Month: August 2008

World Men’s Championships wrap-up

I felt I should devote a post to the just-completed WTBA World Men’s Championships, which was held in Thailand, and marked the first time that PBA professionals have been allowed to compete in the event. The decision to allow PBA participation really benefited Team USA, as they’re coming home with the lion’s share of the medals. Americans medaled in every event, which I’ll list here:

  • Doubles: Patrick Allen and Rhino Page (gold)
  • Trios: Bill Hoffman, Patrick Allen, and Rhino Page (bronze); Walter Ray Williams Jr., Chris Barnes, and Tommy Jones (bronze)
  • Five-man team: Bill Hoffman, Chris Barnes, Tommy Jones, Patrick Allen, and Rhino Page (gold)*
  • Singles: Walter Ray Williams Jr. (gold)
  • All-Events: Rhino Page (silver)
  • Masters: Walter Ray Williams Jr. (gold)

* Denotes team for knockout round. Walter Ray Williams Jr. and Rhino Page split duties during team qualifying, with one bowling with the national team for a three-game block while the other paced on a make-up team for All-Events score.

Complete coverage of the tournament, including full results, can be found on the tournament’s official web site. As an additional note about international bowling, the World Women’s Championships is scheduled for next year at the Cashman Center in Las Vegas, NV, and will be contested on the USBC Open Championships lanes.

Sidebar link to World Tenpin Bowling Association site added: As the World Tenpin Bowling Association, along with the member zone organizations, governs the major international tournaments (including, perhaps one day, the Olympic Games), I’ve included the link to their site in the sidebar. Links to future major international tournaments can be found from that site.

Change of seasons

There were a couple of mild, but nice surprises, in payouts: each bowler received an extra $6, but the bigger surprise (which I should’ve actually known would happen) was that my team, because of the 4th place tie with Team Amelia, split the 4th and 5th place money with Team Amelia (the pinfall tiebreaker only applies to determining positions for the position round). Therefore, the bowlers on my team ended up with $87.50 each (4th place was $90/bowler, while 5th place paid $85/bowler), other than what one of my old leagues called “point money.” The league was also taking up a collection for the Brockton association’s scholarship fund, and I felt I could spare $1.50 for it. The league also had a no-tap (9 pins on first ball counts as a strike) tournament for their bowlers, but, as I wanted to be present at the Westgate Mixed League meeting, I had to sit the tournament out.

There were a couple of discussions of interest at the meeting. First, the question of what constitutes “ready to bowl” came up, and the part of the by-laws dealing with that was clarified to saying basically that a bowler must be ready to bowl when it’s his/her turn, but that a delay for something like bathroom runs could be granted by agreement of the captains. Second, the issue of substitutes came up, and some of the people at the meeting felt the substitutes were being abused (by being constantly switched in and out of team lineups). A suggestion was made to limit each team to one substitute, while I suggested that floating substitutes, which could be used by any team that needs them, could be used. The league eventually voted not to allow substitutes at all, however. A last minor detail is that the snow committee (league officers) would decide whether to postpone bowling because of inclement weather by a half-hour earlier (now by 4:00 PM) than they used to.

The handicap basis is basically the same as for the summer league, with the basis being team handicap of 90% of 1000 (add another 200 for the 5th bowler) with full negative handicaps (for teams averaging greater than the 1000 scratch score). Because Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve fall on a Wednesday this year, the league schedule is a 34 week split season (rather than the normal 36 weeks), with position rounds coming in weeks 8, 17, 26, and 34. The winners of each half will have a 3 game roll-off for the league championship following the last week, and there will also be a roll-off if two teams are tied for first place at the end of each half.

The matter of my team placement is still not entirely clear, but it is clearer than it was before the meeting. There are three of us currently waiting for a team, the other two being Debbie Candora (from the “Shake ‘N Bake” summer team), and Tyler Prescott (a displaced sub in the league). I was told by Donna that if two other bowlers that she’s expecting show up next week for the start of bowling, then that would constitute the full team.

I ended the night at the lanes watching Brian bowl with his female winter league teammate, who I only know as Candy at this time. Noticing her dropping the ball, I made the suggestion of changing her thumb pitch (like what I did), but they really didn’t have the time to have her fit checked last night, so Candy and Brian decided that they would have it done next week.

Birthday bash

It is approaching 11:00 AM EDT on Sunday, and this is the first chance I’ve had to slow down and blog about my birthday bowling outing with my brother the other night because of a wedding in the extended family yesterday.

Anyway, suffice it to say, I kicked butt. My first frame was open and my last frame was open, but there were 28 clean frames in the middle. As I’ve noted before, my brother’s usually fortunate if he gets a score over, say, 110; I beat him by 99 pins in the first game, and over 100 pins in the other two. My first game, a 211, was my low game. I shot a clean 224 in the middle, but the last game really stood out…I got six in a row to start it, and my brother’s eyes were wide open in disbelief when looking at the scoring console by the fourth strike. I actually had my worst shot of the night to end it, leaving the 1-2-7, but I missed the spare for a 234. Before leaving, my brother handed me an envelope that had a $50 gift card for Westgate Lanes (predictable, but always appreciated). Afterwards, in the car, I told my brother that I was considering the outing “glorified practice,” but he admonished me to never say my bowling outings with him are that. I keep telling him he could be good, maybe better than me, if he worked at it, but he just doesn’t have the inclination.

A brief note from the wedding…my cousin Debbie told me she was one of the bowlers invited to the Brockton USBC Bowling Association’s Bowler of the Year Tournament at Westgate Lanes next month because of her high finish in the handicap singles event in the Brockton USBC Bowling Association championships back in March. She declined the invitation, however, because it is going to be a scratch tournament and she is not ready for those (at least not at this time).

Final 2008 Wednesday Summer Mixed League standings

Final league standings

It’s official…”Mad Blogger,” my team, finished the league in 5th place. We actually tied “Team Amelia” for 4th in points, but pinfall with handicap was the tiebreaker, and “Team Amelia” won that by 256 pins. The “Lounge Lizards,” my cousins’ team, finished 13th, but they were in the league’s basement for a while, so they put in a charge at the end.

To my league mates: good bowling everyone, and I’ll see everyone on payout night Wednesday. 😀

Local association tournament note

The Brockton USBC Bowling Association will kick off the 2008-09 fall/winter bowling season by running its Bowler of the Year invitational tournament on Sunday, Sept. 21 at Westgate Lanes. 32 bowlers representing all four of the Brockton USBC Bowling Association’s centers (AMF Taunton Lanes, Kingston Ten Pin, North Bowl Lanes, and Westgate Lanes) have been invited to compete in the tournament.

The last night

Tonight was the position round night for the Wednesday Summer Mixed League, and I told my teammates that, since my birthday will be on Friday, doing well tonight would be an early birthday gift for me, and they all said they hoped they could accommodate my wish. I had all strikes in the warm-up session before scoring started, so I was really hopeful I could do my part.

Things started well, with a double in the 2nd and 3rd frames after leaving a 6-10, and my first mistake came in the 5th frame, where I chopped the 3 off of the 3-6-10. There was a miss of a 10 pin in the 7th frame, but I got back on with a double in the 9th and first ball in the 10th before leaving a 4 pin, taking the spare for a 191. Ron Haynes, the lead bowler for “Shake ‘N Bake”, had a nice game for his team, and they needed it, as the first game wound up being close, taken by “Shake ‘N Bake.”

My only major mistake in the second game was missing another 10 pin in the 8th frame, but an earlier double (in the 5th and 6th frames) countered that miss, so I was able to save a 193 out of that game. Brian really was clicking in this game, going in the 230s, and we won the second game by something like 30 pins, so we had a slight edge for total going into the last game.

I had my worst shot of the night to start the third game, hitting the nose to leave a 4-6-7-9 split, and I decided not to try to be a hero and just got my count for that. The highlight for me of the night came as a result of another split in the 5th frame, this time the 3-6-7-10, which I converted, giving myself a lift, as I was able to piece together a turkey from that point before leaving a 6 pin in the 9th. I had a strike in the 10th, but left another split, the 4-6-7, in the 11th frame. I went for count again, but pulled the shot, which ended up in the left channel, giving me a 204 last game of the season…not a bad way to end after the way I started out the league.

“Shake ‘N Bake” took the third game, but it was again a close one, and they did not win by enough to take total. Getting total would prove to be important, as Team 12, the 7th place team going into tonight, won 6 points from “Fun and Games” and, being 3 points behind us going into the night, fell a point shy of tying us for 5th place, which would’ve meant 5th place for them if they had 107 more pins than us on the night. If Team Amelia, the 4th place team going in, got swept, we actually still catch them for 4th place, but I did not think to ask them how they did…I guess we may see on Friday, when the final standings should be posted online.

Result: 191-193-204=588
Final average (39 games): 197 Last 9 average: 204

All-in-all, I have to be very pleased with the summer overall. Personally, I exceeded all of my expectations, finishing with the highest league average I’ve ever posted (albeit not as “official” as a winter league average would be). I was only under my average on 4 of the 13 nights. As I’ve noted earlier, my best-ever series going into this league was a 634, and I beat that score four times this summer, including a new best-ever 694 series a couple of weeks ago, and I also came within 3 pins of matching my best-ever game on that night. I really found a line I could be comfortable with, and stuck with that most of the time. As a team, we finished in the top third of the league, so I had to be pleased with that, as well. At this point, I’d like to extend thanks to Brian, Joy, and Ralph for a great summer league season. I know I won’t be bowling with Joy again (unless I move where she is), but I hope to bowl with Brian and Ralph again down the road (maybe next summer? 😀 ).

How do I build on that? The shot in the Westgate Mixed League is also the house shot, so I know I can keep playing the same line, but my spare game will have to improve if I want to continue the momentum. I am setting a modest (now) goal for that league of averaging 200 or better, meaning I will need to improve on my summer league average by 3 pins, but I believe it’s an easily reachable goal if I continue to improve steadily.

Payout night for the league is next week, and it looks like we’ll take home some extra cash, as our early 958 game with handicap as a team looked likely to stand up as high on the season. As a final note about the league, Sean Richard nearly had a 300 game in his last game of the season, leaving a solid 8 in the 1st frame (which he made), but getting the last 11 in a row for a 290. Good bowling Sean! 😀

Photo to be added to “scrapbook”: Before bowling tonight, I grabbed a candid of Ray helping a customer in the pro shop, so I will be uploading that to the “scrapbook” page after posting this. 😀

Keeping it light

After skipping practice last Monday, it was back on the practice lanes today. However, with a crazy week coming up with my league’s position round on Wednesday night, my birthday on Friday, and a wedding in the family Saturday, I decided to just keep the practice light, shooting all three games for score in an effort to work on my total game. My first two were in the 180s and 190s range, but everything came together for the last game, shooting a 233 in which I only had a 6-7-10 split for an open, opening with a double, and stringing 5 in a row from the 5th through the 9th. I had a couple of nice shots to end the game, but wasn’t rewarded for them, tapping an 8 pin and leaving a 7 on the fill of the spare. Oh well, can’t win them all…hehehehe!

Cross-training #54

Yes, Peyton Manning, the NFL’s cover boy, is a bowler, as confirmed by a note in an article on a motor sports site. The event is the PeyBack Bowl, to be held on Aug. 18 in Indianapolis, which benefits Peyton Manning’s PeyBack Foundation. He will be joined by IndyCar series drivers Scott Dixon, Sarah Fisher, and A.J. Foyt IV (which is why the note appeared on a motor sports site), along with other national and Indianapolis local celebrities.

BowlingBall.com added to “Equipment Sites” list

BowlingBall.com is another e-pro-shop, one I found advertised on LeagueSecretary.com. Though the name of the site is BowlingBall.com, you can find other equipment there, as well. I thought I’d add this one to the list as another place to try to find a deal on equipment online, but keep in mind that none of the e-pro-shops actually drill balls, so your driller will charge a fee for drilling a ball bought online (with grips and/or slugs, if you want them, additional, of course).

Standings update for Aug. 15

The reader reading this before August 22 is hereby directed to the standings sheet as linked in the sidebar.

My team stayed in 5th place after this week, and will face “Shake ‘N Bake”, the team we got out of our collective funk against a couple of weeks ago, on lanes 47 and 48 next week. With a current total of 56 points, and with the second (Team 5) and third (SHIHOOTS!) place teams having 60 points apiece, we could conceivably move up with a sweep of our match. If the second and third place teams each split their matches, we would tie them for points, but the pinfall (with handicap) difference is currently about 400 pins to Team 5, and we hold the pinfall tiebreaker (by less than 100 pins) over SHIHOOTS!, so assuming the pinfall difference stays the same, we have a better chance of moving into third place.

As a side note, there is no way Team 5 can catch Team 18 (which has 70 points), so I’d like to extend congratulations to Team 18 (Steven and Bill Hudson, Brian Misasi, and Dan Monahan) on clinching the Wednesday Summer Mixed League title. Good bowling, guys! 😀

AZO Bowling added to “Equipment Sites” list

I found AZO Bowling while checking the price of a ball I’m looking at on the Buddies Pro Shop site. AZO’s site looks pretty basic, having only one distributor with sales territories covering much of the US (there is more than one distributor, but the sales territories of the others are quite limited), so you may want to do some searching and price-checking online if you’re interested in purchasing an AZO ball.

The penultimate night

Not having practiced on Monday and having had the oil bled out of my ball the day before, I wanted to get a couple of games of warm-ups in before league bowling tonight, so I joined Ralph on his pair. The second game of my warm-up session actually turned out to be the high point of the night, as I had a clean game in the 230s, but, as you’ll see, I wished I had another game like that in me tonight.

The first game saw me getting lined up on lane 45, but not on 46, as I alternated strikes with opens on 46, including a 5-7 split in the 4th frame that I narrowly missed converting. After a spare and a couple of single-pin misses, I finally found the groove, standing outside where I normally do on the approach, and I had 5 in a row to finish for a 183. The strike string proved to be critical, as we closed about a 40 pin late deficit in the final frames, with Ralph going on a similar strike spree for a game in the 230s, and he had to go strike for strike with Team 9’s anchor, who wound up missing in his 12th frame, giving us a 9 pin first game win.

I was clean with a double in the 5th and 6th, making 5 single-pin spares until the 9th frame, when I threw an attempt at the 6 pin in the gutter. A strike in the 10th gave me hope for a game over 200, but I missed a 7 pin on the fill for a 194. Brian led the way in this game with a 234, and we won the second game by a more comfortable margin.

I made a 7 pin to begin the third game, then doubled before missing a 10 pin, again in the channel. My strike shots in the next 2 frames were through the nose, leaving the “Big 4” (4-6-7-10) and the 4-6. My shot in the 7th frame was also high, but I left a more manageable 3-6-10, which I made. A double in the 8th and 9th got me back on track, but I left a ringing 10 in the 10th frame. I made that, then left the 6-10 in the fill for a 181. There was no big charge for us late in the game, but it was still close, as Team 9’s anchor could’ve struck out to make things interesting for total. He didn’t quite do it, but his team still took the third game.

Bowling the tournament earlier in the week might have caught up to me, as my left foot was kind of bothering me near the end, but the thing I’ll take out of this night was that, even though I missed a couple of 10s on the night, I made 4 other 10s, so I’m making progress on making that corner pin more consistently.

Result: 183-194-181=558
Average (36 games): 197 Last 9 average: 210
Next week’s AVG+1: 622

I had hoped to be able to tell everyone who our opponent in next week’s position round will be tonight, but Donna was still sorting that out when Brian and I had to leave, so the usual Friday standings update will have that information.

Donna also said it looks like the teams that have been submitted for the Wednesday night Westgate Mixed League look full, but she would know more about any new sign-ups before the league meeting in two weeks.

BowlingIndex.com added to “Equipment Sites” list

BowlingIndex.com was a site I wanted to copy to the blog’s sidebar list from my homepage, but, since I created the “Equipment Sites” category until now, I was unsure which category to put it under, as, though they’re mainly an e-pro-shop site, they also have bowling forums and an instruction section. Consulting w/ my buddy “cgeorg” on the IRC channel, I have decided to put the site in the “Equipment Sites” list rather than the general “Bowling Sites” list, as the e-pro-shop seems to be the main function of the site. Users will get “bubble help” about the other functions of the site when they mouse over the link, however, so I don’t feel it’ll be out of place in the list I chose to put it in.

“Bowling This Month” added to “Bowling Sites” list

I learned about the “Bowling This Month” site, which has been added to the “Bowling Sites” sidebar list, via our good friends from the BowlingFans.com site. “Bowling This Month” bills itself as the technical magazine for high-average bowlers, and is well-known for their bowling ball reviews, making mini reviews available for free download semi-annually. While they are best known for their equipment reviews, they do cover other topics, so I decided against putting this link in the “Equipment Sites” list and put it into the general “Bowling Sites” list instead.

Elite Bowling added to “Equipment Sites” list

I found Elite Bowling while on another e-pro-shop site looking at the Darth Vader Viz-A-Ball, and their site, which is now in the “Equipment Sites” sidebar links list, through a Google search. Notably, their pro staff includes PBA Hall of Famer Brian Voss and Robert “Maximum Bob” Smith, who throws one of the most powerful balls on tour.

As a side note, I didn’t practice yesterday, as my feet were a bit sore, not necessarily from bowling in the tournament, but because of all of the standing around I did in the pro shop that day, as well. I should be OK for league tomorrow night, however. I may stop in the pro shop later this afternoon to have the oil bled from my ball if it’s not raining.

A learning experience

I had decided against getting the oil bled out of my ball, but I did stop in the pro shop to greet Ray, who was just back from vacation. He was getting swamped with orders for new balls and other services, but he did get a chance to look at the copy of my league log that I printed out for him, as well a copy of the printout of my first anniversary post later (which I told him he could look at at his leisure). He did fill me in on something he’s going to be running in the future, but I won’t post about it until he has the paperwork done for it.

I did get a couple of games of warm-ups in, and the lane, which I knew had the tournament shot on it, was playing tighter than even I expected, ending up with me standing left of the 20 board and trying to go between the second and third arrows. I thought I had gotten lined up at the end of the second game, so I was still fairly confident as I checked in. I did have to make the adjustment on my entering average, and when I saw the scorecard, I was notified I had 22 pins/game handicap.

I made the acquaintance of last month’s winner, Phil Hall, in the pro shop, and learned that he had a major head injury in his motorcycle accident. I learned that he operated a pro shop before his accident, and as he was watching me bowl my warm-ups, he had a look at my ball, giving the opinion that my span was too short. He gave me an offer to drill a new ball when I wanted one, but I’ve been doing so well with the ball Ray & company drilled that I don’t feel that I want to “change horses mid-stream”.

The fact that I had to play a tighter line meant there was no margin for error, and it was a struggle to break 150 during the series, especially in the second game, where I could only manage a 130, my worst game in months. Most of the time, I was coming in high, leaving a lot of splits, but those times I missed my target right, it would not break back to the pocket, so it was, indeed, much different than the house shot I’ve been used to on Wednesday nights. In an attempt to find a line I could play, I later moved outside to right of the 20 board and tried to take a more direct line to the pins, and though I had a double in the last game, that wasn’t working well, either. I ended up w/ a 150-130-153=433+66=499. I was glad I decided not to get in either the high game and series side pools or the brackets (where you’re randomly placed in a bracket with 7 other bowlers in your squad and advance based on how well you do in each game), the latter for which my performance meant I would’ve been a major donor.

The cut score turned out to be 658, about where I was expecting it, but I hung around for a bit after bowling. I told Sherm Cowan, the tournament director, after I bowled that I would chalk this up as a learning experience, and that I hoped to do better next time, also noting that I’ll have to save up for a ball better suited to heavy oil. I’ll post the usual recap of this tournament when Sherm updates the tournament’s web site with the results.

Follow-up to “Cross-training #53”

The Yonkers Tribune notes that New York Knicks players Eddy Curry and Quentin Richardson, along with Elton Brand (Philadelphia 76ers), Emeka Okafor (Charlotte Bobcats), and Charlie Villanueva (Milwaukee Bucks), will join Ben Gordon for his “Ben’s Bowling Bash and Celebrity Fundraiser” on Aug. 15. The article also states that the event will also benefit Mount Vernon, NY mayor Clinton Young’s “Save Our Sports” initiative.

Pre-tournament thoughts

I am looking at the prospect of bowling in tomorrow’s “People’s Tournament” at Westgate Lanes tomorrow with optimism, as it comes at a time when I’ve been bowling the best I ever have. The shot is going to be different, but not one I haven’t seen before…they put down the oil pattern used in the Coke Classic League, which I have bowled on in my winter practices, for all of the tournaments at Westgate Lanes also. In fact, I was averaging slightly higher for more games on the Coke Classic shot than I did on the house shot in that time, and keep in mind that those games also included my earlier practices when I was doing stuff like getting my timing back. Considering my recent improvement on the house shot, I think I can do well on the tournament shot now, as well.

To assess my chances, I looked at the cut score for the last two People’s Tournaments at Westgate Lanes, and it was in the 650-660 range both times. If I’m forced to use my current average (198 ) rather than the average I put on the entry form (the 194 of two weeks ago), and I’ll have to show Sherm Cowan the standings sheet from my league to bear this out, I will be getting 21 pins/game handicap (handicap is 80% of 225). Keeping in mind the recent cut scores, this means that if I have a series somewhere around 600 scratch, and I think I’m currently very capable of having that kind of series, I will either make the cut to 32 for match play, or be right on the bubble.

I am entered in the 12:30 PM (second) squad tomorrow, but the plan will be to arrive very early. The pro shop will also be reopening from vacation at 10 in the morning, so the plan includes having the oil bled out of my ball (which will take about an hour, from past experience), wait about a half an hour for the ball to cool, then try to get a game or two in on a lane with the tournament shot (which may be dicey because they’ll have the tournament and also the Sunday rent-a-lane special going on). I hope to take my noon medication before ordering lunch, then check in for the second squad while waiting for lunch. Hopefully, I’ll have time to eat before reporting to my assigned lane pair. The benefit of waiting for the oil to bleed out of my ball is that I’ll have an opportunity to talk to Ray and bring him up to speed on how well I’ve been doing in the Wednesday Summer Mixed League, which I’ve been waiting to do since he went on vacation.

Everyone wish me well! 😀

EDIT: I’ve been advised against having the oil bled out of my ball right before the tournament by one of my BowlingFans.com friends. I’m tending to agree with her (she runs a pro shop in northern California), as I’ve been very happy with the way my ball’s been reacting on the house shot recently, so maybe my ball doesn’t need to have that done yet.

Link to 900 Global added to sidebar

A visitor in the #BowlingFans IRC channel alerted me to the existence of 900 Global, another manufacturer of bowling balls and shoes, so the link to 900 Global’s site has been added to the sidebar in the “Equipment Sites” category. I don’t think 900 Global’s stuff is selling anywhere online, but the site has a pro shop listing (look on the bottom of the menu on the left) where you can pick the state you reside in from a drop-down list and get a listing of pro shops carrying 900 Global equipment in that state.

Standings update for Aug. 8

The sweep of the “Killer Bees” this week helped my team jump up to 5th place in the league standings. However, we are still 14 points behind Team 18 for the lead with only 2 weeks left. We bowl against another team behind us, Team 9, next week, then it will be the position round, which, if it were to be next week, would put us up against Team 12, which took 6 points from us earlier in the season.

BowlSpace exclusive: “Best series ever!”

As I would like to do whenever I have a notable event, my full post on my new best-ever series has gone up on my BowlSpace blog rather than here. I will sum up that the new best-ever series is a 694, narrowly missing my first 700 series.

I will repeat the additional note I made in the post here, however: Dan Monahan nearly had the first 300 game of the league tonight, getting the first 11 before leaving the 6-10 (as a lefty) for a 298. Great game Dan! 😀

EDIT: The “About” page has also been edited to reflect the new high series, and I also took the time to make additional edits to make the first paragraph more concise.

Thoughts on PBA 2008-09 Tour format announcement

The announcement

Overall, I like that there will seemingly be something different every week during the season. Especially interesting will be the Ultimate Scoring Championship (in which the pros will bowl on a condition similar to that which most of us league bowlers see on a weekly basis) and the Plastic Ball Championship (which will take the equipment factor out of the equation).

I also like that several tournaments will be contested on two of the regular PBA oil patterns instead of just one. The intriguing tournament with this format will be the National Bowling Stadium Championship, which will be contested on the Cheetah and Shark patterns…there couldn’t be two more different oil patterns to use. For the TV show in these events, I believe that starting lane strategy has the potential to be important, as if you have the advantage of choosing which lane to start on, you could choose to finish on your stronger pattern, and a versatile player like Tommy Jones or Mika Koivuniemi could choose to have his opponent finish on his weaker pattern.

Needless to say, I’m very much looking forward to this coming PBA Tour season. 😀

Link to “Petersen Classic” added to sidebar

I had heard my two Chicago friends from the BowlingFans.com gang talk about this scratch tournament, and I finally found the tournament’s site today, so I decided to add a link to it in the “Bowling Sites” category of the sidebar. I don’t know if I’ll ever be good enough to have a chance in this one, but it is one of the better-known tournaments, so that led me to include the link.

Also, as my friend who runs the bowling scorekeeping site wants to have the site known as “BowlSK”, I have renamed that link. It is my plan to start using the site for my fall league so I don’t waste blog space on stating what happened during the night, as I can just link the series sheet on BowlSK.