An encouraging sign

There was a possibility that my brother and I could go bowling today, and in his email message during the week, he told me that if he didn’t call by 3:00 PM today that I could assume that we weren’t going. When 3:00 PM hit with no call, I decided to go on my milk run. As it turned out, I met my brother on the way to the gas station where I’ve been purchasing my milk when my brother doesn’t bring it over, and we decided to go bowling anyway.

I could take a lane that has the Monday night shot on Monday afternoons when I practice, but I usually want the normal league condition when I practice, so I usually practice on one of the lanes near the control desk, which aren’t used by the Coke Classic League. Today, however, I decided to test myself, knowing the Monday night shot would be down for the People’s Tournament’s year-end special tournament this weekend, and asked for a lane with that shot. We had to wait a bit when we got there because the lane man hadn’t moved the cord to the oil machine in the process of putting down the tournament shot on the lanes that would be used by the tournament.

I got an encouraging sign in the series I bowled on the lane Junior put us on: 587, 47 pins better than my current league average on the normal league condition. As I struggled in the past trying to play an inside line on the shot, I resolved to try to play where I normally play the normal league condition (which usually has me starting standing on board 17, targeting around 6 at the arrows; the people seeing my league nights on BowlSK will know), and I was succeeding in spades. My first game was a 190, but I found a good groove in the second game, hitting on 6 in a row en route to a 221. Carry-down forced me to move a board further outside and try to slow down, but I had a few bad shots in the last game, and could only manage a 176. A lot of the time, I tried something “CoachJim” suggested…uncupping my wrist at release to give me an earlier reaction, and I seemed to learn it well. After this series, I’m much more willing to try a tournament again, knowing I have a chance to do well on the tournament condition.

I saw a few people I normally see while bowling on Wednesday nights, Sally Toppan, Ralph Marple, and Sean Richard, while bowling with my brother, and made sure they were introduced to my brother. I also made an introduction to Jon Corda in the pro shop while we were waiting for the lane, so if I mention any of these people to my brother when I’m talking about my bowling, he has an idea whom I am talking about now.