Week 8 found “Size 11’s” taking 5/7 from “Hambones,” a team which includes another chat buddy, “Dennis Michael,” and we did so despite both of my teammates outscoring me (I didn’t even beat our vacancy). The standings now find us in a tie for 3rd in points with “Pretty Much Average,” just two points behind “4 Marksmen.” Eight points still separate first place from seventh, but time is starting to run out for the teams near the bottom, as there are four weeks left in the league.

My team may have taken 3 points this week, however, so did “Foxy SRS,” which meant my team was still mired in the basement for the second half. The aforementioned team happen to be our opponents next week. At the top of the standings, “The Generations” hold a one-point lead on “The Dynasty” and “Warren’s Girls.”

Individually, John’s 213 did qualify him for the new USBC 200 game award, which is now a refrigerator magnet rather than a patch you can put on a shirt. He also had the high handicap game and series for the week. 😀

My Week 24 bowling (Link to series on BowlSK)

I had a handful of bad shots, but the skinny was that if I had been able to carry my high 4 pin tonight, things might have been different. I seemed to have success playing a more direct line to the pocket, but just couldn’t really string anything.

Result: 186-168-166=520
Average (72 games): 187
Average for last 9 games: 181
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 574

Team took 3 of 4 tonight, but the highlight of the night was John’s third game: not only was it his first game of 200 or better (213), but it was also his first clean game. We made sure John got the printout of the game at the control desk, and I’ll be scanning my copy of tonight’s recap sheet to send to him. Eileen had a good night, too, barely missing a 400 set. 😀

“Size 11’s” had another good week last week, taking 5 of 7 from “Team 3,” with “leftykev” pacing my team with a 706 set, while the first game was won by our opponents on a 268 by “Matrix900” and a 233 by “Dick.” The league has become very competitive, with just 8 points separating first place from 8th. My team holds down the 4th spot, 3 points behind “Pretty Much Average” for the league lead. It should be noted that if the round robin sets up like most schedules, my team will face “Pretty Much Average” in the week before the position round, and that match-up could be for position.

Nothing has changed for us in the standings…then again, nothing can change (at least positively) if you’re in last place and fail to win points. That said, the gap between 9th place (held down by “Foxy SRS”) and us is only two points, and it’s still early in the second half. At the top of the standings, “The Generations” hold a one-point lead over a logjam at second between “Butz-N-Gutz,” “The Mustangs,” and “Warren’s Girls.”

My Week 23 bowling (Link to series on BowlSK)

I observed something fairly disturbing toward the end of the night last night: even with recent improvement, my problems making my 7 pin crept back into my game. I don’t know if I was sapped because of a recent battle with a bad chest cold, but I don’t really want to make that an excuse because of the 641 I shot last Saturday for my virtual league score while feeling fairly worse.

Result: 183-193-162=538
Average (69 games): 188
Average for last 9 games: 182
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 602

My team once again failed to take a point, with our best chance coming in the first game, where I needed strikes to at least keep the pressure on the opposing anchor, but left the “ghost” 8 with the first ball in the 10th.

A week after being swept by “The Four Scoresmen,” my team executed a sweep of our own against “Fantastic Four,” with “leftykev” supporting me in the second game with a 255 to hold off a good game (258) by “VFF57.” A check of the standings now finds “Size 11’s” in a tie in points for 4th place with “4 Marksmen,” with “Pretty Much Average” holding a five-point lead on “Where’s My Team?” at the top.

I felt well enough to go to the lanes today to bowl my make-up set for the virtual league this week. I didn’t bring my usual note sheet, so there’s no BowlSK for this set, but here’s a summary of what happened:

Game 1: 216; missed a 10 pin to start, but had a 4-bagger starting in the 4th frame

Game 2: 223; another single-pin miss (7) to start, and sandwiched a split between a 5-bagger (starting in 2nd frame) and a double. Closed out /X

Game 3: 202; thought I was running out of gas b/c I had 2 more single-pin misses (a 3 and a 7), but recovered w/ a 4-bagger from the 7th that I couldn’t fill in the 10th w/ at least a spare (got only one on a double-wood filling the 10th)

Series: 641…pretty solid effort, especially for someone barely recovering from an illness. 🙂

For the benefit of those who may be looking for a recap post tomorrow night or later in the week, my league has decided to postpone tomorrow night’s bowling because of the expected snowfall in the Brockton area. We will be bowling against the same teams on the 17th, meaning “Butz-N-Gutz” will be my team’s opponents.

My virtual league team suffered a setback last week at the hands of “The Four Scoresmen,” a team that includes “cgeorg” (who happens to be BowlSK’s webmaster), getting swept by said opponent. Although two of the three games ended up close, a major factor was the performance of “desertdog71,” who was over his average in all three games, and well over in two of them. The updated standings find my team holding down 8th place. At the top of the standings, “Pretty Much Average” hold a three-point lead on “Fantastic Four.”

I’ve already noted that my team only took one point this week, but “Double D” won all of their points, so we slipped into last place in the second half, a point and a half behind “Foxy SRS.” “The Generations” currently hold a two-point lead on “The Dynasty,” “The Mustangs,” and “Warren’s Girls” at the top of the standings. Next week won’t be easy for my team, as we’re scheduled against “Butz-N-Gutz.”

My Week 22 bowling, frame-by-frame (Link to series on BowlSK)

I took a warm-up game on the “Main Street” pattern with the newly-dulled-down Hy-Road, and, liking what I saw from my warm-up game, I decided to go with the ball tonight, and that and finally getting somewhat adjusted to the pattern got me more or less back on track, although my first two games didn’t necessarily show it. It was the last game where it finally came together, a one-open 225. If I have more games like that one on this pattern, I should be back to being dangerous.

Result: 171-181-225=577
Average (66 games): 188
Average for last 9 games: 182
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 573

Team was still only able to take a single point. I could’ve earned a split of the points in the third game with the first two in the 10th, but that was derailed by a first-ball “shaker” 7 pin. Of my teammates, Eileen and Carl gave me the most support tonight, as both had all three games over their respective averages.

“Size 11’s” got back on track last week, losing only the third game to “Drunken Masters,” a team that includes a couple of chat buddies (“MikeHL” and “lmfcoa”), for another 5/7 week. As a result, we now sit in a three-way tie in points for third place with “Fantastic Four” and the aforementioned “Drunken Masters.” “4 Marksmen” now hold a one-point lead on “Pretty Much Average” at the top of the virtual league standings. Individually, “Joe P.” of “Hambones” had a 300 game in the league he submits from…I’ve congratulated him on the forums.

If you’re wondering why I don’t announce the week’s opposition in the virtual league, it’s because I don’t really know, with the league wishing to keep the schedule unannounced so that bowlers in the league are free to post their scores publicly in the forums without giving their opposition an idea of what they need to win.

This update is a week late, but I’ve had to deal with another Internet connection outage since I last bowled and just plain forgot to look for the standings when my service was restored.

Both my team and “Double D” took a point each, so we remain a point ahead of them out of the league’s cellar. “The Dynasty” and “The Generations” are currently tied at the top, with “Butz-N-Gutz” sitting 2 points behind the pace in third. The opposition tonight will be “The Mustangs,” a team my team has done well against this season.