With “The People’s Tournament” in town today, I wanted to head to the lanes this morning with hopes that I would be able to bowl in one of the qualifying squads as a pacer (pacers are used in tournaments sometimes when a pair of lanes has less than the full complement of bowlers assigned to it). The part of the morning I could blog about actually got started when I left the house, as Simon Rosenthal (I call him Si), another old bowling friend, was driving the taxi I called for to get there. I mentioned I wanted to return to the game, and he told me he was actually taking the year off from bowling after averaging only in the 140s the previous season when he’s usually somewhere in the 180s.
When I got to the lanes, I told Junior about my intentions, but he replied that the tournament officials may not let me pace. I was OK with this, but I proceeded into the party room (which is used as the check-in room for tournaments) to meet the tournament director for TPT, Sherm Cowan. I let him know that I was considering bowling TPT in the future, and that I had linked his site on this blog. He thanked me for the link and wished me well.
I also stopped in the pro shop to talk with Ray about the previous week. Si had mentioned in the cab that reactive balls wear out quickly, and I asked Ray about this. Ray replied that those balls don’t wear out, but rather soak up oil, and said the pro shop has something called “The Rejuvenator” that will help restore the ball. He recommended that I do this every 60 games, and since a run in the Rejuvenator is only $5, I won’t mind the occasional additional expense.
Getting coffee at the snack bar, I ran into Sean Richard, who was warming up for the tournament on one of the lanes. He recognized me as the new blogger and we exchanged pleasantries. I finished my coffee, then headed back to the control desk to set up a two-hour rental (Westgate Lanes runs a lane rental special on Sunday mornings.).
There was nothing special in the practice session, but I did make my spares consistently, which helped my games stay around 180 for the most part (I had a 144 middle game, as I’ll recap below.) What I learned is that I definitely prefer a drier lane, as that is usually the condition in my Monday afternoon practices, and will probably bowl in late squads in tournaments rather than early ones. Despite doing fairly well, I wasn’t up to practicing for more than 3 games, so I asked Junior for a $10 credit (I had originally paid $20 for the two hours.). The printer at the control desk was also having problems, so I had to write the scores down on the business card Sherm Cowan gave me. I wished Sean luck in today’s tournament on the way out.
Result: 180-144-179=503
Running average (30 games): 163 Last 9 average: 164
The Tenth Board 