Month: February 2008

More sites added

A couple of important sites were added to the sidebar list today…

First, I put up a link to the USBC Open’s page, which is bowling’s national championship tournament.  It will provide daily updates when the tournament is in progress (as it is now).  If you’re interested in the USBC Women’s Championships, you can find a link to that tournament there.

The other site I added today is the Kegel Bowling site.  Of interest here is their online oil pattern library; if you know the lanes you’re bowling on, as well as the lane machine and lane conditioner being used, you can get a list of all of the oil patterns available at your bowling center.  While this may not be of interest to the beginning bowler, it is definitely of interest to the more advanced bowler.

Another link added

BowlingBallReviews.com has been added to the sidebar.  As its name implies, the site gives ratings and reviews of bowling balls from the most important people of all…the bowlers who use them.  This one is worthy of being bookmarked.

Thanks to “Dennis Michael” from the BowlingCommunity.com forums for pointing me to this site. 😀

Hoinke Classic link added

As it is one of the largest and best-known of the private amateur tournaments, I have added the link to the Hoinke Classic’s site to the sidebar list. It generally runs from February to November of every year in Cincinnati, and features singles, doubles, and team events (as well as an all-events competition) for men & women (including mixed doubles and teams) in both handicap and scratch divisions.

Reorganization

Figuring there’s “room for growth”, I have reorganized the blog to make it easier for readers to find the topics that interest them. I have added a few new categories, and I’ll summarize what’s in each category (including the old ones) as follows:

Administravia: Posts about the blog itself, including new links, edits to old posts, and errata.
Cross-training: For posts about athletes in other sports doing bowling-related things.
Equipment: Posts where I bring up equipment will be filed here.
General: General topics, including stuff away from bowling and open bowling activity I don’t consider practice.
Leagues: Posts about my league-related activity. Honor scores that I post about that took place in a league will be filed here, as well.
Practice: Practice summaries.
Tournaments: Tournament news, mainly the tournaments in my area.

As I said, this system should make it easier for readers to find what they want to look at. Enjoy it. 🙂

Class-action suit against USBC (commentary)

Shippensburg, PA bowling proprietor sues USBC over lane conditions

I have two things to say about this…

First, I have a new ball and bowl on the usual league condition at my house, but I’m not really noticing any difference in my own game, as my practice average is about where my league average was when I left the game 15 years ago, the time of the early-generation polyurethane balls and the introduction of the “three-unit rule”.

Second, the article says people no longer have to practice much to be good. Hooey! I know I could improve more with more practice, and the only reason I’m not practicing more is because of my budget.

Feel free to add your comments. 🙂

Back on track

Before I left for practice, “Atochabsh,” one of my new friends from the BowlingCommunity.com forums and (more so) the #BowlingFans IRC channel, gave me some suggestions for keeping my bowling hand relaxed, so I kept those in mind as I practiced today. Along w/ a newly “rejuvenated” ball, they seemed to work. In my first game, I had a double in the 3rd and 4th frames and a turkey in the 6th-8th frames for a 212. If not for a miss of a single 10-pin in the last frame, it would’ve been a clean game. My ball hooked past the pin, emphasizing the need to get a polyester ball down the line for spare shooting. My other games were only around my average, mostly because I feel I bowl my best in practice when I have a good rhythm going, and said rhythm was being interrupted by pinsetter and dead wood issues. I will still take the 212, though. 😀

Result: 212-156-160=528

Running average (57 games): 164 Last 9 average: 162

New podcast site linked

After some controversy about foul language being used in initial episodes, a new bowling podcast, “On Strike,” has its first official episode up.  The link to the podcast site has been added to the sidebar list.  Subscriptions through iTunes, Google, Yahoo!, and RSS are available on the podcast site.

Mike Zeoli perfect @ Brockton-Foxvale-Tri-City mixed doubles

I don’t have full results from the annual Brockton/Foxvale/Tri-City mixed doubles tournament at Westgate Lanes (at least yet), but I can report that Mike Zeoli rolled a perfect 300 game in the first game of today’s squad. Congrats Mike! 😀

Most of the reason I was there was to catch up with some old bowling friends, but in particular, I was hoping Joyce Bernard (she’s a big part of my tournament win story, which I will tell in the future) would be there, and she was. Wanting to post local bowling news, I also gave one of my email addresses to the Tri-City Women’s Bowling Association manager with a request to send honor scores and tournament results my way. As a bonus, my cousins David and Debbie turned up, so I chatted with them a bit while I was there. I told David that the thing I missed about bowling the most was the camaraderie, so I want to tell my bowling friends reading this that it was great seeing everyone again. 😀

February 2008 TPT @ E. Providence Lanes

Joshua Engelhardt, carrying a 165 average and bowling at his home center, won the February “People’s Tournament” at E. Providence Lanes. Notably for Westgate Lanes bowlers, Brian “Hawk” Earle was second. Good show, “Hawk”…better luck next time! 😀

Plan for today: I plan on making a run to the lanes to get my ball in the “Rejuvenator”. Saturday’s about the only day I can do it b/c it’s the only day I know for sure that the pro shop is open.

Update: The operation took longer than I planned, so I had to take a later bus home. I mentioned to Chris about my problem with the thumb sticking occasionally, and he thinks it may be because I’m squeezing the ball. I do kind of grip it too tightly, now that I think about it, so this is something I’ll work on in practice.

Tomorrow’s plan is to check out the mixed doubles tournament, but when my brother took me food shopping this morning, he was still suffering from a bad cold, which may ruin this plan, depending on how I feel tomorrow. If it’s bad enough, it could also jeopardize practice on Monday.

Various sites added

Found a number of sites in the last few days, so I added them all in one shot, and posting about them here…

First, I found Sean Rash’s blog, “Rash’s Rants”, on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s site today. Sean Rash is a PBA Tour exempt player, and winner of the 2007 USBC Masters. He blogs his views about life on tour, so his blog’s been added to the blogroll.

The next couple of sites aren’t really new to me, but I’ve become more involved with them recently. BowlingFans.com describes itself as “a site for bowling fans by bowling fans” and features an array of bowling articles and tips for bowlers at every level. They have an associated forum at BowlingCommunity.com, and I have registered there and posted an introduction. I’ve received several welcome replies, so their billing as “the friendliest bowling forums in the world” is true. Both sites have been listed in the sidebar.

I am an IRC (Internet Relay Chat) veteran, usually hanging out on EFnet and Undernet, but I have been very disappointed in #bowling on EFnet, as the times I’ve been in that channel, no one was really talking (5 users, all ops, and no way to really tell how many of those users are the channel bots). I have, however, found #BowlingFans (yes, related to the above site) on a small network called WyldRyde. I have added a link to the Flash client on BowlingFans.com to the sidebar, however, if you prefer a standalone IRC client (I heartily recommend mIRC for Windows users), instructions on how to log in using those can be found once you log into the Flash client. I could add an IRC link (beginning with irc://), but would rather thank BowlingFans.com by directing everyone to the Flash client initially. Hope to chat with everyone there. 😀

“My Bowling Diary” added to sidebar

The hits just keep on coming…hehehehe!

I stumbled on the above site while checking the TPT site for news about yesterday’s tournament.  It’s the homepage of a logging application for Windows which will generate not only score-based statistics, but also such things as spare percentages.  I’ve been keeping a practice score log on an Excel (actually OpenOffice.org) spreadsheet (used to calculate the averages in my practice summaries), but this program will give more detailed reports, and you can even get reports based on type of event (some tournaments are now requiring you to provide past tournament scores).   The link has been added to the sidebar list.

“Bowling Info & Tips” added to blogroll

The blog titled above has been added to the blogroll. The author of this blog is unknown, but it appears to be used to give information and advice to the person just getting into the game. If you’ve been thinking of taking up the game seriously and don’t know how to start, this would be worth a look. 😀

Note: The blog mentions the American Bowling Congress, which has been folded into the USBC.

January 2008 People’s Tournament

Forgive me for not posting about this earlier, but The People’s Tournament site reported that Westgate Lanes’ David Diamond won the January TPT at East Providence (RI) Lanes. Westgate Lanes bowlers did very well in the tournament, as several bowlers calling Westgate “home” cashed, including Ray and Chris from the pro shop. Good show guys! 😀

The February TPT was back @ E. Providence Lanes yesterday, and I’ll post when the results are up.

Addendum to “Having a ball”

I keep meaning to bring this up, but, as an addendum to the “Having a ball” entry, I’d like to mention that, in my bowling past, I had blister problems with my thumb when trying out newly-drilled balls, which went away once I got used to the ball. There was no such problem with this ball, however…maybe a pitch was slightly off when the guy who used to drill my balls did it? Thanks again Chris! 😀

Squaring away links

I’ve given the blog a once-over, checking to see that all of the web pages linked in this blog have the “blank target” set and edited the entries that needed them.  I also recently removed my homepage link from the “About” page for security-related reasons (read:  possible harvester bots).

A two-handed approach

Thought I’d post about Australian sensation Jason Belmonte, who was recently named as a USBC Youth ambassador. Why the sensation? He uses a two-handed delivery with the skill and results that put most of us one-handed bowlers to shame. Below is a YouTube video showing Belmonte in action against England’s Paul Moor in the finals of last year’s World Tenpin Masters…

EDIT:  Just as I posted about this style, it seems, Walter Ray Williams Jr. tries a shot like that in the Pepsi Championship final today.  It was a throwaway shot, as he did it in the 10th frame after he had already lost the title to Mike Scroggins.

Blogroll started

I’ve added the “Striking Difference Experience” and “Bowling Balls and Info” blogs to the sidebar, becoming the first blogs to be included in this blog’s proper blogroll. “Striking Difference Experience” is the blog of Brian Chilcutt, a USBC Gold coach based out of Illinois, while “Bowling Balls and Info” appears to be focused on bowling news, especially in the area of bowling equipment. Great to have you two aboard! 😀

“Clash of Champions” follow-up (with other note)

According to this Q&A with the USBC’s Tom Clark, the upcoming “Clash of Champions” event will be contested on the 2008 USBC Open Championships oil pattern, which should be both challenging and fair.

Also, according to this article, the USBC Masters will be reunited with the Open Championships next year at the Cashman Center in Las Vegas, with the Masters, still a PBA major tournament, taking place on Feb. 8-15, the week before competition begins in the Open Championships. The Masters will not be contested this calendar year, but the tournament will still be a part of the 2008-09 Denny’s PBA Tour. It is hoped that running the tournament after the Super Bowl will increase the television audience for the most prestigious event in bowling.

Practice summary, 2/11/08

I was hoping for a good practice today coming off my 2 good games w/ my brother on Saturday, but afterwards, I kind of wished the 2 games Saturday counted toward my practice average. I had to play straighter at the pins again, but I was getting less carry today, with a 121 first game being my worst game in quite a while. While I’m not quite at the 60 game mark with my new ball, it may be becoming time to put it in the “Rejuvenator” for the first time.

Result: 121-166-160=447

Running average (54 games): 164 Last 9 average: 165

I had seen Marcia put up a few photos of a familiar face up near some of the league standings sheets. Figuring some photos of the recently-deceased Bill Fisher might be going up at various places in the building, I asked Marcia after practice if that was, indeed, Bill Fisher, and she told me it was. It turned out I knew him after all, but never from actually bowling with him, and not by his full name…he was a familiar face from seeing him at the lanes during my practice sessions in my youth.

I also caught Bobby during a free moment before I left the lanes. I asked him which of the named PBA oil patterns the shot I’ve been seeing most resembles, and he told me it was close to the “Viper” pattern. The Viper pattern is known for being able to be played from many angles, and the typical league oil pattern would have to be just as fair.

Errata: The Boston Bowling Senate No-Tap tournament at Westgate Lanes in March is a doubles tournament, so forgive me if forgetting to note that it was a doubles tournament led anyone to believe it was a singles tournament.

Holiday note: As next Monday is the Presidents Day holiday, I probably won’t be practicing next week.

Showing off

My brother was down for my usual bi-weekly shopping trip, but when we got done with the food shopping and were on our way to lunch, he asked me if I wanted to go bowling after we were done with lunch. I took him up on it, figuring it was as good a chance as any to show how much I’ve improved since our last bowling outing last July.

We only took a single lane for two games each (he usually wants to head back into Boston early, so I don’t usually try to talk him into three games), so I wasn’t about to count this as a regular practice. Still, I wanted to do well, and I didn’t disappoint him. My first game was a 188 and could’ve easily been into the 200s if not for a spare miss and a few single 4-pin leaves (I made my single pins).

My second game was almost a beauty, as well; I alternated strikes and spares until the 7th and 8th frames, when I posted a double. After leaving the single 6-pin and picking it up in the 9th, I needed just a mark with fair count for 200. However, I left the 5-7 split with the first ball in the 10th. It was a split I have a decent chance of making if I shoot at it like I’m trying to cover a single 9-pin. However, my ball hooked just enough to hit the 5 full and I missed the conversion. These were the best games any family member has seen me roll, however, so I was very pleased. 😀

New domains

I’m not what you call a “domain name snob,” but I felt I wanted a couple for this blog, so I had tenthboard.net and 10thboard.net registered and mapped to the blog. tenthboard.net will be the primary URL (as I have the ordinal spelled out on my header graphic), but 10thboard.net will redirect to tenthboard.net, as will the old 10thboard.wordpress.com URL. Either three will work, but those of you who are subscribed to this blog’s RSS feed may want to update your subscriptions to reflect the new URL.  Both domains were functioning properly when I checked, but it may take some time for the domain names to propagate through the DNS system, so if the new names don’t work, give it time. 😀

“Bowling’s Clash of Champions”

USBC to present “Bowling’s Clash of Champions” on CBS in May

I’m pretty excited about this. Not only is bowling returning to network television and will have some familiar faces, but bowlers who might not otherwise receive television exposure, such as 2007 USBC Open Championships Regular All-Events winner Mike Rose Jr., will be featured. According to the article about this on BowlingDigital.com, if you entered a major USBC championship event or a US Open in 2007, you were entered in this event and are represented by your event’s champion. Future bowling programming on network television may depend on how well this event draws, so if you bowl, show your support of the game by watching on May 10 & 11.

My bowling shirts

Figured I’d post today to show off a little from my bowling past. I’ve kept the score sheets from my notable performances (personal best games and series, the tournament win), but most of those are on old overhead transparencies, which are now creased from being stuffed in a manila envelope and difficult to keep flat on a scanner, and some of them are done in yellow scoring pencil, which may not show up on a scan in any case. The next best thing, then, I feel, is to post some pics of me in my bowling shirts. I have two of them, a red shirt I had done by the old pro shop which has my ABC award patches (the ABC was the American Bowling Congress, which governed men’s ten-pin bowling in the US until the merger with the Women’s International Bowling Congress (WIBC) and Young American Bowling Alliance (YABA) to form today’s USBC), and the black trophy shirt I received for my LBT win, which I’ll post first…

Front view of the shirt…a small version of this picture will also go on the “About” page (which is why this post also appears in the “Administravia” category…I’ll be updating that page when I finish with this post).

Richie In Trophy Shirt (Front view)

Back view of same shirt…

Richie In Trophy Shirt (Back View)

This is me in the red shirt. The red patch on the pocket (as well as on the other shirt) is an Amateur Bowlers Tour patch, which was (and probably still is) required by bowlers participating in ABT events.

Richie In Red Shirt (Front View)

Back view; I liked the black-on-red color scheme because those are Brockton High School’s colors.

Richie In Red Shirt (Back View)

A couple of closeups now…first, the 150-over-average series award patch…

150 Over Average Series

I was awarded this patch for a 605 series I shot in April of 1989 (my first of 3 600+ series), about 6 months before my LBT win. I was averaging 145 at the time, and the series was paced by a 244 first game, which almost won me the patch I’ll show next. The 605 helped me earn the most improved bowler honors in my league for that season.

100 Over Average Game Patch

I received this patch for the 268 game I shot in November of 1990. I remember having two bad games that night, but I figured out the pair and got into a groove, getting the first 8 in a row (ESPN’s Rob Stone might call that a “double hambone” now…hehehehe!) before leaving a 3-6 in the 9th frame, which I converted. I finished up with a strike on the first ball in the 10th, then left the 3-6 again with the second ball, which I again made. I was averaging 157 going into that night.

Hope no one minds me reminiscing. BTW, you might’ve guessed I forgot to close the bathroom door b4 taking these, but I was hoping the bathroom wouldn’t show in these photos…I wanted a white background for these. Thanks to my best friend Ed for obliging me by taking these photos with my digital camera.

Practice summary, 2/4/08

I resolved to practice today no matter how much sleep I lost from the Super Bowl last night. It was a pretty cool day, but warm and dry enough to take the bike to the lanes, so that helped me wake up a bit.

It turned out to be a pretty strange practice session. I had been setting up around board 18L (that would be the 18th board in from the left gutter) and going for a second-arrow shot, but my ball just wasn’t making it back to the pocket, with my first game suffering because of it. In the second game, I experimented with a couple of first-arrow shots, setting up around board 15R and not getting anything better, so I decided to go back to a second-arrow shot but move to somewhere around 18R. The adjustment was enough to get a couple of games over average, with the last game threatening a 200 after a turkey starting in the 7th frame. I needed a double and count in the 10th for the 200, but didn’t get it, only converting a spare with a 6-fill for a 183.

Result: 137-171-183=491

Running average (51 games): 165 Last 9 average: 169

Upcoming tournaments: Here’s a list of upcoming tournaments of interest to bowlers in my area…

  • Brockton, Foxvale, and Tri-City mixed doubles, Feb. 23-24, Westgate Lanes
  • Brockton Bowling Association Championships, Mar. 15-16, AMF Taunton Lanes
  • TNBA Boston Bowling Senate No-Tap*, Mar. 29-30, Westgate Lanes
  • Mass. State Championships, Apr. 5-May 18, Gardner Ten Pins
  • New England Bowling Association, Apr. 19-20, Westgate Lanes
  • People’s Tournament, Apr. 27, Westgate Lanes
  • Mass. Women’s State Championships, May 3-18, Town Line Ten Pin, Malden

Schedule subject to change, of course. If the Northeast Amateur Tournament reschedules a tournament at Westgate Lanes, I’ll pass the information along. Also, there’s no word on if USA Bowling Pro Shop is still running the monthly “King of the Hill” tournament at Westgate Lanes, so I’ll have to ask Ray about that next time I see him.

*”No-Tap” means nine pins on first ball counts as a strike.

I may have a special post or two coming in the next few days, so stay tuned!