Month: September 2009

Getting caught up

The computer I usually use to post to my blog had a motherboard failure over the weekend, so my computer access has been sporadic. I shall use this post to combine a few things into one post, and my usual league night recap may be delayed until the weekend.

Administrivia: Because of my lack of computer access, the “Cross-training” feature has been suspended until I get my new computer. You may not miss it, however, as this is generally a slow time for off-field activities in baseball and football, and with basketball and hockey training camps and/or pre-season just getting underway.

League standings update: “The Flintstones” are in a jam-up at second place, getting the #2 spot on account of pinfall, three points behind “4 MTD,” a team which includes my summer teammates, Rob and Bonnie. My team faces “Butz-N-Guts,” Shawn’s team, tomorrow night.

Monday practice: With nothing much better to do, I had a practice session yesterday, and I considered it time well-spent, as I averaged 11 pins/game over my current league average on the strength of a 228 first game. I didn’t really care about scores, however, as I just wanted to make good, consistent shots. Moving into the hold area around the second game, I found I needed to watch my speed or the ball would shoot past the break point and either miss the pocket (usually a washout) or go light and leave something like a bucket. I still had 179-ish games, however, which should’ve been better had I not missed spares.

Sept. 23 league night

My Week 3 bowling, frame-by-frame (BowlSK)

Four splits during the night really hurt, but it was a decent night otherwise. Following a suggestion given to me by “CoachJim,” I had John watch my break point (the board at which the ball starts its turn toward the pocket), and, determining that it was on the 7 board, that helped me get lined up, avoiding the problem I had in the second game last week with losing the break point. Another bright point of the night was that I made all of my single pins, which is always what I hope for if I leave them. I will be going into the start of using real averages a pin ahead of last year’s book average, so I think I’m off to a good start.

Result: 169-216-192=577
Average (9 games): 184
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 562

Team had another strong 3 of 4 night, this time against “The Mustangs,” usually one of the better teams in the league. Eileen had a strong night, breaking 100 in all three games (carrying an 84 average), and John chipped in a 176 second game to help the team win that game by 120+ pins.

Brockton USBC Bowling Association Bowler of the Year results

The Brockton Bowling Associaton reported Ryan Yelle as the winner of the 2009 Bowler of the Year Tournament, defeating Jason Sherwood 198-188 in the title match. It was in the round of 8 where Yelle made the most news, however, as he posted a 566 two-game score which included a 300 in the second game. Click the link above for a more detailed recap.

Link to “Next Level Bowling” added to sidebar

“Next Level Bowling” is a site that promotes bowling instruction and personal appearances by PBA Hall of Famers Norm Duke and Brian Voss, PBA Tour exempt player Mike Machuga, and noted bowling instructor Bill Hall. A neat free feature of the site is a collection of short instructional videos, found by clicking the picture of Brian Voss under the “Learn from the Pros” header. The link to the site is now in the sidebar under the general “Bowling Sites” category.

Sept. 17 league standings update

This is an earlier-than-usual update, and the reader is directed to the copy of the standings sheet on LeagueSecretary.com (readers viewing the individual post can click here).

Having won 4 points and lost 4 points in the young season, my team finds itself in a four-way tie for fourth place in the standings, getting the fourth spot on pinfall. “4 MTD” and “The Mustangs” (the latter team being next week’s opponents for us) are jockeying for the early momentum.

Individually, Carl qualified for a USBC 175 game award with his 187 last night.

Sept. 16 league night

My Week 2 bowling, frame-by-frame (BowlSK)

A better night than last week, certainly, though I’m not proud of my spare shooting, especially missing two single 4s in the third game. Talking it over with my online friend Jim earlier today, he seems to think I lost the break point in the second game, and, with my vision not being great, I’ll need to have someone tell me which board it is on down the line to help me line up better.

Team took 3 of 4 points from “The Wild Samoans” (last year’s “Backyard Bowlers”), and it would’ve been a sweep in all probability if I made the 2-8 in the last frame of Game 2. Carl carried the day in the third game with a 187, which might be the best game I’ve seen him throw.

Result: 213-146-191=550
Average (6 games): 180
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 548

Sept. 14 league standings update

Every team took at least one point on opening night, but, as my team only took one point, it’s understandable that we’re near the bottom of the standings, and we are, in fact, tied for 8th with “Foxy Srs,” as we had exactly the same pinfall with handicap. Four teams, “MTD,” “The Mustangs,” “Vakinc,” and “Warren’s Girls,” took 3 points last week, and I listed the four teams in pinfall order.

“Wild Samoans,” who are, as you’d expect from the summer league, the Boermans’ team, are my team’s opponents Wednesday night.

As the administrivia for this post, the link to the standings sheet for the league on Bowler Express has been added back to the sidebar (under “Author’s links”), and the summer league stuff will be taken off once there’s a current league standings sheet on LeagueSecretary.com.

“MyBowlingBlog” added to blogroll

I came across “MyBowlingBlog” by way of a user comment (The blog actually wanted to filter the comment as spam, but, upon seeing that it was actually related to the post in question, I approved it.) to my post of Osku Palermaa’s trick shot. Upon preview, he mainly wants to use the blog to post bowling news summaries, but he has it set up so that he also wants to devote space to youth and collegiate bowling. The link is now in the “Blogroll” sidebar category. Note: the blog currently contains World Series of Bowling “spoilers,” so avoid this blog if you want to wait until the shows air to see the results.

Welcome aboard, Aaron! 😀

Photographic evidence

For those who still doubt my veracity when reporting Westgate Lanes honor scores, I offer this photo of the overhead scoring monitor (or was it the scoring console screen?) for Derick Thibeault’s 300 the other night. It was taken by my friend Sandi Litchfield, who happens to be Derick’s cousin, with (presumably) a cellphone camera.

Derick300

Westgate Lanes 50th anniversary notes

I got into the building just after 4:30 in the afternoon, said hello to Junior and Tim Major, who were working the desk at the time, and then found Mike Litchfield’s family bowling w/ Steve Travers watching on. Later, when I spotted Rob Dickens at the desk, I asked him if I could join him on the lanes (I would’ve hated bowling by myself on this day.) and joined him with my equipment in hand on one of the lanes after he agreed.

Rob and I were being semi-competitive, with Rob forcing me to mark in the 10th in the first game, which I accomplished with a first-ball strike. Rob found his line while I struggled in the second game. It was really a game over 200 that I wanted on this day, however, and I got that in the third game with a 214. The last game was another mark-to-win situation for me, and, again, I sealed it with a first-ball strike. Just as a note, I was playing around the 28 and 29 board in my stance much of the time, which is as deep inside as I’ve ever played these lanes, and started feeling comfortable playing in there. I’m also sure Steve Travers saw at least one of my strikes, though he also claims knowing I was going to get a ringing 10 on one of my shots. 😉

I was hoping to stay around for the Friday night TNBA league (at least the start of it) and my cousins, but I really felt like getting back home and eating dinner, though there was a free buffet in the pub. I also wished Harry Minassian Sr., the owner, a happy anniversary before I left. As a parting note, I also saw Eileen, one of my new teammates, bowling, and she had a game in the 160s during her time, so she’s starting to get the hang of it, at least when it doesn’t count.

Opening night, 2009

I caught Carl before bowling started, and he said he was OK with me being captain, but did want the name, “The Flintstones” for the team, so I was cool with that. As captain, I set a lineup of Carl, Eileen, Patrick, John, and myself. John throws a decent ball for a novice, so I hope he rewards my decision to have him set me up.

My opening night bowling, frame-by-frame (BowlSK)

I probably could’ve had a better night to start the year off, but I only realized near the end of the second game that my Hy-Road was too strong tonight, and finished off with the High Voltage, with my judgment validated by the 209 last game. As is the case on most opening nights, we won’t really know how the team did until the standings are posted, but we may have only taken the third game against a team that had 3 vacancies.

Result: 159-163-209=531
Average (3 games): 177
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 537

August 2009 People’s Tournament results

Note: The following is a recap of an event that the author participated in.

The People’s Tournament reported Paris Cook (Westgate Lanes, 193 avg.) as the winner of the August event at AMF Cranston Lanes. Cook defeated Daniel Stanley (AMF Cranston Lanes, 183 avg.) by a score of 250-224 (with handicaps) in the championship match. Also for Westgate Lanes, Mike Major (203 avg.) and William Cabral (179 avg.) were among the final eight.

2009-10 league meeting

The meeting of the Brunswick Mixed League went fairly smoothly, with the main items discussed being dues (Westgate Lanes went up on league lineage, so a dues increase had to be voted on) and a by-laws amendment pertaining to entry averages (a couple of bowlers in the league had to sit out all of last season with injuries, so we changed it so that the league could go back 2 years for an entry average). We did see a few new faces (more on a couple of them later), so that should portend well.

I had hoped some friends would show up for the meeting, but they didn’t, so I tried to go back to my old team. Unfortunately, Carl wanted to bowl with a couple of the new people, John and Eileen Ruhl (I’ll try to clarify the relationship in the future), so a team was formed with Carl, the Ruhls, Patrick and myself, meaning Helen and Ted (whom I found out later in the night are actually brother and sister) won’t be bowling on my team this year. I thought Carl had wanted to be team captain, but none of us marked captain status on the team sign-up sheet, so I told Shawn I’d be temporary captain (Carl didn’t want to bowl in the no-tap tournament and had left when Shawn asked me about who was my team’s captain.) until I knew what Carl wanted to do.

This no-tap was a bit better for me, but it didn’t look like it at first, as I had 4 splits in the first game; however, I did get the last 5, including 3 natural in the 10th frame, for a 169. My other two games were much better, with the last one being ruined only by a single open (chopped the 3 off of the 3-6-10), with all strikes otherwise (I don’t remember how many of those were natural), for a 263. I ended up with a 684 scratch, 729 score with handicap, and for a while, it was looking good to cash. However, two of the Boermans, Rick and Mark, came in as part of one of the last groups with each of them scoring better than 800 (Rick won with an 806), and I got bumped out of the money.

The first night of bowling for the new season is this coming Wednesday night, and, if any of my friends show up to bowl, I will have to tell them that the teams are already more or less formed, and that they should’ve shown up last night if they wanted to bowl with me.