A blog (mostly) about tenpin bowling in the Bay State's "City of Champions"
Interactive league standings after Week 19 (Week 3 of 2nd half)
Creeden’s Mustangs are tied for 9th, six points behind a tie for first between 4 On 9 Man and Spare Us. The tie is a point and a half ahead of BBOB and four ahead of Last Empire and Maggie’s Warriors. Never Lucky provides tonight’s opposition.
By Kevin Thibeault’s recent standards, he had an off night last night in the Pepsi league, “only” putting up a 263 high game in a 716 series (reporting threshold adjusted for the lane condition). It was his teammate, Dan Esdale, giving him margin for error, however, with a 267 high game in a 728 set of his own (check the recap, Lane 59). Nice bowling, guys! 🎳👍
Devon McGregor came close to one Friday night, with a 299 in the TNBA league, per the week’s high scores. Nice game, D-Mac! 🎳🔥👏
He’d been taking time away from bowling for his college studies, but, on Thursday night, Shane Litchfield returned to the Westgate fray in a big way with a 277 game in the Patriots league (see week’s high scores). Welcome back! 🎳😎
Stephen Major was kind enough to let me use (with editing 😉 ) the recap he posted on Facebook of his qualifying for the Scratch Doubles tournament he competed in with his cousin Aaron over the weekend at Kingpins Alley in South Glens Falls, NY, which shows above that he posted a 300 in his second game on the way to the pair leading the squad Saturday for “bonus bowling” on Sunday, which resulted in a top eight finish. The tournament was on the 2011 USBC Open Championships pattern, always demanding (as patterns at nationals are). As for Aaron, Stephen told me none of the lefties in the tournament could find anything, so Aaron could at least be excused this time.😁
Nice bowling guys! 🎳🙂
Last night’s bowling, frame-by-frame
I thought I bowled well overall, with my only real problem having been losing my carry in the third game. Sure, I would have liked to have made more spares, but it was still my spare game that kept my third game over average.
Result: 181-183-169=533
Average (54 games): 167
Average for last 9 games: 168
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 541
Lisa was the one absent this week, but we got the same result as last week, an even split of two points against a good team. The two games that we didn’t win were also close, so I felt good about our showing.
This was late coming in: Ricky Chan posted a 275 last week in my league, per the weekly high scores. WTG! 🎳😎
Interactive standings after Week 18 (Week 2 of 2nd half)
Creeden’s Mustangs are in a three-way tie with Motley Crew and Strike Machine for 10th place, five points behind Spare Us, who are a point ahead of 4 On 9 Man, a point and a half ahead of BBOB, and two points ahead of Maggie’s Warriors. Last Empire, the first half winners, are tonight’s opponents.
Team SEER might as well keep Kevin Thibeault in their lineup for the rest of this Pepsi league quarter, it seems, as he’s shot over 750 in two of the three weeks on Beaten Path so far. This week, he only went 248-258-246 for a 752, per the recap (Lane 52). Nice bowling, Kev! 🎳👍
There weren’t really many good series last week in the Patriots league, so the only highlights were single games, Danny Khuu’s 289 and Mike Trent Jr. with a 279 (see high scores). Good bowling! 🎳🙂
Wednesday night’s bowling, frame-by-frame
My night’s highlight was definitely the run of four strikes that got me into the 180s at the end of the first game. I ran out of strikes in the other two, but made enough spares to keep those games’ scores in the reasonable range and got out of there with my 500.
Result: 180-158-169=507
Average (51 games): 166
Average for last 9 games: 173
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 516
Kevin was absent, and we could have used him, as the first and third games were close. We did win the second game by enough for total, and we didn’t mind the even split against that night’s opponent’s.
“Ka$h” may have had only a semifinal finish in the Ripping the Rack Singles Championship last Saturday at East Providence Lanes, but he had a big day leading up to it. First, in the second qualifying squad, he opened with 257-258-290 for an 805 (an award score, because the Ripping the Rack series is certified), finishing with a 223 and 1,028 for the four games. Then, to start the match play bracket (follow “Finals” link on page linked above), he put up a solid line of 12 Xs for the 300. Good bowling, $eany! 🎳👍
Interactive standings after Week 17 (Week 1 of 2nd half)
Maggie’s Warriors jumped into the lead by themselves at our expense to start the second half. BBOB (our opponents tonight) and Move To Strike are tied for 2nd a half-point behind and three teams are tied for 4th, a point behind first.
On the bright side, Lisa did have high handicap game in the women’s “B” division for the week (see weekly divisional high scores on standing sheet).
January ended with Chris Zalewski posting a 277 game in the Rhythm & Bowling league, per the high scores from Jan. 31 (Note: The league doesn’t usually upload results until later in the week.). WTG! 🎳👌
The scoring in the Patriots league last week shifted to a team bowling on the other end of the league, as Joe Bourhill put up a 279 game in a 773 set, and Kevin Thibeault, bowling as Joe’s teammate, had a 279 game himself (check the recap, Lane 35). Along with those, Brian Egan and Mike Mayo each also had 278 games (see week’s high scores).
Good bowling guys! 🎳😎
Last night’s bowling, frame-by-frame
It looked at first like I was going to have another decent night, but then my spare game crept in the tank, and, while I recovered it by the end of the third game, the damage to my score was done by that point.
Result: 189-141-148=478
Average (48 games): 166
Average for last 9 games: 182
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 522
We ran into a team getting two of their bowlers back after a long layoff and only the first game was close in a losing effort (no points).
Interactive final first half standings
Creeden’s Mustangs ended up tied with Spare Us for 8th place in the first half (neither team will likely be paid for this position, however, the way the league’s prize structure usually works out). Last Empire won the first half by 4.5 points over 10th Frame Magic, with 4 On 9 Man in 3rd and Sweet Rolls 4th.
Creeden’s Mustangs starts the 2nd half this week against Maggie’s Warriors.
Looking at the divisional high scores for the week, I swept the board in the men’s “D” division, while Kevin had high scratch game & series in men’s “B.”
Last Sunday (Jan. 24) in the Rhythm & Bowling league saw John O’Donnell post a nice 278 game (see week’s high scores). WTG! 🎳👌
Aside from the 300 and pair of 800s previously reported, Sean Richard had a 776 set (see recap, Lane 43; coincidentally, the 800s are also on this page, Lane 48), and Danny Khuu a 279 game (see weekly high scores). Nice bowling guys! 🎳🙂
Last night was a huge night for a pair of Patriots league teammates, as Stephen Major went 258-300-246 for an 804 and Jon Hester followed him with 289-249-279 for 817. Stephen was subbing for one member of the team while another pre-bowled. My video of Stephen’s last shot is below:
Great bowling, guys! 🎳🔥😎💯
Editor’s note: “Hoss” didn’t want me to note the 289 game after he bowled it, but he think he’s resigned to me doing so after recording the 800. 😜
Last night’s bowling, frame-by-frame
While I certainly carried better last week, I managed my game well last night, missing only one “easy” spare (a 10 pin), which was made up for with a split conversion. I’ll definitely take any night I’m making over 90% of my non-split spares.
Result: 203-175-197=575
Average (45 games): 167
Average for last 9 games: 177
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 547
Team lost the first game, but won the other two and total.
I’ve recovered all but one pin of the average I established after my third week in just two weeks after my low water mark of the season (162). I have some momentum coming into the second half with my new team now, so I hope I can help them. 🙂
Interactive standings after Week 15
Creeden’s Mustangs are in 9th place and bowling against Strike Machine tonight, the last week of the first half, with our only chance to move up being to sweep and one of the teams ahead of us, Spare Us or Never Lucky, loses three, which would create the tie for 8th place.
At the top, two points won by Last Empire vs. 10th Frame Magic wins the first half outright, while the best 4 On 9 Man can hope for is 2nd place.
I did have the high handicap game & series in men’s “D” last week (link is to the standing sheet page, which I’ll try to do more of when me or my teammates earn weekly division honors).
Many bowlers need a game or two, or even a full night to get comfortable on a new lane condition. On the first night of the third quarter of the Pepsi league, on Kegel Beaten Path, all Kevin Thibeault did last night, however, was go 269-245-259 for a 773 set, a monster by that league’s standards (see recap, Lane 60). WTG Kev! 🎳🔥
Several bowlers were worthy of mention for performances last Thursday in the Patriots league, and I’ll start with the bowlers with notable series, first:
Nice bowling all around! 🎳😎
This is a long video. However, as Chris Viale stated in it Thursday, NEBA will return to Westgate Lanes on the weekend of Nov. 6 & 7 for the Brockton Bicentennial Open. After Westgate wasn’t scheduled to host an event in 2020, it was my thought to try bring NEBA back for one of the Brockton bicentennial years (I’ll address it in an addendum note below.). The pandemic brought an element of uncertainty, but our proposal came together late in NEBA’s scheduling process and we are happy to have been added.
We’d originally hoped for a July date that would lead into our Hall of Fame Weekend and Mid-Summer Celebration, but the November weekend we are scheduled for also works for us, as it leads into Veterans Day, which is also important to our Bicentennial Committee. For more information about our plans for the weekend, you may follow the Downtown Brockton Museum page on Facebook, but I will also try to share any pertinent details on this website’s page, as Bill Hogan, the museum’s president, tends to like to use groups on Facebook for everything more than pages.
We look forward to having the best in my sport in New England return to my hometown this fall.
Addendum note: The City of Brockton’s official seal notes that it became “A Town” in 1821, and Brockton was then known as North Bridgewater. The Downtown Brockton Museum’s reasoning behind having a bicentennial celebration now is that many people alive now will not be alive in 2081, which will be when the bicentennial of the city’s incorporation will be celebrated, and so may not get a chance to experience a celebration of this scope.
My Week 15 bowling, frame-by-frame
My closest approach to 600 territory in a while. 😎
The only thing disappointing about the night was that if I made either 4-7 in the 10th frame second or third game tonight, I do get the six just with fill on the spare, in all probability. However, I will take this, as I was as comfortable as I felt bowling in a while, made the right moves when I had to, and had almost no carry issues.
Result: 171-202-220=593
Average (42 games): 165
Average for last 9 games: 169
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 528
Our opponents’ second man had a good night, but the team rode my good third game to the win for that game’s point, which was what we salvaged out of the night.
Interactive league standings after Week 14
Creeden’s Mustangs are in 9th place, 15.5 points behind Last Empire, who are a half-point ahead of 10th Frame Magic, a point-and-a-half ahead of 4 On 9 Man, and 7.5 points ahead of Sweet Rolls. My team is scheduled to bowl against Motley Crew tonight, but where this is the last week before the last position round of the half, I’ll give the leaders’ schedules, as well: Last Empire vs. Spare Us, 10th Frame Magic vs. Move To Strike, 4 On 9 Man vs. BBOB, and Sweet Rolls vs. Maggie’s Warriors.
Kevin did have the overall high game (267) and series (710) in the league last week. 😁👍
I still like to congratulate bowlers for 11 in a row, and that was the case last night, as Brendan Litchfield had (apparently) the back 11 for a 290 in the His & Hers league last night (see the weekly high scores). Great bowling! 🎳🔥
There were a couple of notable scores last Thursday in the Patriots league: Aaron Major, with 258-233-289 for a 780 set (see recap, Lane 49), and Brian Egan, with a 278 game (see weekly high scores). Good bowling, you two! 🎳👍
My Week 14 bowling, frame-by-frame
The way the night went, I might as well have titled this “Lost on the left side,” as that was where I left most of my spares and was missing most of them, as well. I was probably proud that I did pick up the one 10 pin I had all night, with the bonus being the washout conversion early in the night.
Result: 136-150-147=433
Average (39 games): 162
Average for last 9 games: 155
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 497
As bad as I was, the bottom of our order, Randi & Kevin (the latter in particular) was as good, relatively, and we did win all four.
