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

As I said in my BowlSK comment, the biggest thing I took out of tonight is that I punched out in the 9th and 10th frames to end the night playing as deep inside on this shot as I ever play. It should’ve been a better spare-shooting night, however, due to my missing as many single pins as I made multi-pin spares (the one multi-pin spare I missed was a split).

Result: 202-180-204=586
Average (57 games): 186
Average for last 9 games: 182
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 568

We lost all of the points, but the last two games were fairly close against a tough opponent, who was missing a member, as was my own team (John was sick). Carl had a highlight for my teammates in the third game by shooting pretty close to his personal best game.

“Crazy Eights” did the best we could hopefully do in the first week: win all 7 points (against “Magnificent 7”) and shoot the high scratch team game and series to take the top spot in the league. Two other teams, “Sk8ing On Thin Ice” and “Wrecking Balls,” also won all 7 of their points in the first week.

As I thought I could with the road conditions having improved following yesterday’s winter storm, I got in my post-bowl for the virtual league today. I took neither my netbook nor a paper note sheet for BowlSK, but will summarize the three games below, with my memory being assisted by the desk printout:

Game 1 – Front 4; opens were chopped 4-7 (5th) and a Greek Church (9th); almost punched out in the 10th for the deuce

Game 2 – Front 4 again, then flagged a 10; clean from there, w/ a turkey to set up the 10th

Game 3 – Chopped a 2-4 (4th) for the only makeable miss of the game, but there were also a 3-4-6-7 (5th) and a swishing 7-10 and a 4-7-9 to end it; only one double (7th & 8th) to make up for the opens

Result: 208-232-159=599

I’d really like to have the third game back, but still almost got the 6, so this post-bowl was not a bad start to the winter virtual league season.

My league decided to cancel bowling tonight due to the snowstorm currently belting the area. Typically, my league doesn’t make up the week, but they may if the league’s banquet night hasn’t been scheduled yet. As for the virtual league, I plan to make the week up with open bowling later in the week.

I’m posting mostly to congratulate “The 5 G’s” on winning the first half. They did so by posting a 3-1 win over “Vakanczz” to force a one-game roll-off to break the tie, in which Dana Gomes had the front eight to pace his team to the win. I’ll comment when I know the final totals for the game.

“Babe and Balls” will have the aforementioned “5 G’s” to start the second half Wednesday night.

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

I chatted on Facebook with “CoachJim” in the wake of my bad night last week, and he thought I may have been trying to help the downswing instead of letting the ball fall into it. That was the point of emphasis tonight, and, when I remembered it, I generally made good shots.

Result: 210-192-184=586
Average (54 games): 186
Average for last 9 games: 175
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 593

As I’ve noted earlier, my team was bowling the vacant tonight, which meant we should’ve won points easily tonight, and we did so fairly comfortably.

Halfway through the season, despite the ups and downs, I’m right where I started the season: 186 average.

I did the real work leading up to the start of the Winter 2011 virtual league over the weekend, and found myself on Team 8. Again, two of my chat buddies are teammates, this time “Kelly” and “ryanfeia.” Users “B Fury” and “mikey0811” round out the team, and, at press time, only the former of those two had yet to read my introduction message. We have already settled on “Crazy Eights” as the team name…I hope my team gets better karma out of that name than “5 Blind Squirrels” did for my fall team.

It was a foregone conclusion before last week, anyway, but “Babe and Balls” will be bowling the vacant team this week in the position round. At the top of the standings, “The 5 G’s” need a net win over “Vakanczz” to force a tie for the first half. I’m not sure what the tiebreaking procedure is if two teams are tied at the end of a half, but I’ll let everyone know if it happens.

Shawn had a 712 last week, so he’s now in the lead for the overall scratch series, and there have now been 3 series better than my best since I posted the first 700 series of the season back in September.

As I usually do for the new calendar year, with the halfway point of most leagues approaching, I devote a post to the high scores at Westgate Lanes for the men and women to this point. These are based on the league standings sheets available at the time of posting, and the youth leagues are included if they make the list. High averages are based on a minimum of 30 games. The leagues that bowl four games per session (Tuesday Scratch Sportsmen and Boston Bowl Invitational Singles) were not included in series consideration, but if the first three of a series in either of those leagues was higher than what I have, please send feedback (the “Contact me” page) to let me know about it.

Average: 233.6; Sean Richard (Brockton Ten Pin)
Series: 790; Mike Trent (Thursday Night Patriots)
Game: 300; Kevin Sheehy, Ryan Evans, Devon McGregor (Coke Classic), Mike Monteiga (Brockton Ten Pin), Alex Aguiar, Ralph Dahlgren, Trey Coy, Rai Doblmeier (Tuesday Scratch Sportsmen), Gerry LaTremouille, Brian White, Ed Alfieri, Rich Walker Jr. (Westgate Mixed), Richard Mines (TNBA)

Average: 209.2; Shirley Major (Thursday Handicap Doubles)
Series: 740; Shirley Major (Thursday Handicap Doubles)
Game: 277; Sandi Litchfield (Westgate Mixed), Jessica Lowe (TNBA)

Wishing everyone the best in the new year. 😀

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

Another quote from my BowlSK comment summed this night up:

I looked lost most of the night: the first two games may have been my worst back-to-back games since I returned to league bowling. I did find something inside the last game to save the 470.

Result: 128-139-203=470
Average (51 games): 185
Average for last 9 games: 186
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 564

Again, it was a case of my team not being able to put good games together, and we lost every point for the second week in a row.

In the last week of the fall virtual league, “5 Blind Squirrels” could only manage two points over “Cell 6,” so my team in that league ended up being “lonely at the bottom of the barrel.” In the championship match, Team 7 held off “Furious Five” by taking 4 of the 7 points; as I noted on the forums, however, the match was close, as the first game could have gone either way. Congrats, Team 7! 😀

It is now a certainty that “Babe and Balls” will be bowling the vacant team in next week’s first-half position round, as we now stand six points behind “Warren’s Girls” (who happen to be our opposition this week). At the top of the standings, “The 5 G’s” and “Vakanczz” are tied for the league lead, with “The Incredibowls” 2.5 points behind in third. This week could have a say in who gets on the top rungs of the position ladder, as “The 5 G’s” and “The Incredibowls” face each other this week (“Vakanczz” will be facing “Bowling Stones”).

Personally, my hopes of getting the overall men’s high series prize took a hit last week, as Bobby Geddes fired a 711 to take the lead (Ed Godino III had been leading for high series, however, as he also has high average, he would get the average prize, which was why I stood to get the series prize until now.). I shouldn’t complain, however: my 288 still stands as the men’s overall high game.

(Late post due to problems on the WordPress site last night)

My Week 16 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK series sheet)

Last night was sort of not fun; it seemed that I knew what adjustments to make, but couldn’t put everything together until the last game (especially late in that game). The result was leaving more than one pin standing a lot and, combined with not being able to pick up the “garbage,” made for a sub-par night.

Result: 158-166-197=521
Average (48 games): 187
Average for last 9 games: 203
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 578

All of us had at least one game over average on the night, but, because we couldn’t put anything together, we failed to take any points.

With my team having two games over 1000 pins scratch for the first time in the virtual league season, I was hopeful that my team could get 4 or 5 points out of Week 15. However, “Cell 6” threw some big scores at us second game, leaving “5 Blind Squirrels” to settle for the first game and total for only 3 points. As it stands, we now have to sweep the former team to force company at the bottom of the standings.

The top position match between Team 7 and “Furious Five” should decide the fall league championship by itself, with the former team going into the match with a two-point edge.

Taking a lone point yet again, “Babe and Balls” fell further back last week, and now stand five points in back of “Warren’s Girls” in last place (other than the vacant team). “The 5 G’s” and “Vakanczz” are now tied for the league lead, with “The Incredibowls” 3.5 points behind in third place. While I don’t have the individual results in each division (this update is taken from the BowlerExpress standings) at press time, I did have the second high scratch game and series of the week, trailing only Keith Kaestner in both categories.

This week, the last before the first-half position round (the second half will be 18 weeks long, with the roll-off between the winners of the halves on Week 36), will have my team facing “Fire in the Hole.”