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.

May 1 league standings update

After taking three of four points from “Bowling Stones,” “Babe and Balls closed the gap to 10th place, as my team now sits just two points behind “Pairs and Spares.” At the top of the standings, “The Incredibowls” have clinched at least a tie for the second half title, as they’re now eight points ahead of “The Mustangs” with two weeks left.

“Dee’s Boys” provide my team’s opposition this week. Looking at the contenders, “The Incredibowls” look to clinch the second half against “Fire in the Hole,” while “The Mustangs” are bowling against the vacant.

“Quick-hitter” at state youth tournament

I don’t usually blog about my non-bowling visits to my center these days, but felt I had to note something about my trip there on the first day of the 2011 state youth tournament. Ray at one point called me over when he had sight of me and pointed to me a six year old, who I was told bowls out of Ken’s Bowl in Pittsfield, where the state open tournament is this year. He had what Ray termed “unbelieveable form for his age,” taking six steps to the line like Norm Duke and even getting a little hook out of a very light ball. Ray also gave me an opportunity to have a few words with the boy’s father, which I kept brief because I was due to catch the bus home.

I may have just seen the future of tenpin bowling in New England. 😀

Apr. 27 league night recap

My Week 33 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK sheet)

Tonight should’ve been better based on “feel,” as I said in my BowlSK comment, and, indeed, my strikes the first two games felt so good that I remarked to my teammates that I wished those were on the video I posted today rather than the one I got. I’m happy because tonight squared me back up with last season’s average and then some, and I’m bowling well enough now that I feel I can raise it another pin by the time the league ends.

Result: 222-214-174=610
Average (99 games): 186
Average for last 9 games: 191
Next week’s AVG+1: 617

Team was also short Patrick for the first game, but Carl did well to back my 222 up; everyone contributed in the second game, but we were all under average third game, so the result was three points.

Apr. 26 practice video

As I hinted at in my last post, I also brought my pocket camcorder and tripod with me to practice and got some video. I did most of the shooting in the second game, but sort of struggled with my balance, so I worked on that, then got a shot in the last frame. My shot shown below is probably not “perfect” (though my release was a bit better, I think, than in the video I showed “CoachJim” many weeks ago), but I’m only posting it to give my readers an idea of how I’m playing the lanes, on the house shot, these days.

Those wanting a download can watch on YouTube, reload it by making the host read http://www.kickyoutube.com, and it will allow you you download it as an MP4 (which is the format I uploaded it as, anyway).

Apr. 26 practice

I was planning it, anyway, but a DSL outage here for most of the day gave me a great excuse to hit the practice lanes. I spent most of my time working on release, and, while some shots weren’t perfect, I was still around my average, with the only easy spare miss being one 10 pin.

I’m saving something related to this for tomorrow…stay tuned! 😀

Winter 2011 Week 15 virtual league results

As happened in the first meeting, “Crazy Eights” were swept by “High Five,” and, this time, the sweep meant that the latter team won enough points to clinch the league championship with a week to spare. My team now finds itself three points behind “2 X 6 Pack” in last place, meaning we can force a tie for 9th place by taking five points against them, and get into 9th outright with a better performance.

Links to Radical Bowling and Bowl Expo added to sidebar

I forgot where I came across a link to this site, but Radical is a new bowling ball company. Their maiden offering is named the Slant, and they’ll announce the rest of their product line at the coming Bowl Expo. The link has been added to the sidebar, under the “Equipment Sites” category.

While I was at adding the link to Radical, I did a Google search on the Bowl Expo show, and found that they, too, have a website. Being that it’s an industry trade show, I’m not sure if the link should be added to the general “Bowling Sites” category, but, being that all of the equipment makers have booths at the show, I thought it better to add the site under “Equipment Sites.”

Apr. 23 league standings update

Even though we took all four of our points against the vacant this week, “Babe and Balls” still couldn’t make any headway on getting out of 11th place, as we still stand four points behind “In It To Win It” and “Pairs and Spares.” At the top, “The Incredibowls” now lead “The Mustangs” by nine points with three weeks left in the half. Individually, all I can tell everyone is that I had the high scratch game of the week with my 259.

“Bowling Stones” are my team’s opponents next week.

Apr. 23 outing with brother

With my brother in Brockton all weekend for Easter, we found time to hit the lanes today. I was mostly happy with how I bowled, as I had a 611 total and didn’t miss any easy ones until late in the third game. About that third game, I had the front six, but missed a couple of 10s late (7th and 10th frames), so what could’ve been a game in the 240s only finished as a 225. My brother was about normal for him.

Wheelchair national tournament notes

Westgate Lanes again will be hosting the national championship tournament of the American Wheelchair Bowling Association from June 21 to June 26. In conjunction with this event, the AWBA will be running an “Up and Down” team event on Monday June 20 at 7 PM. The format is 3 games of 9-pin no-tap bowled by trios, one of which must be a wheelchair bowler. Entry fee will be $25/person and the tournament will be handicapped at 90% of a team scratch score of 630. All entry fees will be returned as prizes at a 1 in 6 ratio, with the top 6 teams cashing based on 32 entries ($450, $150/person for first). Bowlers without a league average must bowl scratch. There will be door prizes, and, if a wheelchair bowler wishes to bowl and doesn’t have a team, the tournament committee will make an effort to find that person bowlers.

Entry forms are available at the control desk.

Sean Richard breaks six-year-old Westgate Lanes average record

I’ve been pretty much sitting on this for a couple of weeks, and had been waiting until the final standings for the league were posted, but I’ve been told that that may not happen, so I’m running with this now…

Congratulations to Sean Richard, who has posted a 235.1 average for the 2010-11 season in the Brockton Ten Pin Men’s Invitational League. This breaks a six-year-old house record, which was 232 by Bill Major (which league is unknown to me, as the old record was set before my return to the game). Sean had a high game of 289 and a high series of 788 in the league this season.

If the final standings are posted online, I will add it to this post as a comment. Also, as it is a house record, I felt this post worthy enough to categorize as an honor score post.

Congrats again, Sean! 😀

Apr. 20 league night recap

My Week 32 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK sheet)

Everything felt really good in the first game, and, indeed, through three frames of Game 2, when I almost had the “Varipappa 300.” Then, I wasn’t getting the breaks, with five splits and two washouts. Not counting those, however, I didn’t miss anything easy. The first game was my third of the season of 250+, going over a personal season-long mark I established last season.

Result: 259-173-156=588
Average (96 games): 185
Average for last 9 games: 194
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 567

The only problem we had taking points from the vacant was in Game 2, when we were just a pin over what we needed to take the point. My other three teammates present picked me up in the third game, with all three going over average.

Apr. 16 league standings update

As my team forfeited all three games last week, the lack of points meant that “Babe and Balls” are now five points behind both “In It To Win It” and “Pairs and Spares” in 11th place. “The Mustangs” won three points in the forfeit situation (a team can lose forfeit points, but the team forfeiting cannot win points), and only managed to keep pace with “The Incredibowls,” who are now 9 points in front in the second half standings with four weeks left. My team bowls the vacant team next week.

“Above 180” added to blogroll

I found the “Above 180” site while looking for information on the 2010 Bowlers Journal Ball of the Year. The driving forces of this site are a Wisconsin pro shop owner who happens to do a lot of the ball testing for Bowlers Journal, and the host of a DC-based nationally-syndicated radio talk show who also happens to be a bowler. The site has plenty of articles on the national bowling scene and a section dedicated to coaching articles, but it also has an audio podcast, which the radio guy seems to be behind.

I wasn’t quite sure how to categorize it for the sidebar, but the site does run off of WordPress and acts like a blog, so I figured the blogroll would be the best place for it, but please keep in mind that there is audio content on the site, as well.

Ed Godino III throws 11 in a row 298 game in Brunswick Mixed League

I saw my 288 fall as the high game in my league tonight, as Ed Godino III started his night with an 11 in a row 298 game, with his bid for a perfect 300 spoiled by a “fast eight” (the 4-7). It was the first honor score in the league in my time in it. My hope for getting the high game prize now rests mostly on Ed winning the average prize; going into tonight, Shawn had a slim lead on Ed for average, but the first game alone improved Ed’s average by better than a pin, and it looked like 700 would be in the bag after his second game. Shawn, for his part, told me he didn’t have a great night.

Congrats again, Ed! 😀

Apr. 13 league night recap

My Week 31 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK sheet)

Tonight, I adopted a warm-up routine I’ve seen Ed Roberts follow where he shoots his 10 pin on his first ball during practice time, then throw for a strike on second ball. It seemed to pay immediate dividends, as I did not miss a single 10 tonight. However, that did not mean my night was good: I had 6 splits on the night, and my single 2 pin now seems to be a problem, as I missed it both times I had it.

Result: 165-184-179=528
Average (93 games): 185
Average for last 9 games: 187
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 597

My team will be missing John for the rest of the season, as he’ll be having knee surgery. That, combined with Carl and Patrick both being absent, meant we were bowling in a forfeit situation, and my bowling only counted for average purposes. Eileen, for what it’s worth, was well over 400 again.

I have one more post about tonight in my league, but that has to go in a separate post.

Winter 2011 Week 13 virtual league results

“Crazy Eights” had a great week last week…a record-breaking week, in fact. My teammate “B Fury” threw a 298 last game in the process of posting an 824 set, which now stands as the virtual league’s record individual series. The rest of the team did well, as well, and, as a result, we now hold the record team game (1,214) and series (3,324).

The effort was rewarded with all 7 points, coming at the expense of “2 X 6 Pack,” and my team crawled out of last place, now standing two points ahead of “Pinfall Wizards.” The week saw a new leader at the top, with “High Five” now standing two points ahead of “Wrecking Balls.” With three weeks left, only 7 points separate the top half of the standings.