Month: January 2016

Winter 2016 virtual league ramp-up

The new virtual league began this week, and it’s only a four-man team for this go-around. My teammates are Fin09, Gohokies, and TimL. Fin09 is one of the most accomplished individual bowlers in the league (in terms of honor scores), and TimL happens to be a former Classified division national champion, so it should be interesting “bowling” with those two. Team name is the one I had in mind when I made my summer league return, Mad Blogger & Co.

Jan. 16 Adult/Junior doubles results

Results of today’s Adult/Junior doubles tournament (scores are with handicap):

Junior/Senior

  1. Phil & Jeff Gottfried 1,465
  2. Cameron & Keith Kaestner 1,431

Prep

  1. Jayden Brown & Varnell Graham 1,409

Congrats to all, and especially to Jeff, one of my Wednesday night teammates. 🙂

Jan. 13 Brunswick Mixed recap

My Week 19 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK sheet)

I still need to get rid of the spare misses, but I did start well, and ended the night on a six-bagger to get over my +1 for the 169 average in this league. I wasn’t bowling that great heading into the last frames, but I made a move inside and everything seemed to click.

Result: 185-151-214=550
Average (57 games): 169
Average for last 9 games: 183
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 529

Composite average (108 games): 167

I was high man on the pair, but both Barry and Donald were absent and couldn’t pre-bowl Sunday. Jeff did pre-bowl and chipped in a 225 third game, and the team won first and third games and total to start the second half with three points.

Sean Richard elected to Brockton BA Hall of Fame

Sean Richard, a seven-time Brockton Bowling Association and two-time Massachusetts state tournament champion, as well as a winner of many other local tournaments and current holder of the record average at Westgate Lanes, has been elected by the Brockton Bowling Association to its Hall of Fame, as posted on its Facebook page. Details on his induction dinner will be announced by the association at a later date.

Congrats Seany! 🙂

Links to “Vintage Alleys” and “The Bowling History Book” added to sidebar

Photographer Kevin Hong, an IBMA member who posts occasionally to their Facebook group, started out photographing vintage and historic bowling centers throughout North America, and has a website, named Vintage Alleys with his photo collection (which also includes candlepin and duckpin centers in New England). He has also begun a bowling history project with his writing, The Bowling History Book. Both links are now in the sidebar, the former in the “Bowling Sites” category and the latter in the blogroll (as the site is structured like a blog), but are also linked here because I wanted to feature the links in my post. Anyone with an interest in bowling’s history should find the sites fascinating views.

Dec. 12 Sunday Niters standings update

After winning two points from Ten Is Enough, Pin Pals have remained in last place, 16 points behind Suzy’s Crew, who lead Adam & Steve and The Minions 2 by two points, Split Happens by three points, Bowling Stones and OSIMAS by six points, and three teams by eight points. We bowl against Lexa next week.

As close as I could tell from the standing sheet on LeagueSecretary.com, Lee had the high game of the week with his 266, but I’m not sure about his series.

Jon Van Hees wins first PBA title at Scorpion Championship

Most of my readers were “spoiled” when this was bowled, but I decided to follow the PBA’s lead and not post about this until they did.

The PBA reported that Jon Van Hees of Charlestown, RI, after building a 49-pin lead in the championship match against Jason Sterner of Covington, GA, hung on to win the Scorpion Championship 202-176 at the PBA World Series of Bowling at the National Bowling Stadium in Reno, NV for his first PBA Tour title in his first TV appearance after 106 career tournaments. Van Hees won the semifinal match against Lonnie Waliczek of Wichita, KS in similar fashion after building a 24-pin lead through seven frames en route to a 209-191 final score. Speaking of his road to his first title, Van Hees said, “I’ve always been kind of a late bloomer, but if I put the time and effort into it, I can usually get to where I want to go.”

Jon first caught my attention when I noted that he was subbing in the Coke league at the time he cashed in the 2008 US Open, and have since seen him at Westgate many times, particularly when NEBA has made stops. As my final word, congrats Jon, you’ve done New England bowling proud. 🙂

Jan. 10 Sunday Niters recap

My Week 18 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK sheet)

My first game tonight was such a disaster that even two games around my average couldn’t prevent my average in this league from dropping another two pins. A “back to basics” approach with my Marvel Pearl saved what score I had.

Result: 105-169-164=438
Average (51 games): 165
Average for last 9 games: 144
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 502

Composite average (105 games): 167

Lee was under average until a 266 third game put him over 600 for the series, which propelled us to our lone points.

Cross-training #215

I’ve used the “Cross-training” post category very little recently, but this post was deserving of it’s own blog article…

Mike Reiss, ESPN.com’s Patriots beat reporter, noted that, in a break from recent tradition, in which coach Bill Belichick took his team to the movies during the team’s playoff bye week, Belichick took his team bowling instead, at the new Splitsville bowling lounge at Patriot Place, near Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, MA.

Jan. 6 Brunswick Mixed recap

My Week 18 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK sheet)

I told Lee before I left Sunday night that I had my IQ Tour Fusion at home, and he suggested I bring it, as he thought I needed one of my stronger pieces. One game of practice before league confirmed his thought, and, while I wanted my first game back, I ended my league bowling tonight with 20 clean frames. Definitely something to build on. 🙂

Result: 139-197-217=553
Average (54 games): 168
Average for last 9 games: 175
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 512

Composite average (102 games): 168

The team had our best night of the season to end the first half, as we had a series over 3,100 with handicap and won all four points. The tie for the position ahead of us split their match 2-2, with us starting two points behind them, so there’s at least a three-way for 15th.

I had my best night in brackets of the season last week, as I beat Barry in two brackets and was second to David Chin in a third for a $7 profit on the night.

Sean Richard wins Dec. 27 NAT in Woonsocket

Dec 27 2015 NAT finalists
Finalists in Dec. 27 Northeast Amateur Tournament at Walnut Hill Bowl (L-R): Champion Sean Richard, runner-up Bert Santos (Photo courtesy of NAT)

The current Northeast Amateur Tournament newsletter reports that Sean Richard was the winner of the Dec. 27 singles event at Walnut Hill Bowl in Woonsocket, RI, defeating Bert Santos, 411-331 (with handicap), in the two-game final match.

WTG again, Ka$h! 🙂

Jan. 5 Sunday Niters standings update

After failing to win points from High Rollers, Pin Pals are in last out of 16 teams, 12 points behind Suzy’s Crew, who lead Split Happens by a point, Lexa by two points, and five teams by four points. Ten Is Enough will be the opposing team Sunday night.

Individually, Lee was tied with Michael Simmons for high game of the week (258).

Jan. 5 Brunswick Mixed standings update

After winning three points from Bi-Polar Bowlers, Seven Deadly Pins are in a tie for 17th and will bowl against Right Turn Clyde tomorrow night in the last position round of the first half. As previously mentioned, Lost Empire 2 has already wrapped up the first half in the league.

EDIT: Since the original post, the standings on LeagueSecretary.com were updated, and I had both the scratch and handicap high game and series in the men’s “C” division last week.

Jan. 3 Sunday Niters recap

My Week 17 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK sheet)

While I recovered a little bit on Wednesday night, my Sunday night bowling has taken a dive, to the point where I have a higher average on Wednesday night again. An adjustment to my wrist positioner suggested by Lee helped prevent the ball from squirting right on me on release, but I still couldn’t put more than one good shot together.

Result: 134-146-136=416
Average (48 games): 167
Average for last 9 games: 150
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 544

Composite average (99 games): 167

Lee was high man on the pair tonight, largely because of a 258 second game, and Rachel was over her average in all three games, but no points were won.

2016 BBIS Marathon results

The results of today’s third annual BBIS Marathon (scores are +/- 2,000 after handicap added):

  1. Rich Brignolo +249
  2. Al Donato +234
  3. Robert Sims +215
  4. Yat Voong +185
  5. Dennis Johnson +142
  6. John Hayes Jr. +99
  7. Louis Lam +85

There were 20 entries.

I acquired a copy of T-Brac fairly recently, and, while I’ve had issues with it for running brackets in the Coke league, it really made my life easier helping run this tournament, particularly because we ran sidepots, too, and scores only had to be entered once for both the tournament and sidepots without having to resort to anything like a second worksheet in Excel, which was how it was done before, and scores were sorted automatically, as well.

As a final note, some of the bowlers had suggestions on how we can improve things for next year, and we’re seriously considering them.

Thank you to everyone who participated today.