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.

Fall 2010 virtual league results, Week 1

Unlike my real team, my virtual team struggled and failed to take points against “Furious Five,” who share the lead in points with “AAA” after Week 1. A chat buddy of mine, “sk8shorty01,” had the high game of the week, submitting a 298.

Link addition note: I’ve been putting it off, but the stat sheet for the new Brunswick Mixed season is now in the sidebar list under “Author’s links.”

Sept. 13 practice

As I seemed to be having trouble handling transition last week in league, today I did a little drill I made up that simulated a whole night. First game, I used my baseline 30/10 shot, 2nd game I moved in to 33 looking around 11 or 12, and the third game was a move in to 36 looking around 13. It actually seemed I got better as I moved in, as I struggled with a 151 first game, but then had a 210 second game and a 220 third game (each of the latter two with only one open frame). I also got my spare game with my repolished spare ball figured out, and that also improved with each game. Now I just hope this carries into Wednesday night. 😀

Sept. 8 league night recap (first night of 2010-11 fall/winter season)

The Ruhls seemed set on wanting “Babe and Balls” as a team name, so after some discussion, we let them have it. There were a lot of new faces in the league, so I’ll be introducing myself as I bowl their teams.

My Week 1 bowling, frame-by-frame (Links to series sheet on BowlSK)

Except for the first game, this was not how I imagined starting the new season. Most of my problem was leaving splits (nine total on the night), but I wasn’t helping myself missing the easier two-pin cluster type spares, either. Except for a miss of a 6 pin, I was good on my 5 single pins, and polishing my spare ball back up seemed to help on those.

Result: 201-127-147=475
Average (3 games): 158
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 479

As near as I can tell from the recap, my team swept the points first night from a team that included my buddy Rob. Everyone had at least one game over average, with John really picking it up in his last 2 games and Eileen chipping in a 175 second game for her high game on the night.

Book review: “Bowling For Dummies”

I was recently contacted by one of the authors of the new “Dummies” book on bowling to give it a review, and, being one that likes anything that helps neophytes get into the game, I agreed and was sent a copy of the book a month or so ago.

Overall, the book does tell a lot of what a new bowler needs to know starting out. It goes into the many benefits of bowling (and I did like that they mention the social aspects), what to look for in equipment (both at the center and when you’re ready to get your own stuff), and the basics of bowling form (I especially liked how they illustrate the motion involved in a hook release). They even mention the fact that there is oil on the lane, something most casual bowlers don’t know about, and the basics of handicapping (explained in the chapter on league bowling), which I felt could make a newcomer to league bowling feel more comfortable. They also explain what to look for in a bowling coach, should the reader decide he/she would like to have one.

This book was not without its flaws, however. They said a right-hander’s hook ball curves to the right, when it’s actually a right-to-left motion at the end (it should be said that it was correctly shown in an illustration, however), and, while they correctly use a four-step delivery as the basis of explaining bowling timing, they fail to mention that other steps are possible in a delivery (remember, I use a six-step delivery myself). It was the chapter on spares that I had the most problems with, however, and a lot of that is technical in nature. For instance, they use the 4-7-8 leave as an illustration for a right-hander as a basis for explaining how to pick up clusters when a right-hander will actually leave the 2-4-5 cluster far more often; the book makes similar assumptions for other types of leaves. As I said, however, my problem is just a technical one, but using an illustration for the more common leave might have helped. Also, none of this paragraph should be taken as though I didn’t like the book; I did, and noting what I felt were flaws in this review is just done in the hope of improving future editions.

To reiterate, the book does a solid job of explaining most of the basics of the game to the beginner, and I would recommend it to someone who wants to go from being a casual bowler to a more frequent, serious one.

Virtual league note

I keep forgetting to mention that because my virtual league’s original secretary, “cgeorg,” wasn’t sure he’d be bowling this fall, I volunteered to step in and run the league starting this fall, and that we have an 8-team, 5-man league running for 16 weeks, with scores starting to count for the virtual league on Monday. I told Shawn the other night that I would likely have a new appreciation for what he does for my real league after running the virtual league for a season.

I’m on a team with users named “Dennis Michael,” “VampyreBowler,” “PBAprince,” and “SpareMe.” The former two I knew from the BowlingFans.com chat, so it’s likely a lot of the team discussion will be occurring there rather than on our team thread on the forums. Anyway, I hope my team does well, though it’ll be hard to top my first virtual league (which my team won, if you’ll remember).

Getting ready for Fall/Winter 2010-11

Tonight was the Brunswick Mixed League’s no-tap tournament, but this one was not as fruitful as last week’s was, as I had no game over 200. Part of the story was that my left foot was barking at me a little bit, so that may have been playing with my mind a bit. However, when it didn’t, I felt I threw some good shots, and, when I knew my issue was being settled in the negative, I started experimenting playing a bit deeper inside (standing 35) with decent results. My buddy Rob threw a no-tap 300 in the last game, with 9 of the 12 natural, and took home the top prize, so congrats to him.

My team from last season is returning intact, but we’re trying to come up with a new name, and John was looking at a list of them online through his iPhone, but some of the ones I liked weren’t met favorably by at least one of the other members, particularly Eileen. Hopefully, we can hash out a few ideas next week and settle on something. Anyone who’d like to offer suggestions can comment to this post with them.

A last thing I wanted to do to get ready for the new season was to get my Target Zone spare ball polished back up, as I’m finding spares on the right side tough, and hopefully the extra shine allows the ball to skid further and not hook as much. Jay did that for me in the pro shop, but I’m not going to have much of a chance to try it out, as Monday is the Labor Day holiday, and there will be no half-price bowling.

As a final note, I introduced myself to Keith Kaestner, someone I had only known online through the Massachusetts Imperial Syndicate (a chapter of FanForce, an international Star Wars fan club), tonight. He’s returning to bowling after living on Cape Cod for three years, and my league was his old league, so I’m sure the people he knew back then are glad to see him back, and that I finally got a chance to meet him in person. I look forward to bowling with him.

Aug. 30 practice

When I got in the door for practice today, I noticed Rob with the lane machine out, so I figured something was being tested, so I asked, and it was testing of this year’s Coke Classic shot. When I got around to asking about the house shot for the fall, I was notified that one of the new Kegel Navigation patterns, called “Bourbon Street” (click link for pattern chart), which is a 40′ shot w/ about 23.5 mL total oil and a ratio of something less than 8:1, was being tested for use as the “house shot”.

The characteristics of Bourbon Street are that the pattern is drier with a bit more room on the outside, so I was trying some lines in practice, and found, through trial and error, that lining up on 33 looking 10 or 11 at the arrows with my Fast gave me my best chance at the pocket as long as my speed was reasonable and not much axis rotation was used. I struggled for two games, but lined up a turkey in the last game, which was the point where I found my best line. If I can repeat my later shots, I stand a chance of doing well this winter.

My first 700, but…

…it was no-tap.

My team, counting the extra money, received almost $40/bowler, and I entered the no-tap tournament following payout. After a first-game 192 in which I had 3 8-counts, making only one of the spares, I got things going in the second game with a 244, with six in a row natural in the middle. It was the last game that really did it for me tonight, however, as I had the first ten, with six of those natural, before leaving a baby split on the 11th ball, which I then whiffed for a 286 (and a no-tap 722 series). I entered the side pots this year, unlike last year, and I knew I had Sean Richard beat, but only got third place in the third game side pot because of a 300 by Harry Thibeault Jr. and a 297 from someone else (I want to say it was Carl Nordstrom, but I’m not sure). Third in the side pots was still worth $6, so I got about half of my money back on the night. With my confidence growing again, I’m looking forward to next week’s no-tap tournament, which will be the one after the Brunswick Mixed League meeting.

Brendan Bierch, George Tignor make match play at PBA Colony Park Lanes Senior Open

The PBA reported that Brendan Bierch of Grafton, MA finished 7th and George Tignor of Winchendon, MA finished 12th in last weekend’s PBA East regional Colony Park Lanes Senior Open in York, PA. Bierch lost to David Kneas of Annapolis, MD 2-0 in the best-of-three round of eight in match play, while Tignor lost to Kneas 3-1 in the best-of-five opening round. The tournament, which was contested on Senior Pattern #1, was won by Gary Shultis of Levittown, NY.

Aug. 19 league standings update (Final for Summer 2010)

“Trip N Shred” ended up in 13th place, four points behind “Wyld Stallyns,” but two ahead of “Hocus Pocus.” The 2010 Wednesday Summer Mixed League champions are Team 13, consisting of Harry Thibeault Jr., Debbie Butler, and Jane Welch, with a vacancy due to the fact that Derick Thibeault had surgery following the winter season and spent the summer recuperating; we hope Derick is ready for the new fall/winter season.

Aug. 18 league night recap

My Week 13 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to series page on BowlSK)

This was not only my best set of the summer tonight, but my most consistent one, as well, especially in the 210 second game, which was my only clean game of the summer. The Fast was not ready to use after surface repair, so the attack plan with the Hy-Road was to throw it fast and with as little axis rotation as possible, and the plan largely succeeded. I also got my spare game figured out: I need to go at the second arrow on all of my spares with my spare ball, and when I hit that mark on my second ball, I didn’t usually miss. 😀

Result: 202-210-181=593
Final average (39 games): 174
Average for last 9 games: 173

Rob backed up my 210 with a 250, so we won the second game’s points; unfortunately, those were our only points of the night.

Although this was a summer I’d largely like to forget, I did feel I got things figured out toward the end, so I’m looking forward to the start of the fall/winter season with a renewed sense of confidence.

Follow-up to a Friday note

Just to make things clear, the note about my ball damage problem was not meant to negatively reflect on the management and staff of Westgate Lanes; the problem was relatively small, and they were aware of it and were working to resolve it. My apologies go to the Minassian family.

Aug. 13 league standings update (and other Friday notes)

The updated standings (available at BowlerExpress at press time) find “Trip N Shred” in a rematch with “Wyld Stallyns” next week by virtue of being in 11th and 12th positions, respectively. My team has a chance to move into a tie for 8th place, and cannot finish last because there are two teams with 36 points (my team has 42 points) at the bottom. At the top, Team 13 will win the league championship outright by avoiding being swept by “Lounge Lizards,” who can only hope for a tie for 1st.

Friday notes:

  • I was watching some of my friends bowl tonight, one of them being Jay Sherwood, who now works in the pro shop. Jay told me that there was a ball damage problem on the pair my team was on in league this week that came to a head in the Thursday morning senior league. This prompted me to check my new Fast for lane damage, and there were, indeed, a couple of small chips that had been taken out of the ball, though none of them were in my track area. Still, I may want to get the damage repaired, and I might be able to have Ray do it for free if I mention that it happened on the problem pair.
  • The list of leagues for the fall/winter season are also now out, and there’s a new one on the schedule…after asking around, I learned that the Friday night singles league that had been running at Boston Bowl would be moving to Westgate Lanes. John Hayes, Jr., whom I also saw tonight, told me he had been that league’s secretary and that it was a very good league. With that in mind, I look forward to following the “new” league online.

Aug. 11 league night recap

My Week 12 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to series page on BowlSK)

I felt I bowled better than my score tonight, and they might have matched if I had made more of my spares. I’m finding the Fast very effective for playing the deeper inside on this shot…just decrease the axis rotation, throw it fast, and give it some room. 😀

Result: 204-156-161=521
Average (36 games): 172
Average for last 9 games: 172
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 545

It was a team effort for the sweep tonight, with my contribution coming not so much from having good games, but making clutch shots near the end of games. Eileen continues to contribute in a big way, having a 177 second game, which I believe was her second best ever. John and Rob were also both over their averages for two of the three games.

Aug. 9 practice

Today, I figured out something about the current house shot: that it needed less axis rotation. The ball would hook too much if I threw my normal shot, but the hook would tame if I held the ball more on the fingers closer to the thumb. I had a shot at a 170 triplicate going into the third game, but my scoring fell off from that due to fatigue (I was also bowling fast and didn’t take much time between shots.). I did throw enough strikes to satisfy myself, however.

Another new “toy”

As I write this, I’m giving a Coby HD pocket camcorder its first charge. I felt I needed another camcorder because my new computer didn’t have a Firewire card and I was skittish about opening my new computer’s case to put the card from my old computer in; the new camcorder should be easier to work with because it has a USB connection (actually how I’m charging it) and the fact that it can use SD/SDHC cards, which my new computer can read from a standard media card reader. I’m not sure if the video quality will be as good as my Canon, but I hope to test it out and have more video to post soon. If I didn’t have to bowl Wednesday nights, I’d even post video of other bowlers in the area doing their thing, especially stuff like the 10th frame of 300 games.

I also finished my “spending spree” by (finally) subscribing to Bowling This Month…hopefully, I can get some good tips, especially considering I now have access to the archives online.

Aug. 6 league standings update

The six-point night the other night allowed “Trip N Shred” to remain in a tie in points with “Awesome Sox,” but “J.E.M.S.,” at one time the second-place team, is now the team at the bottom, so the tie in points with “Awesome Sox” is for 14th position with two weeks left. At the top, Team 13 holds a two-point lead over “Lounge Lizards” and “Phase 10 Pins,” and, if the position round was next week, my cousins would be the ones bowling Team 13, as they hold the pinfall advantage. As for my team, the opposition next week is “Sweetballsochili,” who are in the middle of the pack.

As an aside, Rob tied Sean Richard for men’s high scratch game this week with that 277. 😀

Aug. 8 league night recap

My Week 11 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to series on BowlSK)

I had thought, especially after the first game, that I was either throwing the ball too fast or too slow, and not “just right”, and that largely led to the splits and washouts I had. I also gave one too much room, and missed some makeables, all adding up to a horrible night overall.

Result: 173-135-137=445
Average (33 games): 172
Average for last 9 games: 171
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 547

My teammates had to pick me up tonight, and boy, did they ever! In the first game, Eileen had a personal best 183 game, and could’ve had 200 if she didn’t have bad count on one of her spares and leaving something more reasonable. After missing the first game, John got into the act with a 199, but it was Rob who stole the show that game, and in stellar fashion…he had a personal best 277, with the front 9 before sending the first shot in the 10th wide, leaving a 2-5 (if I remember). We just missed a sweep in the third game, so we had to settle for the first two games and total.

Aug. 2 practice

I had a really up and down practice session today, in large part because I was sometimes trying to give the Fast too much room and a few shots went into the gutter, as a result. I was also largely missing spares, but when I did make good shots on first ball, I generally got strikes, so my scores typically stayed middle-of-the-road. I was hoping to catch my winter teammate Carl driving the bus home, but the man who was driving the bus I got on said Carl was on vacation, so I’ll have to wait to talk to him.

Aug. 1 league standings update

The six points “Trip N Shred” won against “Zoots” turned out to be enough to virtually climb out of the league cellar, as we now share the final spot in points with “Awesome Sox,” with my team holding a slight edge in pinfall. There was happy news for me at the top, as the “Lounge Lizards” (my cousins’ team, remember) took all eight points against Team 13 and now hold a two-point lead on a tie for second between the aforementioned Team 13 and “Phase 10 Pins.” The “Wyld Stallyns” provide the opposition for us Wednesday night.