We finally had some semblance of a normal league night tonight, as all four members of my team were present. My ankle was feeling better than it did last week, so I didn’t feel a need to take a warm-up game to test it. I’ve gotten into the habit of getting my medication stuff out of the way before the lanes were turned on for league, so all I had to tell my sister was that league was about to start, and she knew I had taken my evening medication early.
The only blemish of the first game was a 3-10 baby split where I hit the 3 pin too full and failed to convert the split. I had a turkey in the middle of the game, and had a double plus 9 in the 10th for a 211…a nice start. I opened the second game with a double, but then only picked up the 7 pin on a 4-7 leave after getting distracted by a scoring error and having to make the appropriate change. I was leaving an awful lot of corner pins in the middle of the game, including the 6-10 twice. I had a double in the 9th and 10th frames, but needed the second strike in the 10th for another 200+ game and left a 3 pin with the first fill ball; I converted the spare for a 199. There was a scary moment to start the third game where the lead bowler for our opponents left her shoe covers on and slipped, falling over onto the lane, when she threw her first shot in the game; she was OK, but the score had to be changed to reflect the obvious foul. I left the 6-7 split to start the third game, had a strike in the second game, but then missed the first of two single 10 pin leaves I would miss in the game left. I had a double in the 4th and 5th frames to make up one of the open frames, but then missed another 10 pin left in the 8th frame. My personal highlight of the night came in the next frame, not because I had a strike, but because I left the 4-5 split, one of the more difficult “fit” splits, but converted that, which Ray managed to catch and told me he liked seeing me pick that up. I ended with a 169, the first time I had been under 170 since the opening week. However, the 579 total was 6 pins better than what I needed for the average-plus-1 (total needed to raise average by one pin…I’ll start including that information in the wrap-up with this post), so I still had a good night. Brian was still a bit untracked (after having practiced Sunday on the slicker tournament shot), but Joy and Ralph had decent nights for them. The opponent that slipped on the lane recovered to have a decent third game, along with the other female on the team, so, although it was close, we lost the third game, which prevented an eight-point sweep for the night.
Result: 211-199-169=579
Average (15 games): 189 Last 9 average: 200
Next week’s Average-Plus-One score: 579
Errata: The Bowler’s Ledger, a bowling newspaper published in the area, reported Rosemarie Daniels as a member of the Tri-City USBC WBA in the results of the women’s state tournament, but Ray informed me that she actually bowls out of Boston Bowl, so she calls the women’s association for Boston her home association.
The Tenth Board 