Author: Rich

I started "The Tenth Board" to chronicle my experiences during the road back to league bowling after my heel fractures in 1999 (it took me 7 years before I started thinking seriously about it). I now use the blog as a combination of a personal bowling journal and a news site mostly about Westgate Lanes (Brockton, MA) and its bowlers.

Cross-training #178

A Pittsburgh Steelers fan site has noted that linebacker James Farrior will have his weekend fundraiser for his charity foundation this weekend in Richmond, VA, and that it will include a bowling event.

Note: I’d like to note that this blog recently passed the 20K plateau in views of the site. Thank you to all of my readers. 😀

June 8 league night recap

My Week 3 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK sheet)

First game was good, but it was a struggle after that, with all of the splits. I thought I could adjust with speed and small moves, but was wrong for the most part. It looked like I could make my single pins (despite missing a 4 in the middle of Game 2)…I just wish I had more of them.

Result: 236-158-155=549
Average (9 games): 192
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 582

Lou was the real star tonight, just missing a 700 series. With everyone doing well in Game 1, we had a comfortable lead, but we tried not to sit on it, and that attitude allowed us to take the third game after losing the second, resulting in 6 of the 8 on the night. With us averaging that performance after three weeks, I think my team has a chance if we can keep it up. 😀

“Tally art”

Thought I’d post the photo of the door of my freezer in its current state as my answer to the tally art that fighter pilots painted on the fuselage of their planes under the side of the cockpit canopy during World War II. The four USBC award magnets shown were all earned this past winter season and represent every magnet I could have won this past season, as my average is too high for the 200 game and 600 series magnets.

June 5 league standings update

After the split with Team 8, “Ebony And Ivory” sits in 4th place after two weeks. Three teams have taken 14 of the possible 16 points after two weeks: “Top Cheddah,” Team 3, and “2nd To None” (listed in pinfall order). Team 12 will be the opposition for my team this week.

June 1 league night recap

I’m posting this late due to severe weather in the Brockton area last night (I never liked being online during thunderstorms).

My Week 2 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK sheet)

Last night was more like it: a consistent 600 series with no game under 190. My new teammate, Lou, also got to see why I like bowling anchor so much…I punched out 9th and 10th frame in two of the three games, the second of those with the game on the line.

Result: 198-213-191=602
Average (6 games): 197
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 597

The team lost the first game by 110 pins, but Lou, and Rob in particular, woke up in the last two games to help support me. I still had to “earn my pay” in those two games, but we got out of there with a split of four points apiece.

2010-11 season recap

I usually make my annual house-wide league recap post on June 1, but, where I’m supposed to bowl on that date, I have more time for it today.

Anyway, with all of the winter leagues finished for the season, I devote an annual post to a recap of what happened during the season by listing the highs for the men and women (including youth bowlers if they otherwise qualified) during the season. As far as high series, for the leagues that bowl four games in a series (Tuesday Scratch Sportsmen and Boston Bowl Invitational Singles), only the first three games of a series was considered, following the USBC rule on series awards. High average is based on a minimum of 72 games in the league in question.

Men

Average: 235.1; Sean Richard (Brockton Ten Pin, 96 games)*
Series: 845; Gerry LaTremouille (Westgate Mixed)
Game: 300; Matt Yandek (2), Mike Major, Kevin Sheehy, Chris Mark, Ryan Evans, Devon McGregor (Coke Classic), Brad Silva, Michael Monteiga (Brockton Ten Pin), James Scales (His & Hers), Alex Aguiar, Ralph Dahlgren, Trey Coy, Rai Doblmeier (Tuesday Scratch Sportsmen), Gerry LaTremouille, John Kunan, Ed Alfieri, Rich Walker Jr. (Westgate Mixed), Richard Mines (TNBA)

* As noted in a previous post, this is a new Westgate Lanes house record.

Women

Average: 211.4; Shirley Major (Thursday Handicap Doubles, 93 games)
Series: 740; Shirley Major (Thursday Handicap Doubles)
Game: 289; Jessica Lowe (TNBA)

Congrats to everyone named above. 😀

Readers interested in a particular league should check the individual standings sheets on either BowlerExpress or LeagueSecretary.com (links to both sites are in the sidebar on the main blog page).

Sidebar link reorganization

I completed one of the projects I wanted to do with the blog this summer today. I have reorganized the links listings in the sidebar to allow readers to find sites related to their interest more quickly. As part of the reorganization, a few new categories were added, as follows:

Ball sites: Sites related specifically to bowling balls. All of the bowling ball company sites are in this new category, as well as those sites dealing primarily with demos and reviews. Note: some of the bigger ball companies make and sell other equipment, but if I thought the company was best-known for balls, they made it here.

Coaching/Tips: Sites devoted to coaching or bowling tips.

Local/New England: For sites pertaining to bowling in the Brockton area or throughout the New England region, including tournaments operating in the region.

Other equipment sites: This is actually the renamed “Equipment sites” category, and will include the shoe companies, as well as online pro shops.

Tournaments: For tournaments operating primarily outside the New England region.

Again, this reorganization is in service to my readers, and I hope this makes it easier for everyone to find what they need. 😀

May 29 league standings update

“Ebony And Ivory” won all 8 points last week from “Lizzard Slayers” (on which my cousin Melissa was supposed to bowl, but was absent). Three teams won all 8 points the first week, the other two being “Lounge Lizards” (with my cousins Dave and Debbie) and Team 17 (featuring Alex from my winter league); my team had the highest handicap pinfall of the three, so we’re in first place, at least for the moment. My team is scheduled against Team 8, which has Ed Godino Jr. from my winter league, with his son possibly subbing at times, on it, in the coming week.

I didn’t see the standings on BowlerExpress and the standings information comes from LeagueSecretary.com; the link to the LeagueSecretary.com sheet is now in the sidebar.

Cross-training #177

This is what passes for an OTA in an NFL affected by a lockout…

The Palm Beach Post notes that Cam Newton, the #1 draft pick of the Carolina Panthers, is slated to participate in future teammate David Clowney’s celebrity weekend, which will end with a celebrity bowling tournament on June 5 at the Strikes at Boca center in Boca Raton, FL.

2011 summer links transition

The transition of the links in the “Author’s links” sidebar category to the summer list has commenced with the addition of the BowlingTracker.com stat sheet. The winter league links will be taken down when the standings sheet links for the summer league have been added, and the winter league BowlingTracker.com stat sheet will be archived on that site at that time.

May 25 league night recap (start of summer league)

Although I wanted something of a “change of scenery,” I ended up on a team with Eileen and Rob (with John not bowling), joined by Lou Larry. We christened the team “Ebony and Ivory” as a reference to the racial mix on the team.

My Week 1 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK sheet)

My team was thrown into the fire against a team led by Dan Esdale, and I thought I hung in well against him, and actually beating his score scratch in the first game. I threw a clunker in the last game, but I was only 6 pins worse than Dan on the night, so I’ll definitely take that.

Result: 234-203-146=583
Average (3 games): 194
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 587

Lou, leading off in our lineup, was the only bowler on our pair over 600, and we had the best scratch score in all three games, but we’ll see how the first week standings shake out.

2011 Mass. women’s state tournament results

The Worcester County USBC Bowling Associationhas posted the results of the 2011 Massachusetts USBC Women’s Bowling Association championship tournament. As I did for the open tournament, I’ll list the state champions below (with association in parentheses):

Team

Division 1 handicapped: Hang Mom (Foxvale) 2,860
Division 2 handicapped: Dream Girls (Greater Boston) 2,871
Division 1 scratch: Hang Mom (Foxvale) 2,389
Division 2 scratch: Thunder And Lightning (Greater Springfield) 2,034

Doubles

Division 1, handicapped: Catalina Sweeney & Dianne Johnson (Greater Gardner) 1,479
Division 2, handicapped: Kathleen Lapinsky & Cyntha Wing (Worcester County) 1,511
Division 3, handicapped: Katrina Sweeney & Jen Gadbois (Worcester County) 1,477
Division 1, scratch: Ivylee Williston & Stacey Beamenderfer (Worcester County) 1,275
Division 2, scratch: Kathy Henze & Evelyn Beauchesne (Merrimack Valley), Catalina Sweeney & Dianne Johnson (Greater Gardner) 1,158
Division 3, scratch: Katrina Sweeney & Jen Gadbois (Worcester County) 957

Singles

Division 1, handicapped: Jessica Wood (Worcester County) 903
Division 2, handicapped: Holly Ongley (Southern Berkshire) 805
Division 3, handicapped: Katrina Sweeney (Worcester County) 807
Division 1, scratch: Jessica Wood (Worcester County) 763
Division 2, scratch: Holly Ongley (Southern Berkshire) 635
Division 3, scratch: Katrina Sweeney (Worcester County) 524

All-Events

Division 1, handicapped: Angela Richard (Greater Gardner) 2,345
Division 2, handicapped: Renee LeBlanc (Greater Gardner) 2,368
Division 3, handicapped: Katrina Sweeney (Worcester County) 2,355
Division 1, scratch: Tina Gannon (Tri-City) 2,072
Division 2, scratch: Holly Ongley (Southern Berkshire) 1,848
Division 3, scratch: Lidia Ramos (Worcester County) 1,510

Note: The above are the top scores in the categories and are not necessarily the prize winners for the categories.

Congrats to all of this year’s women’s state champions.

2011 Mass. state open tournament final results

The final results of the 2011 Massachusetts USBC Bowling Association open state championship tournament have been posted. As I’ve been doing, I’ll note the year’s champions below, with local association represented in parentheses:

Handicap Division

Team: Lavallee Machine II (Worcester County) 3,906
Doubles: Robert V. Smith & John Leazott (Greater Boston) 1,587
Singles: Scott Tyson (Southeastern Mass.) 856
All-Events: John Tretheway (Worcester County) 2,483

Scratch Division

Team: Strike F/X Pro Shop (Pittsfield) 3,322
Doubles: Todd Jordan & Robert Earnshaw, Jr. (Mass. Tri-County) 1,440
Singles: Tim Banks (Merrimack Valley) 795
All-Events: Scott DeMarsico (North Adams) 2,159

Excel worksheets with the final standings are available here.

I didn’t see any honor scores posted, but, if I see them, and Westgate Lanes or Brockton association bowlers are involved, I’ll edit this post as needed and note the change in “Administrivia.” Congrats to all of the state champions for 2011.

2011 state youth tournament results

The results of the state youth championship tournament held at Westgate Lanes the previous three weekends are now available here. Because of all of the events (including all-events) for many average divisions, for brevity’s sake, I’ll only list the champions from Westgate Lanes here:

60 & under all-events, handicapped: Jessie Hanning (2,172)
60 & under singles, handicapped: Alexi Wallace (737)
81-100 singles, handicapped: Corey Marvel (761)
120 & under doubles, handicapped: Anna Blyth & Cameron Kaestner (1,453)
161-200 doubles, scratch: Abigail Murphy & Kyle Major (755)

Congrats to all of Westgate Lanes’ state champions this year. 😀

May 22 outing with best friend

I had wanted to bowl in my first Northeast Amateur Tournament at Wonder Bowl in New Bedford today, but my best friend Ed was running well late, and, by the time he said he’d get here, I felt we wouldn’t get there in time to register for the second squad, so I called off the tournament. NAT entries are all taken on-site, so the cash I was going to use will be deposited and put to use later (likely as my entry for the People’s Tournament next month at Westgate Lanes).

Ed joined me in bowling a few games at Westgate Lanes, instead, and I continued to work on what “CoachJim” gave me. I may not really be good bowling back-to-back days, though, b/c I only made my average one of the three games. My highlight was converting a 4-5 split, which I picked up by moving 4 boards right and throwing my strike ball at my strike target. Ed, for his part, broke 100 in his third game and also picked up a similar split (the 5-6).

2011 league banquet

I’m keeping this post simple because I never did get the group picture of “The Incredibowls.” As I figured, I won division high scratch series, and that was worth $10 more than my game prizes the last two years were. The highlight of the banquet itself was a “home video” produced by Alex Frisbie of “Bowling Stones,” which I thought was pretty slick. The bowling center and pro shop also donated gifts as door prizes, and I happened to get the last gift certificate to the pro shop; I’ve been looking at getting a Tropical Storm or similar ball drilled pin-under (weak for most bowlers), and will likely put the gift certificate toward that.

May 21 outing with brother

I wasn’t expecting it this morning, but my brother popped the bowling question when he showed up for his visit. Of course, I accepted, thinking it would be an ideal time to shake some of the rust off from not bowling in over a week with a tournament coming up tomorrow. “CoachJim” thought I needed to work on ball speed and timing, so that was mostly what I worked on on first ball. “CoachJim” also gave me a hint on my spares, especially on my right side (including my troublesome 10 pin): if I push off harder on my right leg into my release, that will help keep my hips square with my target line subconsciously. That second bit actually seemed to work…I missed a 3-6, but only because I felt I pulled it, and that was the only “easy” miss on the day; the rest were splits. Though I wasn’t overly concerned with score, I shot a 616 for the set.

“The Incredibowls” win 2010-11 Brunswick Mixed League championship

“The Incredibowls” won tonight’s three-game, total pins roll-off for the Brunswick Mixed League championship over “The 5 G’s” by a score (with handicaps) of 3135-3131. Brian Snow had a 203 game and Pat Trombley had a four-bagger in the later stages of a 180 first game for “The Incredibowls” to take a six pin lead. “The Incredibowls” then increased their lead to 67 pins after two games, with Trombley pacing the team with a 194 game. “The 5 G’s” won the last game by 63 pins in large part due to a 241 from Dwayne Gomes and a 256 from Dana Gomes, but Pat Trombley finished the third game with six strikes for a personal best 234 game of her own to help her team hold off the late charge. Trombley ended with a personal best 608 series, the first 600 series by a woman in the league this season.

April/May 2011 People’s Tournament results

The People’s Tournament reported Mitchell “Buttermilk” Davis (AMF Silver Lanes, 151 avg.) as the champion of the event held on April 30 & May 1 at AMF Silver Lanes. “Buttermilk” defeated Bert Roy (AMF Silver Lanes, 190 avg.) by a score of 266-211 (with handicaps) in the final match. For Westgate Lanes bowlers, Michael Reed (175 avg.) and Alfredo Donato (195 avg.) were both defeated in the round of four.

My 2010-11 season, by the numbers

As I did last year, I’m dedicating a post to breaking down my league performance with the help of the BowlSK reports. First, the first-ball numbers (numbers before the pipe | character reflect last year’s performance):

Strike percentage: 44.8% | 46.4%
Pocket shots: 73.1% | 78.2%
Carry percentage: 58.8% (475/808) | 58.6% (529/903)
Double rate: 43.3% (208/480) | 49.1% (250/509)
Average first-ball count: 8.9 | 8.9
Average first-ball non-strike count: 8.0 | 7.9

I continue to improve on finding the pocket, though my carry rate was slightly down from last year. However, when I had a strike working, I almost kept the string going as often as not. As the following second-ball numbers will show, this was what kept me afloat:

Overall spare percentage: 57.1% (332/581) | 51.4% (303/589)
Single-pin spare percentage: 73.5% (200/272) | 70.9% (183/258)
Multi-pin spare percentage: 56.3% (120/213) | 56.1% (110/196)
Makeable (non-split) percentage: 66.0% (320/485) | 64.5% (293/454)
Split conversion percentage: 12.5% (12/96) | 7.4% (10/135)
Washout conversion percentage: 6.5% (2/31) | 26.1% (6/23)
Percentage on single 10 pin: 68.6% (70/102) | 63.6% (68/107)
Percentage on single 7 pin: 56.4% (22/39) | 71.4% (20/28)

My overall numbers show I had more spare opportunites, but made fewer of them, and my single-pin rate went down a few percentage points, but I was shooting at single pins fewer times. I did leave many more splits, though, and converted them at a lesser rate, so this may have had a lot to do with why my overall numbers were down. I made 2 fewer of my single 10 pins in 5 more opportunities, but there was a stretch in the middle of the season where I was missing them as often as I made them; I did feel I made some improvement late in the season. Two parts of my spare game showed improvement over last year: I made the 7 pin a lot more often on a percentage basis when I had it, and got out of trouble more often on my washouts (though that latter number may fluctuate wildly from season to season).

After I get everything I want to save up for, I intend to go for lessons more often, and that will probably be when I can work on my spare game more. It’ll still be a matter of getting practice in, which may not always be easy.

Carl Nordstrom, Harry Thibeault, Tim Major throw 299 games in Westgate Mixed

Congrats to Carl Nordstrom and Harry Thibeault, who each had a 299 game tonight in the Westgate Mixed League. Carl’s came in the first game, while Harry’s happened in the second game. If there are any other honor scores from tonight in that league, I’ll post an update when I see their updated standings.

EDIT: I found out from Adam Johndrow on Facebook, and confirmed through a league source, that Tim Major also had a 299 game in the second game of the night in the league, so congrats to Tim, as well. 😀

May 11 league night recap

My Week 35 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK series sheet)

My second game gave me a chance at the +1, but I just made too many mistakes in the middle of the last game, with a couple of balls skidding through the break point and leaving tough spares. Missing a 3 pin in that game didn’t help matters, as well.

Result: 174-225-171=570
Final average (105 games): 185
Average for last 9 games: 185

Team took all four points, but “Pairs and Spares” took their first two and were comfortable for total when we left, so our position in last for the second half was cemented.

Despite my struggles at times this season, I did feel I learned a few things this season. I’m hopeful for the summer and next fall/winter season to come. 😀

Site link for Norm Duke DVD added to sidebar

I’ve known about the new Norm Duke instructional DVD, “Learn To Bowl Competitively,” for a few months now, but I’ve been waiting for the reviews to come in on it before making a decision to include a link where you can purchase it in the sidebar. The feedback on it has been very positive (I plan to buy it myself in the future), so I have done so; it is in the “Bowling Sites” sidebar category (for now). Being that the domain name for the site is in the plural, there are probably more products to come.

May 4 league night recap (includes standings update)

My Week 34 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK sheet)

From my BowlSK comment:

The lanes were dry tonight, and matters were worse with two high-rev bowlers on the other team chewing the lanes up, but my scores belie the fact that I adjusted to them better. In the second game, I found some room next to the front of the return on the right lane, but, by the end of the third game, I couldn’t stand in front of the return without pulling the ball, so I went to my plastic ball on that lane. Indeed, I loved the shot I made with my plastic ball in the 8th frame of that game; I just couldn’t repeat that shot in the 10th frame.

Result: 179-169-145=493
Average (102 games): 185
Average for last 9 games: 187
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 580

My team only took one point, sealing the fact that we will be bowling the vacant in the second half position round next week. “The Incredibowls” took two points tonight against “Fire in the Hole,” meaning that they are the second half winners and will bowl against “The 5 G’s” in the roll-off in two weeks.