Month: March 2008

Having a bad day

Today, I had my worst practice in a while, with no game even over 150.  I noticed that I was dropping the ball a lot at the foul line, which gives me something more to ask Ray about when I see him next week.  I tried a suggestion by “CoachJim”, a USBC-certified coach at the Silver level who’s part of the BowlingFans.com gang, and he suggested playing straight up the 10 board.  I was still either coming in light or missing the head pin right if I missed my spot right, but I was also still crossing over a bit, which may be related to my dropped ball problem (as the ball doesn’t skid while rolling while it is in the oil like it should).  My mood was also kind of down due to the weather (it was raining while I was out for practice), so I guess I’ll just chalk it up to having a bad day today.

Result:  147-143-124=414

Running average (72 games):  163  Last 9 average:  153

I saw that they had put out the summer league sign-up sheets when I got to the control desk, so my practice was delayed while I was filling the form out.  As I’ve promised my cousins, I signed up for the Wednesday Summer Mixed league.  The first night of that league will be May 28, with the league meeting at 6:30 PM and bowling starting at 7:00 PM (start time will be 7:00 PM throughout the summer, of course).

Ron Clifton’s site added to sidebar

I will be beginning to see a bowling coach a week from Thursday, but I’ve seen Ron Clifton’s site at Bowl4Fun.com recommended for bowling tips by a number of bowlers online.  Many of the tips he gives on the site are suitable for bowlers at every skill level, so I’ve added a link to the site to the sidebar.  I’ll ask my own coach if he recommends the site when I have my first session (or the next time I see him, whichever comes first).

Addendum to US Open note (another local casher)

I’ve been indecisive about noting his accomplishment because I wasn’t sure if I wanted to because he’s not in the Coke Classic League (or any league in the Brockton USBC Association’s jurisdiction, AFAIK), but since his listed hometown is close, I will…Alex Aguiar of North Dartmouth, MA was also one of the 122 cashers in the 65th US Open this week.  Hope you will consider bowling Coke Classic next year, Alex. 😀

Coke Classic League bowler cashes at US Open

According to the qualifying standings available at press time, Jonathan Van Hees of Newport, RI, who is listed as having bowled this season for team “BLNT” in the Coke Classic League, will be one of the 122 bowlers that cash in this year’s US Open. Van Hees was in 70th position with Squad B, the last squad to complete their qualifying, bowling their final game of qualifying. Good luck the rest of the way, Jonathan! 😀

First coaching session set

I called Ray at the pro shop today (he was actually at the Boston location) and we arranged a one-hour coaching session for 3 PM on April 10.  Since anything Ray brings up will be worked on in practice, anything I blog from these coaching sessions will appear in the “Practice” category.  Also, Ray will be able to tape me bowling, then have the tape captured to his computer, so I hope to have video of my bowling posted here in the future.

March 2008 Northeast Amateur Tournament @ Town Line Ten Pin

The Northeast Amateur Tournament also held their March tournament at Town Line Ten Pin, and Craig McWilliams was reported as the winner (sorry, but since the NAT site doesn’t give cashers’ home centers, I don’t know where most of the cashers in the tournament bowl from). Christopher Corrigan was second. I did recognize Sean Richard as the 5th place finisher. Sean also won the first squad’s strike jackpot.

Practice summary, 3/24/08

I fixed my crossover problem to a certain extent today, but ran into another one…coming in too light.  It seemed that I left the 5 pin about 3 or 4 times, and I was still high-flushing at other times, but most of the time leaving the 6 pin instead of the 4.  Spare misses didn’t help, and my scores were only in the 150s all day.  It only goes to show you how fine your adjustments sometimes have to be.

Result:  151-156-158=465

Running average (69 games):  164  Last 9 average:  160

March 2008 “People’s Tournament” @ Town Line Ten Pin

The People’s Tournament site has reported that Ryan Oreste, bowling at his home center and carrying a 174 average, was the winner of the March tournament at Town Line Ten Pin in Malden, MA. David Gordon (Brunswick Lowell Lanes, 210) was second. Greg Hudson (195 avg.) led the Westgate Lanes bowlers (12th), while Linwood Cowen, Jr. out of AMF Taunton Lanes (180 avg.) was 10th.

Youth bowling note: The annual Massachusetts state scholarship tournament will take place on April 5 & 6 (two weekends from now) at Westgate Lanes, so if you want to see the area’s best young bowlers in action, Westgate Lanes will be the place to go in two weeks.

New high game since return

Only managed a 501 series today, but much of that was salvaged by a 224 middle game, which is now the best one I’ve had since my return.  I worked mostly on getting my feet faster today, but after talking it over with my bowling chat friends, I’m also suspecting that I close my shoulders to the foul line as I’m in my delivery, so that will need to be watched.  This will require a coach, but I want to make sure my equipment is squared away first (I’d still like to get a glove).

Result:  120-224-157=501

Running average (66 games):  165  Last 9 average:  166

I finally got a chance to talk to Rob Lawson, the guy that sets up the lane machine, and he told me he thought the inside-to-outside oil ratio for the Coke Classic shot was about 4:1 (which doesn’t make it a true sport shot), though he’d have to look at his notes on his laptop to be sure.  As I also learned that, starting this week, they put the house shot down in the morning on Monday, then the Coke Classic shot on the Coke Classic lanes in the afternoon, I’ll likely be bowling on the true house shot from here on, so I’m expecting my average to go up a bit.  Rob told me the house shot’s ratio was something on the order of 6:1, while we’re on the subject.

I also received the unofficial results of the Brockton USBC Association’s championship tournament in my email today, but I wrote Roy Garrigus, the tournament director, back, telling him I’d wait until the results were official before posting them here.

Quick-hitter in Taunton

With the Brockton USBC Association’s championship tournament taking place this weekend at AMF Taunton Lanes, I swung by there on a “quick-hitter” to check out the Saturday action. The early squad was for the doubles and singles events, and Sean Richard, Bill & Shirley Major, and Steve Travers were the familiar faces I saw there. Mostly, though, I was there to give one of my email addresses to two people, Alex Pacheco, the manager at AMF Taunton Lanes (so he could send me honor scores and tournament news from that house) and the Brockton USBC Association’s tournament director (so he could email me the tournament results). I had hoped to also speak with Bob Young about the association’s web site (it has not been updated in three years), but he was bowling his events today, so was unavailable for other purposes.

EDIT: I have also emailed North Bowl Lanes in N. Attleboro (hoping to contact Fred Delfino, their manager) with the same offer I’ve given to Alex Pacheco.

Cross-training #11

Major League Baseball issued a release reporting that their umpires held their inaugural BLUE for Kids World Series of Bowling charity event at AMF University Lanes in Tampa, FL. BLUE for Kids is a foundation started by umpires Marvin Hudson and Mike DiMuro which, among other things, provides tickets to major professional sporting events to underprivileged children.

LeagueSecretary.com added to sidebar

I found out that the Coke Classic league standings get uploaded weekly to the LeagueSecretary.com site, which is billed as the largest online database of bowling statistics, so that site has been added to the sidebar list.

Also, talking to my new online bowling friends, I got the sense that the Coke Classic shot is not a true “sport” shot, but rather a house shot with a more even distribution of oil, as they noted that there wouldn’t even be as many as 4 300 games in a season in a sanctioned Sport Bowling league, and the Coke Classic league is not sanctioned as Sport Bowling.

Sticking around

I was vacillating most of the day yesterday between going to practice at my usual time or going late and hanging around for the Coke Classic league, which is the big league at Westgate Lanes and where I have many old friends bowling. I eventually did decide to go late, so I left my house to catch the bus at around 5:00 PM so I wouldn’t have to be bored for too long while I wait for the Coke Classic bowlers to show up (and dinner would fill some of the time, as well).

My practice was pretty pedestrian, as I was mucking around with a first arrow shot some more (which turned out to not be a wise decision, as I’ll touch on later in this post). I did manage a first in my last frame of the day, however: converting the 2-10 split. The times I’ve had to face this split (not many), I was either hitting the 2 pin too full or too light, but I somehow found the right shot for this split yesterday.

Result: 176-146-160=482

Running average (63 games): 165 Last 9 average: 169

Talking with Junior immediately after practice, I found out that they also put down the Coke Classic shot, a sport shot, on all of the tenpin lanes (there are also a dozen candlepin lanes there) in the morning on Mondays, which surprised me, as I had been used to seeing Bob Hamilton put the shot down on the lanes to the right of where I usually practice. As the Coke Classic shot is a tougher shot, as should be expected for a league that attracts the best bowlers in the area, I figure being close to my old league average in practice on a sport shot means, in a lot of ways, that I’m actually ahead of where I was when I quit the game. In the long run, practicing on a sport shot can only help me, and as the shot is also put down for stuff like “The People’s Tournament,” I would like to be able to eventually do well on the shot.

Noting the shot I’m seeing, I chatted a bit with another pro shop employee, Tony Attardo, who is a Coke Classic bowler. I had been in the pro shop briefly before practice to see if they had the Ebonite Reactor/R Palm Pad glove in stock, but having time to kill before the league bowlers filtered in, I asked him about how bowlers were playing the shot. Asked about playing outside, he said it’s tough to play outside on the shot unless you can hit the 1 to 3 board consistently and have a lot of hand in the shot. As I’m more of a stroker with not a whole lot of hand action, he recommended second arrow for me, which I had been playing most of the time.

I caught up with my old friends who were bowling in the Coke Classic league between dinner and the start of bowling for the night. Particularly, I wanted to see two people: Steve Travers, who had been the best bowler in the house during the time I was in leagues and is still very good, and Jim Yost, who is also part of my tournament story, but who was also my opponent for individual points in the league I was bowling in the night I shot my 268. I stayed past the start of actual bowling and ran into another old friend I had asked people about: George Hamilton. As I also knew George from hanging around the local slow-pitch softball scene years ago, I made it a point to ask him if he was still playing that in the summer, and he indicated that he was. I told George that I would let a mutual friend know I saw him. I was hoping to be able to also stick around to do a karaoke song in the pub, but decided against it and called a cab home. It has indeed been good to reconnect with my old friends the last couple of weeks. 😀

Tournament notes:

  • The Northeast Amateur Tournament has scheduled a stop at Westgate Lanes for April 13.
  • The originally-reported winner of the February “People’s Tournament” at E. Providence Lanes has been disqualified for reporting an invalid entry average, and Brian “Hawk” Earle was declared the official winner of the tournament. Congrats again Hawk! 😀

Another chance encounter

I did the usual bi-weekly food shopping with my brother today, but this time, I ran into Joyce Bernard in the aisles.  As my brother was in a bit of a rush, however, there was only time to introduce her to him and briefly explain the bowling connection to him.

ABT and NABI sites added to sidebar

Though neither tournament club currently operates in my area, I have plenty of memories bowling in the ABT (and even scoring for them @ my house) and NABI (the one time my late mother saw me bowl in a tournament was a NABI event), so I was torn about adding them to the blog’s sidebar.  I have caved in and done so, wanting a larger view than just my local scene in my links list, and I am adding them with the hope that they eventually come back to New England.

Practice summary, 3/3/08

I struggled through the beginning of my first game, recovered enough to salvage a 147, but my troubles threatened to carry over into the second game. Problem was I wasn’t carrying the high-flush hit today, so, late in the second game, I decided to move outside to a first-arrow shot in order to give myself more entry angle, and it paid off, as I finished the game with a hambone for a 188. I kept at it, but a couple of splits and another spare miss kept my score down in my last game. Yet, I still took it off the sheet in the 10th frame for a 178. I still think I cross over too much; strangely enough, however, I usually carry the Brooklyn hit, and many of my strings of strikes have had at least one Brooklyn strike in them.

Result: 147-188-178=513

Running average (60 games): 165 Last 9 average: 165