 02:46:14 +0000

Two different perfect games to tell you about…

For the first, Bob Hamilton threw a perfect second game tonight in the Wednesday Summer Mixed League, and was actually threatening the house record after a 279 first game, but only threw a 200 third game (this may be corrected later in a comment) and only came away with a 779 series.

The second happened away from Westgate Lanes on Memorial Day, as Sean Richard had one in the Phat Doubles Tournament at AMF Silver Lanes.

Congrats to both Bob and “Seany Kash”!

May 30 league night recap

Rich — Thu, 31 May 2012 02:41:15 +0000

My Week 3 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK sheet)

I felt I needed control of the pocket tonight, so my Tropical Breeze came out of the bag for the first time since last summer. Unfortunately for the first game, I spent half of that game getting adjusted to the ball again. The ball change eventually paid off, though. Half of my problems with the 10 tonight were my thumb not wanting to come out of the spare ball; that will be something I’ll keep an eye on.

Result: 142-182-213=537
Average (9 games): 174
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 530

We were missing Matt tonight, and we won just the third game, but by enough for total and just barely, as it proved that my make of the 10 to fill the last frame was the difference, as total was won by just that pin.

I’ve told some of the bowlers tonight, but there’s been a development that may affect me for the rest of the summer that I’ll post about when the time comes.

May 29 league standings update

Rich — Tue, 29 May 2012 21:28:17 +0000

“Froot Loops” settled into 18th (out of a full 20 teams) after taking two points from “RPMM’s”, two points ahead of “The Oddballs” and four ahead of Team 20, our opposition tomorrow night. Team 19 has yet to lose points after two weeks, and they hold a two point lead on “The Avengers” and four ahead of “Red Sox”.

The administrivia for this post is that the link to the standings sheet on LeagueSecretary.com has been added and the winter league links deleted, completing the summer transition. I’ll be archiving the online log (on BowlingTracker.com) for the winter league recently completed momentarily.

2012 Brunswick Mixed video

Rich — Sun, 27 May 2012 19:33:28 +0000

Alex did something different this year: He uploaded the “highlight” video to YouTube, and I’m going to try to embed it here…

Alex has a great sense of humor, and the opening gag based on Ralphie’s hats was too good to pass up. You’ll even see me crushing the pocket, for a change…I was wearing a gray sweatshirt that night, and you’ll see me turn to the camera at the end.

2012 Mass. open state tournament results

Rich — Thu, 24 May 2012 22:49:47 +0000

The Southeastern Mass. Bowling Association has posted unofficial final results of the state open tournament recently completed. As usual, I will list the state champions below (location is that of the entry and is not necessarily the hometown of the entrant):

Scratch Division

Team: Bedard’s (Swansea, MA) 3,327
Doubles: John Tremblay & Steve Ramey (Lowell, MA) 1,507
Singles: Darrin Borges (New Bedford, MA) 802
All-Events: Jim Pritts, Jr. (Peabody, MA) 2,193

Handicap Division

Team: Lavallee Machine II (Southbridge, MA) 3,878
Doubles: John Mason & Edward Carter (Springfield, MA) 1,651
Singles: Mike Kowalchek (Auburn, MA) 885
All-Events: Mike Kowalchek (Auburn, MA) 2,404

(Note: Scores given above are the high scores in each event and may not necessarily be the final prize winner.)

Congratulations to this year’s state champions!

May 23 league night recap

Rich — Thu, 24 May 2012 03:02:36 +0000

My Week 2 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK sheet)

Noting that a bowler I knew well was throwing a less-aggressive ball on my pair during open play before league started tonight, I decided to pull out my Fast tonight to see how that ball would do. As it turned out, I had forgotten how much I love that ball, and tonight gave me a small reminder of why. I suffered five splits, including an early 7-9 on a shot that I crushed the pocket on, but I made most of everything else.

Result: 188-178-185=551
Average (6 games): 172
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 524

Berta and Brian joined me and Matt tonight, and we rechristened the team “Froot Loops.” Berta got herself together after a bad first game, but our opponents bowled well enough to take the first two and total for six points.

May 21 league standings update (first of summer 2012)

Rich — Tue, 22 May 2012 02:51:41 +0000

As it happened, my team is still known by number (18), as another team named themselves “The Pinheads,” and I guess the unwritten rule is the lower number team gets first dibs on the name. Oh well, maybe we’ll come up with something else next week.

As for the standings themselves, I won’t name all of the teams that only won two points this week, but my team landed in the 16th spot (out of 20 teams, possibly including a vacant team). Two teams, numbered 19 and 14, won all eight points in Week 1, and those teams were listed in pinfall order.

“RPMM’s” will be my team’s opponents for Week 2.

Note: The standings sheet on BowlerExpress has been added to the “Author’s links” sidebar category as the summer links transition continues.

Brunswick Mixed 2011-12 champions

Rich — Mon, 21 May 2012 00:24:10 +0000

And, as usual, here’s the photo of our league champions:

The 2011-12 Brunswick Mixed champions, The 5 G’s (L to R): Dana Gomes Jr., Dwayne Gomes, Durell Gomes, Ed Godino III

This team started with Nick Gomes, as well, but he had to quit the league mid-season due to his new employment. Congrats guys!

Also, my team’s photo has been added to the “scrapbook.” It shows me in a new item of bowling swag: a Pete Weber “I AM!” t-shirt inspired by his reaction after winning this year’s US Open; if you can’t see the design on the front, you can view it here, with the ability to mouseover the front of the shirt to view the back of the shirt. As I don’t want the “scrapbook” page to get too overloaded with photos, I figure I’ll post one more photo there before I start a second page.

Thank you to Randi Sullivan of “The Mustangs” for letting me post both photos.

2012 Brunswick Mixed banquet

Rich — Sun, 20 May 2012 23:10:58 +0000

As I probably figured, my team was shut out of the big team prizes, but we were tied for 4th overall in points, so our point money was better than it usually is. Personally, I took the prize for 2nd high handicap series in my division, but, on my team, it was Berta who really made out, as she not only won her division’s high average, but was also most improved for the women. In addition, she received pins as awards from both the Tri-City women’s local association (for a 525 series) and the state women’s association (for a 140-over-average series).

My league is always doing things a little different at the banquet, and the wrinkle this year was that the Coles knew of a start-up bakery in East Bridgewater and had bowling cupcakes made in a few different flavors. I’m hesitant to give a company unrelated to bowling a free plug on my blog, but anyone who wants to inquire about the new bakery can certainly give me a message on my contact form (or find me on Facebook) to ask about them. Also, Alex did another video, with Pat’s reaction to one of his shots getting some laughs.

The photos will again come later because my camera batteries ran out after I took a fairly bad one of my team, but I will have the one a member of “The Mustangs” took in the “scrapbook” eventually, as well as the photo of our champions in a future post.

Harry Thibeault throws 299 game in Wed. Summer Mixed

Rich — Thu, 17 May 2012 03:36:14 +0000

The high game on the first night of the Wednesday Summer Mixed League was an 11 in a row 299 thrown by Harry Thibeault. I heard from another bowler that Harry told him that he turned a bit early on the last shot and left a 4 pin. Still, congrats are in order for Harry.

May 16 league night recap (start of summer 2012 league)

Rich — Thu, 17 May 2012 03:18:01 +0000

I ended up getting a man by the name of Matt Greenstein as one of my teammates, and I took two vacant scores this week so Berta and Brian could start bowling with us next week. I went with Matt’s suggestion of “Pinheads” as the team name. The only notable thing that happened in the meeting was that the league voted to have negative handicaps for teams with averages over 800.

My Week 1 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK sheet)

My night was marked by a brutal spare game, in which I missed 3 10 pins and couldn’t make any of my cluster leaves. The only reason the second and third games were within reason was that I found a better look at the pocket by balling down to my Hy-Road and circling the heads a bit.

Result: 124-190-168=482
Average (3 games): 160
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 484

Matt averaged 137 on the night, improving in each game. The team only won the third game, with the first game being possible if I had not had a horrible game.

Start of 2012 summer links transition

Rich — Tue, 15 May 2012 21:36:52 +0000

I set up new pages today for the summer league on BowlingTracker.com and (linked for the first time) BowlSK, the latter of which will have all of my series sheets linked. None these have any information currently, but I did the set-up to save some time tomorrow night (and the first night of any league will always be a bit hectic). These links will be in the usual “Author’s links” sidebar category.

Speaking of the summer league, I don’t have a team lined up yet, but getting on a team with Shawn Coles (the Brunswick Mixed secretary) and Brian and Ken Snow (of “The Incredibowls”) is an outside possibility right now. My winter teammates Berta and Brian will also be bowling, but will be out of town until the weekend (they’ll be back for the Brunswick Mixed League banquet on Saturday), so their first night of the summer will be next week.