On a night that was sub-par otherwise, I had a minor breakthrough in the last game: my first clean game in league in some time. The only way I could describe the turnaround was that things just clicked.
Result: 141-161-224=526 Average (87 games): 185 Average for last 9 games: 178 Next week’s AVG+1 score: 643
The team seemed to follow my lead tonight, as we all got hot the third game, taking that game’s point. As alluded to, however, that was a salvage point for the night.
“Crazy Eights” once again lost all 7 points, this time to “Four Splits and Giggles,” which helped the latter team into a tie in points for first place in the virtual league with “Wrecking Balls.” My virtual team now sits 7 points behind “Pinfall Wizards” in last place.
I’m going to list the winners below, followed by a wrap-up of qualifying. As not all of the divisions had stepladder match play, the note next to each winner will include either their six-game qualifying total or the result of the title match if there was match play.
Prep: Nick Flake (1,147) Junior Boys: Kevin Thibeault (1,257) Major: Joshua Regnier (def. Shane Holt 237-197) Girls: Catherine Bell (def. Jadee Scott-Jones 224-212) Collegiate: Joe Mello (def. Ryan Graywacz 216-215)
In qualifying, Shane Holt had a perfect 300 game, and Jadee Scott-Jones had a high game of 275.
This post is too late for the entry deadlines for these tournaments, but I thought I’d note where the state championship tournaments are this year with those tournaments approaching competition dates:
The open state championship tournament will be held at Ken’s Bowl in Pittsfield.
The women’s state championship tournament will be held at AMF Auburn Lanes in Auburn.
Westgate Lanes will host the state youth championships on weekends beginning April 30 and ending on May 15.
I’m not sure where results for any of these tournaments will be online (I know Pittsfield’s local association isn’t online, and I don’t know if the women in Auburn have a separate association.), but the youth tournament may be on the state youth association’s site, which I have found and will add a link for to the sidebar.
After taking a single point this week from “Fire in the Hole,” “Babe and Balls” remains in 11th place in the league’s second half standings, two points behind “In It To Win It.” At the top, “The Incredibowls” stand a full seven points ahead of “The 5 G’s.” “Warren’s Girls” will be my team’s opponents next week.
After getting the last four to save my deuce in the first game, I thought my night was promising, but then it all fell apart. Particularly, it didn’t seem I could make a single-pin spare all night, as I missed 5 of the 8 I had.
Result: 203-157-149=509 Average (84 games): 185 Average for last 9 games: 181 Next week’s AVG+1 score: 611
Eileen was my team’s star tonight, as her first two games were well over her average, and she got through the first 7 frames of the second game clean. John returned tonight to have a couple of decent games after shaking the rust off. However, the team only managed a single point.
Congrats to Matt Yandek, who had 32 of a possible 36 strikes in going 300-201-300 for an 801 series last night in the Coke Classic League. Only three open frames in the second game prevented Yandek from having a real monster set.
Note: This post was delayed because of technical problems with the blog’s host.
“Crazy Eights” had the tables turned from Week 1 by “Magnificent 7,” losing all points to the latter team after sweeping that team to start the season. As a result, my virtual team has hit rock bottom after standing in first after two weeks, being three points behind “2 X 6 Pack.” The race at the top has become tight virtually in an instant, as “Wrecking Balls” are now tied with “Sk8ing On Thin Ice” for the league lead after being ahead by 7 whole points the previous week. “10 in the Pit” stands three points in back of the logjam in third place.
There were 28 entries in the 9-game scratch marathon tournament yesterday, and here are the top five (scores given as +/- 200):
Alex Aguiar +380
Jonathan Van Hees +216
Lou Rosa +178
Danny Khuu +145
Bob Hamilton +129
Alex wound up saving the best for last, as he had 232, 268, and 267 in his third set for a 767, which was the best three-game set in the tournament. Henry Webber posted a 280 7th game for high game honors.
Today, I was privileged to have as my guest at Westgate Lanes one of my out-of-state friends from the BowlingFans.com site, who usually uses the nick “MikeHL” in the chat. My other originally online-only friend, Al from Friday night, was to join us, but he emailed me this morning that his allergies were bad and he didn’t want to bowl.
Mike arrived with the marathon tournament in progress, so one of the first things I did after we got acquainted was escort him down to the high-numbered end of the center and pointed to him some of the notables that were involved in the tournament. We talked mostly bowling, but also the other reason for his visit, over pizza, after which we grabbed a free pair of lanes, which happened to have the shot the tournament was using (“Middle Road”).
I started the best of the two of us, with four in a row, before suffering a couple of open frames late for a 199. You’d think having the home alley advantage would have helped me, but, in the second game, Mike actually posted the best game of the session, a 205, using mostly his 2001-vintage Blue Hammer, his “go-to” ball on the usual wood lanes where he is. I had the better third game, but we both struggled; however, both of us ended with strikes, prompting me to say what I usually say when I strike on the last shot of a bad game: “All’s well that ends well.”
Mike told me afterward that he enjoyed this visit, which I agreed with, and we both hope to do this again, possibly in the summer. For the “pics or it didn’t happen” crowd, I did have my friend Si get the following photo after Mike and I bowled; it was taken with my pocket video camera, but a slight hand movement caused the photo to come out a bit blurry, so my apologies:
Results of yesterday’s annual scholarship tournament:
Girls handicap
Emily Lewis 700
Boys handicap
Kevin Thibeault 761
Ethan Rosenberg 690
The TNBA Boston Bowling Senate will run a no-tap (9 pins on first ball scores a strike) handicap singles tournament at Westgate Lanes on Saturday, April 16 with squads at noon and 3 PM. The tournament is open to all bowlers, sanctioned or non-sanctioned, but bowlers without an average must bowl scratch. Handicap is 80% of 220; entry fee is $25 and entries will be taken on a walk-in basis.
I had mentioned the Northeast Junior Scratch Tour in a previous post, and I have since found their website; the link has been added to the sidebar in the “Bowling Sites” category.
I came across this site on Facebook via Brian Gaskill. The Northeast Open Bowling Championships appear to be the oldest “traditional” format private tournament (with team, doubles, and singles events, with all-events) in New England. The tournament appears to run in February and early March at Yankee Lanes in Keene, NH, and, judging from this year’s results, “Team Abdow” (whom I can only guess North Bowl’s Nate Abdow is involved with) finished second in handicap team, and a familiar name, Jon Van Hees, won the scratch all-events title.
The link has been added to the sidebar in the “Bowling Sites” category.
After losing all points to “Vakanczzz,” “Babe and Balls” slipped back to 11th place, three points behind a tie for 9th between “In It To Win It” and “Pairs and Spares.” At the top of the standings, “The Incredibowls” hold a four point lead on the aforementioned “Vakanczzz” and “The 5 G’s.” “Fire in the Hole” provides the opposition for my team next week.
As an aside, Kevin Stiger, who started the season with the old “Dynasty” (the team now known as “The 5 G’s”), returned to bowling this week after recovering from a household mishap, filling one of the vacancies on “The Mustangs.” I’d like to welcome him back to the league and wish him well in his future bowling. 😀
I was going to add the Brockton Bowling Association’s new Facebook page to the sidebar links, but I wanted to wait until a Facebook username for the page was secure. With the page now having 25 “Likes,” that has happened, and I added the link to the sidebar, under “Bowling Sites.”
Note: I am planning a project having to do with the sidebar for this summer…I could probably do this whenever, but I figure I’ll have more time when the winter bowling season ends.
This was a rather weird night: the lanes were dry, but, except for a couple of first-ball gutter balls where I was trying to give myself too much room, I started better than I usually do. As a result, my weak game was actually my last game; I just ran out of room at the end of the night.
Result: 196-203-169=568 Average (81 games): 185 Average for last 9 games: 184 Next week’s AVG+1 score: 562
John has been having a knee issue, so he wasn’t bowling again. We were hopeful of a good night after winning the first game, but that was the only point we would get on the night.
The People’s Tournament reported that Dave Sargent (Brunswick Lowell Lanes, 196 avg.) was the winner of the event held on Feb. 19 and 20 at Town Line Lanes. Sargent defeated Mark Juliano (AMF Silver Lanes, 177 avg.) by a score of 244-220 (with handicaps) in the championship match. The highest Westgate Lanes finishers were Eric Lam (181 avg.), Brian Alleyne (175 avg.), and Linwood Cowen, Jr. (190 avg.), all of whom were in the top 16. The Brockton association was represented additionally in the final 8 by David Sloane (North Bowl, 164 avg.)
Although I’d like especially to keep my readers informed of youth events at Westgate Lanes, I often don’t hear about these until it’s too late, so pardon me if the first note had no advance notice.
The annual adult/junior doubles tournament was held last Saturday, and here are the results:
Bantam/Prep Division
Deontae Cox & Bill Reed 1,396
Bryanna Blaisdell & Tom Hedding 1,356
Junior/Senior Division
Stephen Major & Ray Fischer 1,259
Adam Johndrow & Danny Khuu 1,246
This Saturday, Westgate Lanes will hold its annual scholarship tournament, open to bowlers in grades 7-12 with girls handicap and boys handicap divisions. Entry fee for the tournament is $15, and entries will be taken on-site.
The Northeast Junior Scratch Tour, featuring the best young bowlers in New England, will visit Westgate Lanes on Sunday, March 27, with bowling starting at 1:00 PM.
“Crazy Eights” lost all 7 points to “10 in the Pit” in Week 9, so my virtual team slipped back to 8th place, 2 points ahead of “2 X 6 Pack.” At the top of the standings, “Wrecking Balls” lead “Sk8ing On Thin Ice” by 7 points after the full run through the round robin.
My brother was over on a weekend where we didn’t have to do food shopping, so that made bowling more likely, and we did just that this morning. The youth leagues were wrapping up when we got there, but we got a lane closer to the desk. I was happy with my performance today, because, while I didn’t get my 600, I had no game under 190 and made all of my “easy” spares. I even made a couple of my splits, the first of which was a 3-6-7-10 which helped me stay for what ended up being a clean game, perhaps my first clean game under 200 (came up a pin short). My brother wanted to dispute the fact that it was a clean game, however: I had a spare in the 10th frame, but only filled that with 8 pins (left a 4-7). For his part, my brother had a major (for him) accomplishment…no first-ball gutter balls the whole day.
After the kids were done, Henry Webber took to the lanes on his own, and happened to throw a 300 game, which was worthy of being announced on the PA system. I don’t know if it was his first ever, or if he’s had some before, but it would’ve seemed to me that he’d have one in league play by now. Congrats just the same, Henry! 😀
The two points “Babe and Balls” won this week, combined with the failure by “In It To Win It” to win any, meant my team and the latter team are now tied in points for 10th place. At the top of the standings, “The Incredibowls” are now tied with “The 5 G’s,” with “Vakanczzz” three points behind.
Always wanting to give my readers alternatives when it comes to stuff like ball review sites, I’ve been pointed to the “Bowling Ball Vault” on the forums. This is another site with reviews by bowlers, but a couple of features help make this site stand out: 1) There is a feature where you can compare specifications between bowling balls, useful for when you’re looking for a ball similar to one you already have and are looking to replace; 2) The reviews and listings are on RSS feeds, and you can specify a feed for any given manufacturer.
The link is now in the “Equipment Sites” category of the sidebar listing.
A couple of bad shots may have contributed to my team losing the first game, and I only did enough in the 10th frame to win the other two games, or my team might have won total, as well. Other than that, I felt I bowled fairly decently tonight.
Result: 168-193-193=554 Average (78 games): 185 Average for last 9 games: 178 Next week’s AVG+1 score: 572
With both teams missing bowlers tonight, the night was pretty nondescript, and the result was fitting: two points for each team.
Wanting to become more involved in my local bowling association, I approached the Board of Directors at their meeting on Sunday morning with the idea of starting a Facebook page for the association. After some discussion, they agreed to give me the OK, and I set up the page on Monday before leaving for the lanes to let Bob Young (association manager) and Rob Young (association president) know that the page was up. Wanting others from the other association centers involved in this, I asked Mike Carter, the association’s second vice president, if he wanted to be the admin representing North Bowl, and added him as an admin after he agreed.
The URL right now is kind of complicated, as there’s a long number involved, but there is a link to the page up at the top of the association homepage (which was why I was waiting to post this). I will add the link to the sidebar when the page has reached one of its goals for “Likes.”
“Crazy Eights” could only take two points (the third game) from “Sk8ing On Thin Ice,” and, as a result, my virtual team now sits in a tie for 6th position with “High Five,” eight points in back of “Wrecking Balls,” who are four points ahead of “Four Splits and Giggles” and “Deadly Curves.”
I had hoped to participate in a bowl-a-thon at Boston Bowl today for Autism Speaks, however, I was going to do so with my FanForce friends (whom I mentioned in my post about the outing at Pinz), and our chapter rep was having trouble registering the group for the event online, so he and his “silent partner” backed out. After a brief discussion, my best friend Ed and I decided to, as well, and we settled for bowling three games at Westgate Lanes.
The change turned out to be a good call, as I was throwing the ball well pretty much for the entire session, scoring 241-204-213 for a 658 set. I had an open frame or two in each game, but I ended the first game with five in a row, and repeated the five in a row feat in the middle of the last game. Talking about it over pizza afterward, I told Ed that, for me, it’s all just a matter of repeating shots.
So now two people close to me have seen me at my best…I hope my sister and her kids follow in that someday. 😀
Congrats to Tony Bennett, who shot a third game of 299 in the Tuesday night singles league. The league might have been on the new USBC Open Championships pattern, but I’ll confirm this through a league source and comment if it’s anything different.
The Tenth Board 
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