I was really geared up for the rematch against “Fun and Games” tonight, but I wanted to keep my team’s mood loose, so my choice of garb for the night was the “Split Happens” t-shirt. When I got to the lanes, Bob Hamilton said something to me on the order of “We’re going to get you for what you did to my daughter’s team last week” (apparently, Bob’s daughter’s team were our opponents last week), and, although I didn’t tell my teammates about it, I kind of wanted to use that internally as “bulletin board material” of sorts, so I didn’t really say anything back to him about it. It did seem lonely this week with the pro shop closed for vacation for 5 weeks and no Ray or Jon to talk to, so I watched Ralph and Brian warm up prior to league starting, making small talk when I could.
The “Split Happens” kind of emerged as a theme for the night at first, as, while I was able to put together strikes, a 4-6-7 split and a 4-9 split marred my first game. However, my team was in a position where we all had strikes working in the 10th, and everyone except Ralph was able to add at least a double to that. I struck out in the 10th for a 207, with my team winning that game. The splits continued in the second game, however, starting the game with the 3-10 (which I converted), and having another 4-9 in the 5th. I was not able to string anything together, completely whiffing on a 3-6-10 in the 8th frame and making single pin spares in the 9th and 10th (filled with a strike) for a 169. My team couldn’t string anything together that game as well, but, though it was fairly close, we lost the second game and entered the third game fairly even for total. The third game for me started with a washout, but I had some of my best bowling so far in this league by stringing together six in a row before missing a couple of single corner pins (making the 10 in the 9th, however) for perhaps the ugliest 213 I’ve ever had. My teammates also did well in that game, so we won third game and total by a fairly comfortable margin for a six-point night, exactly what “Fun and Games” did to us in the first meeting. The 589 series was once again over my AVG+1, so I’m now carrying a 190 league average for the first time in my life.
I had wanted to ride home with Brian again, but wanted to talk to my cousins first. They were still bowling when we finished, so I hung around their lane pair, but Brian took off while I was watching my cousins. Ralph hung around to see if my cousins would take me home, and when I learned that they could (after hanging around for a bit), I said goodbye to Ralph with a hug, thanking him for the night and letting him know how much I had wanted our team to do well tonight.
Result: 207-169-213=589
Average (18 games): 190 Last 9 average: 194
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 581
Edit to BowlingCommunity.com link: I edited the sidebar link to BowlingCommunity.com in a way that lets readers know that those are the forums I post to.
The Tenth Board 