Month: May 2009

May 31 league standings update

Our team’s split, combined with the “Wild Samoans” taking 6 of 8 from their opponents, created a tie for 14th in the standings after Wednesday night, with my team having the pinfall edge. “Heaven Help Us” now sit alone in the lead with 22 points, 4 ahead of “Git R Done” and “Phoenix Kings.” “Going Pro,” a middle-of-the-pack team, will be our opponents this week.

With the standings now available on LeagueSecretary.com, the Brunswick Mixed stuff in the “Author’s Links” sidebar category will be “retired,” at least for now, with the BowlingTracker.com stat sheet for Brunswick Mixed being flagged for the archives.

Another outing

My brother had some time after we got my food shopping done today, so we once again hit the lanes for a few games before lunch. I was just in the 170s and 180s, while my brother had a first game in the 140s before falling off. The pro shop opened up while we were bowling, and I felt it was time, so I brought the High-Voltage in there for oil removal, and I will pick the ball up on Wednesday night before league.

During lunch, I told my brother I felt ready to make the move up to a mid-performance ball, so I will likely be getting a new ball once my stimulus payment is firmly in my main account. I’m looking for a ball with a stronger core and possibly a hybrid coverstock if one is in the mid-performance range (hybrid means a combination of solid and pearl reactive material), for the reason that I’ll be using it mainly on the house shot, but I also want a ball that is decent on the Coke Classic League shot for tournaments.

A bump in the road

Before the start of bowling tonight, Bonnie brought in team t-shirts for everyone, including Grace, as she’ll be rooting for us each week through the summer season. The t-shirts have the team name with a ball and pins on the front, and the person’s name on the back. I’ll have to try to get a photo with the team in the shirts sometime during the summer.

My Week 3 bowling (BowlSK)

A decent 566 tonight, but it could’ve been better, as I had a couple of open frames in each game. I got over average in the first and last games, but my inability to get lined up in the middle game held that game down to a 170. I also could’ve had a gem in the last game, but a 6-7-10 in the 10th frame bit me when I was working on a four-bagger; the way I was going, it probably should’ve been in the 240s (this supposes I make the two left-corner spares in the middle of the game).

Result: 196-170-200=566
Average (9 games): 192
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 583

As a team, it was our best performance so far this season, as we gained a split against Team 15 by taking the first and last game; it was the middle game that was the big letdown, as we won the first game by 53 pins and the last game was a nail-biter. Star of the night for my team went to Rob, as he was well over his average in every game and only missed tying my scratch series by 3 pins.

May 26 league standings update

With only 2 points won in the first two weeks, the updated standings find “T N T” near the bottom, tied for 14th (but leading in pinfall) with “The Insiders.” Every team has now lost points, but “Wyld Stallyns” and “Heven Help Us” have each lost only 2 points and are tied for the early lead.

My team’s first battle for Brunswick Mixed League bragging rights (sort of) comes tomorrow, as we face Team 15, which has the Hays (Bob Sr. and Jr.) from “8 Is Great” and Herb Brown from “The Handicaps” as members (I said “sort of” because one member of Team 15 did not bowl in Brunswick Mixed this past season.).

Memorial Day outing

It’s rare that I get to bowl on a holiday Monday, but my brother wanted to spend quality time with me today, and I got out to the lanes as a result. I wouldn’t say I was that happy with the outcome, however. The first game featured my throwing a first-ball gutter ball late that, if it were a strike, would have allowed me to get over 200 (I finished out for a 180). I was better in the second game (a 202), but my spare game was inconsistent in the last game, and I could only manage a game in the 160s. My brother, however, had a last game in the 140s, easily one of his best to date. Tom Hedding, who was working, was watching us on a couple of occasions during our time there, and I told my brother of Tom’s exploits in the youth league (the 300 games).

Saturday bits

I finally got around to pulling out my iron and ironing board and affixing the USBC 75 pins over average game award emblem, which I received last week at the banquet, to my new bowling shirt. I had thought about putting it on the red shirt, which Gar (my occasional commenter) thought might be good for intimidation purposes, but the new shirt has kind of become symbolic to me of a fresh start in the game. I also don’t know if I’ll get the chance again: the USBC has changed the awards program to offer online certificates and “purchasables” starting this coming season, though it remains to be seen if the traditional iron-on emblems will be one of those “purchasables.”

Now, here’s an idea where the future of tenpin bowling in New England is going…

The Nashua Telegraph reports that New Hampshire will be the first state in New England to offer tenpin bowling as a high school varsity sport. Teams will compete starting in the 2009-10 winter season, though there will be no official team standings and competition will lead into a state singles tournament. Teams, however, will begin competing for state championships the following winter. Competition will be co-ed, meaning boys and girls will be competing on the same lanes.

A consistent start

Before I get to what I did last night, I wanted to mention that the Westgate Mixed League’s payouts were last night, and when it was announced that Harry Thibeault Sr. won the sportsmanship award (posthumously), a good ovation went up from those present, so that, indeed was a tribute.

My Week 2 bowling (BowlSK)

I seem to have gotten off to a consistent start to this summer league, as I was only one pin under last week’s series last night. There were only four open frames on the night, two of them on splits, but three of them were in the second game, with two coming on missed 10 pins. Had I made both 10s, it would’ve been worth two points for my team, as the first two games were close enough that missed spares could have been the difference. On the bright side, the third game was clean, and a clean game is always good.

Result: 195-181-207=583
Average (6 games): 194
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 588

I alluded to the close first two games earlier, but we lost the last game by 90, so “T N T” failed to win a point last night. I knew going in we could have trouble with “Hocus Pocus,” as the middle of their lineup is usually consistent, but everyone on that team was “on” at some point last night, and a bad first night for Ed Godino (the elder one, not the one in the Brunswick Mixed League) inflated their handicap (Ed bowled quite well last night, with, if I remember, two games in the 200s).

We also received the full league schedule last night, and two dates I’m personally circling on the calendar are June 24 (Brian and Ralph’s team) and August 5 (my cousins, the “Lounge Lizards”). My team as a group will also have July 15 circled (for the “Wild Samoans,” the Boermans’ team, which none of us like because they’re all New York Yankees fans, but not liking them may be stretching it for me, as I do get along with them).

EDIT: Ed Godino had a 587 series against us last night, with a high game of 216 in the second game.

May 19 league standings update

As administrivia, please be advised that the link to the Wednesday Summer Mixed League standings, as posted on Bowler Express, is now up in the sidebar under “Author’s Links.”

As I pretty much figured, we took 2 points from “Phoenix Kings” on opening night (keep in mind that it’s an 8 point league, 2 for each game and 2 for series total). Six teams failed to win a point, but it should be noted that Team 12, which has two members of the Thibeault family, will be allowed to have a make-up, as their father’s wake was on opening night. Four teams took all 8 points on opening night, with “Amelia” having the high pinfall with handicap.

The second week has my team bowling against “Hocus Pocus,” which has the “Dream Team” women from last summer (Debbie Dion and Sally Toppan) along with Judy and Ed Godino, who did not bowl last summer.

The champs

Here are your 2008-09 Brunswick Mixed League champions, “The Badgers”:

L to R: Jeanne Bowker, Matt Montt, Bobby Geddes, Paul Murray, Steve Geddes
L to R: Jeanne Bowker, Matt Montt, Bobby Geddes, Paul Murray, Steve Geddes

Thank you to Joan Geddes, Steve’s wife and Bobby’s mother, for the photo.

May 2009 NEBA bits

As is usual when NEBA comes to Westgate Lanes, I caught the Sunday afternoon squad, and I should say that they put out a tough condition this weekend: instead of the usual Coke Classic pattern, it was decided that the Kegel “Highway To Hell” pattern would be used. As it is a flat pattern and perhaps the most difficult of the Kegel Navigation Sport series patterns, nearly everyone had struggles with it, and, when I get to posting the result sheet on the NEBA site, you should find the cut scores to be lower than usual.

I did introduce myself to the one big New England gun that I had wanted to meet, but hadn’t had the opportunity to until today: Jonathan Van Hees, whom I’ve noted on this blog a number of times in connection to his exploits on the PBA Tour. I pretty much left him alone to bowl, but after the squad was over, I asked him if he would be participating in the upcoming World Series of Bowling in Detroit, and he told me he had not made that decision yet.

The banquet

My league’s banquet was tonight, and I arrived at the lanes (the banquet would be in the adjoining pub/restaurant) fairly early, so, as the NEBA tournament was getting started, I hung around the center to watch some of it and also said hello to Jon in the pro shop. The bulk of my team didn’t arrive until around the time dinner was served, and I ate with Helen and Ted.

The business meeting would be held after dinner, which featured the election of officers, with the only change being Warren Young stepping down as president of the league, electing Jim Blythe, who actually had to sit out the year with a knee injury, as Warren’s replacement. Some by-law amendments were then voted on, with the major change approved being the handicap basis; the league will be a 90% (of 1000, team) league next season, which is supposed to give the lower average teams more of a chance.

Finally, prizes were handed out, and the major surprise as far as I was concerned was that there were no handicap awards, and that the bulk of the prizes were individual awards, for high average, game and series, both overall and in the average classes. The effect of this was that I received a $40 award, not for high handicap series in the men’s Class A, which came while I was averaging in, but high game in the class, which was the 257 back in February. My team also got $9.20/bowler in point money, and I got an extra $5 for perfect attendance. The way prizes were structured, and because of the rule that a bowler can only be awarded one individual prize, just about everyone got a good piece of it (and it’s not a large prize fund overall), which is how it should be in a fun league like this one.

The last bit of a surprise came from my league treasurer, who gave me a personalized bowling t-shirt, as, in her 30 years of being a treasurer in various leagues, I was the first one to pay league dues in full for the season as early as I did. There was also a drawing for door prizes, and I lucked out there too, winning a $25 Lowe’s gift card (which I’ll probably give to my brother as an early Father’s Day gift to my dad).

I caught a ride home with Helen and Ted, as Carl and Patrick wanted to hang around to shoot some pool, and I wished a good summer to those that I could whom I knew I wouldn’t be seeing until September. I told Shawn, as a parting word, that I was glad that my prize was for something that didn’t happen until after I had averaged in.

As a final word, I had wanted to get a photo of the league champions, “The Badgers,” but was out of position when they were together. Someone in their group did get a digital photo of them, however, so I gave her one of my email addresses and asked her to send a copy my way. I hope to get the photo up soon.

Off on the right foot

If you were waiting for the league post last night, I didn’t get to it last night because I got in late (as is usually the case on the first night of a league).

The bowling-related part of the day began, as I probably alluded to, with my attendance at the wake of Harry Thibeault, Sr. I only stayed long enough to pay my respects to the family, however, after Jim Yost offered me a ride back from the funeral home. This allowed me to relax a bit before I had to get ready for opening night of summer league.

When I got to the lanes and met up with Bonnie, I was informed that Bill Macomber would, indeed, be joining us. I then discussed lineup strategy with her, with the idea that there is not much separating Bill from Bonnie as second-best bowler on the team. She had wanted to go lowest average to highest average, but I suggested that the most consistent bowler who is not the anchor should lead off. With the above in mind, I asked Bonnie if she felt up to leading off, and she said she wouldn’t feel comfortable in that spot. When Bill arrived just before the meeting, I asked him how he felt about leading off, and he said he didn’t care, so that made the lineup Bill, Rob, Bonnie, and myself.

After the league meeting (in which I was told it would be a 15-week season, rather than last year’s 13) and getting lane assignments, we named Bonnie team captain (as she basically put the team together) and gave the team the name “TNT” (because she thought we would be “dynamite”). I entered the team into the scorer, and the process went smoother this time because I had more experience with it. After the ten-minute warmup period, we wished each other well for the summer season.

My opening night bowling (BowlSK)

I got off to a better start this year than I did last year, overall, though I was a few pins per game under my 197 entering average. Only a missed spare or two kept me from 600. Despite what the online score sheet says (at this time), I had 3 splits (the 1-2-9 in the 10th of Game 3 was counted as a split when it shouldn’t have) and made 2 of them, so I’ll still consider last night’s spare game pretty decent. I saved my best game for last, though, with the hambone about midway through the game and stayed clean after the first frame for a 212. One of my old bowling buddies, Tim Major, was on our opposing team, and he was mildly surprised with what I was able to do (I’ve also told him about the heel fractures).

Result: 184-188-212=584
Average (3 games): 194
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 586

I’m not going to be sure about how many points we won last night until later on, but I get the feeling we won the third game, anyway, because Bill and Rob were also both cooking around the same point in the game I was, and we only lost by 30+ scratch against some pretty good bowlers (including the aforementioned Tim Major).

Administrivia: After posting this, I’ll get the link to the new stat sheet on BowlingTracker.com up in the “Author’s Links” sidebar section. The links to the winter league stuff will remain up for 3 weeks until everything from the summer league is available.

EDIT: Summer league also means bowling on the same night as my cousins again, and it was a memorable first night for Debbie, as she threw a 225 in her last game, which was her first game of 200 or better. Indeed, she only missed a 500 set by a single pin. Congrats Debbie! 😀

Some work to do

As part of the improvement process, I also posted the video I rolled out yesterday to the BowlingCommunity.com forums with the expectation of finding out what I need to work on from the two USBC coaches I know from there. During the editing process, I noticed in the side view footage that my timing was late, and this was reiterated on the forums (including by my friend Chris from BowlSK). “Atochabsh” also suggested that I hold the ball higher in my stance, which she said would help free up my armswing, and it was that suggestion that I tried in practice today. Holding the ball higher had the effect of quickening the pace of my footwork, so much so that it felt like I had been running “gassers” by the end of practice. My timing was still late, but the good timing, I’ve been told, will come when I learn to slow down my footwork with the ball starting that high. Where I noticed the improvement the most, however, was in my spare game, as I started the third game with 6 spares in a row before chopping the 2-5, finishing out with 3 more spares and a final-ball strike fill.

I did get some bad news when I talked to Bob Hamilton before practice: Harry Thibeault, Sr., father of Harry Thibeault, Jr. (one of the best bowlers in the house) and a regular bowler himself on Wednesday nights, had passed away over the weekend. I was told the wake would be Wednesday night, so this throws the start of my summer league into question.

Grace and Rob from my winter league also hit the wood while I was practicing, and I delayed my trip home to say hello and watch them a bit. I gave Rob the tip about working the inside of the ball (the point of the ring-finger lead drill), and watched him throw a few before leaving for home; I think he’ll get that down with practice. Grace said she wouldn’t be bowling summer league, after all, because of getting surgery on one of her feet. I did notice a Bill Macomber on the summer league sign-up board earlier, and I’m hoping this is the one from the winter league.

My first bowling videos

A couple of items of administrivia before we get to the meat of this post: first, I have created a “Videos” category for use when I post my own bowling video to the blog; second, the “Author’s Links” sidebar section now has a link to my videos on YouTube.

Now, for what I’ve been wanting to do since I started bowling again: get video of myself online. I’ve come up with two short videos, one with a side view (useful for illustrating my timing) and one with a back view (useful for showing swing plane and release). The side view first…videos will be embedded in posts from YouTube, but there will also be a link for downloading for those who wish to analyze them frame by frame:

Download video above (WMV format)

Now the back view:

Download video above (WMV format)

Thanks go out to my best friend, Ed, who was involved with the filming and editing, and to “saito`” on EFnet IRC for hosting the downloads. 😀

April 2009 People’s Tournament results

As reported on the People’s Tournament site, Alfred Donato (187 avg.) represented the home contingent well by winning the April event at Westgate Lanes, defeating Tiana Carrasquillo (AMF Silver Lanes {CT}, 150 avg.) in the title match by a score of 250-237 (with handicaps). Hans Cheung (182 avg.) also represented Westgate Lanes in the semifinals, and semifinalist Brian Frank, though he’s listed as representing East Providence Lanes (with a 209 average), should also be familiar to Westgate Lanes bowlers, as he works in the pro shop. Brian Alleyn (153 avg.) was also in the final eight.

“The Badgers” win 2008-09 Brunswick Mixed League title

I was on hand for my league’s roll-off tonight, and I can report that “The Badgers,” the first-half winners, won the league championship in a three-game, total pinfall match against “MT Bed” by a score of 2991-2868 (with handicaps). It was actually looking good for “MT Bed” after one game, taking a 70-pin lead into the second game. “The Badgers,” however, woke up to take a 23-pin lead after the second game and just cruised from there. I told the winners to expect a photo-op at the banquet, which is a week from Saturday.

The first video shoot

As we had arranged previously, I went to the lanes with my best friend Ed today intent on getting my first bowling videos on tape. I used one game to warm up, then got some footage of me bowling from the side, some from in back, and a couple of close-ups of my release. The session went fairly well, with me shooting a 208 in my warm-up game, then falling back quite a bit during the side shoot and the first part of the back shoot. I finished up the back with a couple of strikes in the third game, got a couple of close-ups of my release (one which we will actually use), then finished out the game for a clean 219. I think the casual observers are going to be pleased with the results, though my more trained bowling friends online will likely offer critique, which will be the whole point of shooting the video in the first place.

I had hoped to have everything up today, but when we got home and tried to hook up the camcorder to my computer, we deduced that my computer didn’t like the new “accessory.” Therefore, Ed will have to do the editing on another machine, the results of which I will receive on 2 DVDs, one with the raw footage, and one with the videos I will upload. Hopefully, I’ll have something up in a week or two.

EDIT: It should be noted that these were the first two times Ed has seen me shoot over 200, and the first time he’s seen me have a clean game. 😀 Also, since Ed told me he wears size 9.5 shoes, I had him try on my old bowling shoes, and, as he felt comfortable in them, I let him keep them for future bowling outings.

May 2 league standings update (final for Winter 2008-09)

We may have avoided the basement, but we also failed to gain ground on “8 Is Great,” the 8th place team, because they won their match with “The Handicaps,” 3-1. Overall, we’re in 9th place, but whether that has any bearing on payouts remains to be seen.

Individually, my 730 handicap series from opening night has held up in my average class with only the roll-off left. Of the roll-off participants, only Bobby Geddes, carrying a 4 handicap, has a chance to knock me off for the men’s A lead, meaning Bobby would have to bowl better than a 718 to take the spot from me. Elsewhere, Rob Dickens may have had his first-ever 200 game with a 208 first game; it’s definitely his first 200 game award of the season (as he has an average low enough to qualify for it)…I’m definitely looking forward to bowling with him this summer. 😀