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.

Cause to worry

I went back to practice as normal today, but there’s reason to worry about my game, as I couldn’t deal with the lane transition as effectively as I would like. What’s been happening (and you may have noticed it in my league posts on BowlSK) is that my first shots will scream on the back end, making me move inside to around the 20 board on the approach, but then it will progress to a point where the lanes don’t hook at all, forcing me to either move back outside, slow down, or both. My middle game was near my average, but had a number of shots where I missed the pocket in the third game, so I only had games in the 130s and 140s bookending the middle game.

I’m going to the pro shop shortly, so I will be talking to Ray about it. I’ll be posting about that later.

Shaking the rust off

My brother did some stock-up shopping for me today at an area Walmart, and offered the opportunity to go bowling when he delivered the goods. I hesitated, as I normally eat around the time we went, then accepted, figuring I could have dinner later. I used the session as a general “shake the rust off” one, as I had not bowled in over 2 weeks. I’m glad that was what it was, too, as my first two games were well under my average, with me needing a mark and 8 pins in the 10th frame to beat my brother in the first game (getting it). I had a third game near my average, so I could say I accomplished my task for the session. My practice on Monday should be another tune-up for the resumption of league play on Wednesday night.

“The BM Report” added to blogroll: “The BM Report” is a blog that started as a newsletter for a team of self-described bad bowlers in Laramie, WY. Judging from their recent post of “tips,” these guys don’t take themselves too seriously, so this blog should be an entertaining read. The link has been added to the blogroll…welcome aboard guys. 😀

Winter league half-season summary

Since most of the winter leagues are either at or nearing the halfway points of their seasons, I thought I’d use New Year’s Eve to post the highs for both the men and women (scratch game and series, as well as average) so far in the 2008-09 season at Westgate Lanes. Without further ado…

Men

High Average: 228 Sean Richard (Thursday Handicap Doubles), Harry Thibeault, Jr. (Westgate Mixed)
High Series: 791 Kalvin Chin (Saturday Seniors [youth])
High Game: 300 Danny Khuu (Saturday Seniors [youth]), Harry Thibeault, Jr. (Westgate Mixed), Bob Hamilton (Westgate Mixed), Richard Mines (TNBA)

Women

High Average: 214 Amy Aldridge (Westgate Mixed)
High Series: 711 Amy Aldridge (Westgate Mixed)
High Game: 278 Melissa Peterson (Westgate Mixed)

Note: The Tuesday Scratch Sportsmen league was not considered for this summary, as they bowl a 4-game series each meeting.

Have a Happy New Year, and good luck in the second half of the season, everyone! 😀

“Bonnies Bowling” and “Brian Halstrom” added to sidebar

I visited a site called BlogCatalog.com today, which is supposed to be a social network for bloggers, and I found a couple of good bowling blogs to add to the blogroll…

“Bonnies Bowling” is a blog with equipment reviews and news, general bowling news, and instructional articles. In addition, since the site offers a bowling store (where even trophies can be purchased), the site has also been added to the “Equipment Sites” sidebar category.

“Brian Halstrom” is named for the author, an employee of BowlingBall.com, and this blog also offers bowling news and ball reviews, including reaction videos. I will be in touch with Brian through MySpace.

Edit to “About” page: Wishing to give readers an option to contact me, I will be including links to my BowlSpace profile, as well as my MySpace profile, on the “About” page, figuring many readers will be on MySpace if they aren’t on BowlSpace.

December 2008 People’s Tournament results

As reported on The People’s Tournament’s site, Carlos “Charlie” Aponte (AMF Silver Lanes [CT], 166 avg.) was the winner of the special year-end event at Westgate Lanes. Aponte defeated Mike Klosin (Strikers East [NH], 210 avg.) in the title match by a score of 257-216 (with handicaps). Charlie Aponte collected a check for $5,000 for winning this special event. For the locals, Shirley Major and Brian “Hawk” Earle were both in the top eight.

Additional note: The People’s Tournament will be running a New Year special event, again with prizes of $5,000 for first place and $2,500 for second place (with 32 guaranteed prizes), at Westgate Lanes on January 24 and 25. Entry fees will be $70 mail-in, $80 on-site, and $100 for new members. See the tournament’s web site for more information.

Christmas bits

All told, between my brother and sister, I received $80 in Westgate Lanes gift cards for Christmas, which should take care of practice for the near future. My sister also gave me a miniature tabletop bowling game (where you roll a steel ball on a miniature lane at miniature pins) as a stocking stuffer.

Last night, however, I saw Dave, Debbie, and Melissa, the bowling cousins, and Dave related to me that he recently shot his first games of 200 or over, so I congratulated him on the accomplishment. I’ve been casually following their Friday night TNBA League and I noted to Melissa the improvement she has made since the summer. I don’t know if the family is going to get together for bowling while my cousins from Texas are in town, but Debbie did tell me prior to Christmas that if anything happens, it would be something spontaneous and not planned. I did ask her, however, to call me if anything came up.

Two new bowling ball sites added to “Equipment Links”

Two new bowling ball companies, Banger and Motiv, have recently launched their web sites. Both feature only a couple of models of balls, but, as I like to be exhaustive with my equipment links, their sites have been added to the sidebar under “Equipment Links.” Both sites have a pro shop search feature if you’re interested in finding a pro shop near you that stocks the companies’ balls.

Holiday wishes: As this is likely my last post before Christmas, I’d like to take the opportunity to wish my readers a wonderful and safe holiday season.

New tenpin lanes on South Shore a possibility

According to this Patriot Ledger article, the company that operates Boston Bowl in Dorchester has acquired the Hanover Bowladrome, and are renaming it Boston Bowl Hanover. Renovations will be completed by next fall, and the company is considering converting half of the center’s 24 candlepin lanes to tenpin. If these are to be USBC-certified lanes, this could mean that Boston Bowl Hanover will be the newest bowling center in the Brockton USBC Bowling Association.

Errata: In calculating the possibility of “The Mustangs” taking 3.5 points to tie “The Badgers” for first place, I failed to account for the half-point given to “The Badgers” in that scenario. If that happens, that would give “The Badgers” 42.5 points, and, thus, maintain the lead over “The Mustangs.” Any hope for “The Mustangs” winning the first-half title, therefore, lies in a sweep of “The Badgers.” Hey, I’m human!

Dec. 19 league standings update

As I noted in the previous post, a scheduling error resulted in the position round for the first half being (correctly) moved to the next meeting of the league on Jan. 7. However, since my team and “The Handicaps” both won a point this week, my team’s situation has not changed: we are assured of 9th place in the first half with a 4.5 point lead on “The Handicaps.” The situation at the top of the standings has also not changed: “The Mustangs” must sweep “The Badgers” to win the first half outright. I’m not sure what the tiebreaking procedure is for ties for first place at the end of a half (which can happen if “The Mustangs” take 3 points and tie for a fourth point), but I will let readers know what it is in the event it happens.

Riding the see-saw

My Week 16 bowling (BowlSK)

Because of an error in the scheduling, tonight was not the position round, and we had a regular match against Team 3 instead. My own performance was up and down like a see-saw tonight, with a clean 208 first game, a horrible second game, and an average third game in which I was clutch in the 10th frame after the opposing team’s anchor bowler left the “Greek Church” split (the 4-6-7-9-10) in the frame, winning the third game point for my team (our only point of the night). I’m hoping the coming two weeks off (for Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve) will do me some good. I think the first half position round will now be in the first full week of the new year.

Result: 208-129-175=512
Average (48 games): 180 Last 9 games average: 184
New AVG+1 score: 586

Bob Hamilton perfect: There was a commotion down the other end of the center around the end of the first game, but I didn’t think to ask someone in the Westgate Mixed League about it until the third game started. When I did, I found out that my buddy Bob Hamilton threw a perfect 300 in the first game, which was the second 300 in the league this season. Congrats Bobby! 😀

NEBA bits

I had to bug out for home at the start of match play, but I did catch this afternoon’s final qualifying squad in the NEBA tournament. Surprisingly, I met up w/ Sean Richard on the bus heading up there, as it seemed his car was in the shop and he had to take a bus to the lanes for the afternoon squad (which he thought he had a chance to miss).

Anyway, I can tell you that Alex Aguiar, Brian Gaskill, Bill Major, and Jason Sherwood were the local qualifiers (at least the ones I knew). Also, Craig Asselin, who led all qualifiers with a +196 score, shot a 300 in the fourth game (of five) of the 6:00 PM squad yesterday…congrats again Craig. 😀 I’ll post a final update when the winner is posted on NEBA’s web site.

The bachelor party

I had been contacted during the week that I was invited to the bachelor party, which took place today, for one of my high school running buddies. Although I learned later that part of the party had taken place at the mall before I joined them, I joined them at the lanes, as part of the party involved bowling. Not many of the others were good bowlers (though a couple of them had their moments), so it was pretty much a treat for them to watch me, and I tried to oblige them.

I had a first game in the 160s, hoping I could give them a 200, and after being notified that that part of the party was being cut short to 2 games, I buckled down (with some help from the fact that I was offered the chance to finish out for one of the other members of the party who was on my lane), and had only one open in the second game, giving a chance (with an earlier double and a strike in the 9th) to get a strike and count in the 10th for 200, which I had with my best shot of the day and a stone 7 on the first fill ball, missing the spare for a 204.

While I was still with the party, we visited a couple of other places in Brockton that were important in the groom’s life before repairing to the groom’s house for a brief acoustic jam session featuring a couple of members of the party, followed by a buffet dinner at one of the local Italian restaurants. The groom’s brothers met us at the restaurant, and my good game was brought up. I asked the organizer of the party what had been the inspiration to have part of the party at the lanes, and he told me the whole theme was stuff in Brockton, and that it was serendipity that one of the people in the party (me) was a good bowler. There would be more stuff for the party after dinner, but stuff I did not want to hang around for, and I took a cab home.

As this weekend’s NEBA tournament at Westgate Lanes was getting started near the time we had to leave, I was able to say hello to Alex Aguiar while I was there, and got him caught up a bit on my own bowling activity. I plan on going back to the lanes tomorrow to catch some more of the NEBA action.

Dec. 12 league standings update

The gap from my team to “The Handicaps” in last place is at 4.5 points going into next week’s position round, so “The Pin Pals” will stay out of the basement in the first half. It will still be important to win every point we can, however, as I believe that, except for the league championship, which will have a roll-off if different teams win a half, the prize money for the team finish will be based on overall points won. “The Badgers” and “The Mustangs” will be the two teams vying for the first half title, but “The Mustangs” must sweep, as they are 3.5 points in back of “The Badgers.”

Lost opportunity

My Week 15 bowling (BowlSK)

As the title implies, tonight was a lost opportunity, as I was 13 pins over my average after 2 games, but then lost it a bit at the end, missing my mark badly a couple of times early and not really recovering, ending the series with a 164, which put me 3 under my average for the night. I closed out the first 2 games strong, so I guess that’s what I’ll take out of tonight.

Result: 194-179-164=537
Average (45 games): 180 Last 9 games average: 180
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 555

As a team, we only took the second game, but what a game it was. Carl gave our team a lift by converting the 4-7-9-10 split in the 7th frame, which Patrick took advantage of by posting a hambone starting in the 8th frame for a game in the 180s (all 3 games were over his average, 119, so he’s in line for the Christmas over-average bonus in his average class). I closed out the second game by almost striking out to ensure the point for our team.

Equipment failure

It was a pretty normal practice today (though with me scoring a bit under my league average), but, after I finished bowling, I discovered that the back support of my wrist device (the Brunswick Command) had snapped in half, so I’ll have to get a new one when I next visit the pro shop (probably Wednesday night before my league).

As I’m the only person willing to do it, Bev gave me the task of keeping the PBA Tour schedule poster on the side wall of the control desk updated with the winners, with my duty today to get the poster caught up (easy, as I had remembered all of the winners). I noticed a couple of errors on the poster, however: 1) there’s a space for a Women’s Series winner for the Ultimate Scoring Championship when the space is really supposed to be for the Chameleon Championship; 2) there’s also space for a Women’s Series winner for the National Bowling Stadium Championship, but there will be no Women’s Series event at that stop.

An encouraging sign

There was a possibility that my brother and I could go bowling today, and in his email message during the week, he told me that if he didn’t call by 3:00 PM today that I could assume that we weren’t going. When 3:00 PM hit with no call, I decided to go on my milk run. As it turned out, I met my brother on the way to the gas station where I’ve been purchasing my milk when my brother doesn’t bring it over, and we decided to go bowling anyway.

I could take a lane that has the Monday night shot on Monday afternoons when I practice, but I usually want the normal league condition when I practice, so I usually practice on one of the lanes near the control desk, which aren’t used by the Coke Classic League. Today, however, I decided to test myself, knowing the Monday night shot would be down for the People’s Tournament’s year-end special tournament this weekend, and asked for a lane with that shot. We had to wait a bit when we got there because the lane man hadn’t moved the cord to the oil machine in the process of putting down the tournament shot on the lanes that would be used by the tournament.

I got an encouraging sign in the series I bowled on the lane Junior put us on: 587, 47 pins better than my current league average on the normal league condition. As I struggled in the past trying to play an inside line on the shot, I resolved to try to play where I normally play the normal league condition (which usually has me starting standing on board 17, targeting around 6 at the arrows; the people seeing my league nights on BowlSK will know), and I was succeeding in spades. My first game was a 190, but I found a good groove in the second game, hitting on 6 in a row en route to a 221. Carry-down forced me to move a board further outside and try to slow down, but I had a few bad shots in the last game, and could only manage a 176. A lot of the time, I tried something “CoachJim” suggested…uncupping my wrist at release to give me an earlier reaction, and I seemed to learn it well. After this series, I’m much more willing to try a tournament again, knowing I have a chance to do well on the tournament condition.

I saw a few people I normally see while bowling on Wednesday nights, Sally Toppan, Ralph Marple, and Sean Richard, while bowling with my brother, and made sure they were introduced to my brother. I also made an introduction to Jon Corda in the pro shop while we were waiting for the lane, so if I mention any of these people to my brother when I’m talking about my bowling, he has an idea whom I am talking about now.

Dec. 5 league standings update

Our lead on “The Handicaps” is now 4.5 points, meaning if things stay the same after next week, “The Handicaps” will not be able to get out of first-half basement in the position round in 2 weeks. We bowl against “MT Bed,” the 5th place team, this week, while “The Handicaps” will face “D N F T D,” who are in a tie for 3rd place.

Personally, I was on the leader boards this week, with my 656 series with handicap being the best of the men for the week. My 608 scratch series, as well as my 235 scratch game (and 251 with handicap) were second best for the men this week.

Gaining confidence

My Week 14 bowling (BowlSK)

Finally! My first 600 in this league, and it comes off my worst league series since my return last week. I had to nurse it at the end, but I did finish with a 608, thanks in large part to a 235 second game, which equaled my best game to date in this league. I’m certain that having my ball cleaned (oil removal) yesterday had something to do with it, as I was getting good ball reaction most of the night. Gar (“prairieskooner”) must have known something was up tonight when he commented on my last post…thanks for the encouragement! 😀

Result: 213-235-160=608
Average (42 games): 180 Last 9 games average: 176
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 549

Team had a winning night (3 of 4 points), but the point we lost was ironically in my nice second game. Oh well, can’t win ’em all!

A strange day

I returned to practice today, and it was a rather strange one, with a couple of splits per game ruining rather decent games. That wasn’t the half of it, however…in the second game, I was shooting at a 7-10 split and got the 10 to bounce out of the pit, but in the wrong direction: it came back toward me and ended up settling in the right gutter not far down the lane from where the oil pattern ended. Other than leaving splits, the practice was decent, making more spares than what I normally make.

Lost and found

My Week 13 bowling (BowlSK)

Not much can be said about my second game, as I just completely lost it, doing everything I could to get untracked, but largely failing. About the best that can be said is that I woke up enough in the third game to threaten 200, but I needed to bowl one of my best games to save 500 by that point. The team lost all of the points, and in the third game, JoAnn, Shawn’s wife, had a game in the 180s where she never had better than a 120 before, to help the other team put a hurting on us.

Result: 150-134-195=479
Average (39 games): 179 Last 9 games average: 174
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 572

As a holiday bonus, I decided tonight would be the night I continue the tradition I started in my summer league: posting a team photo here sometime during the season. So without further ado…

(L to R) Patrick Padula, Carl Benson, Helen Sprissler, Ted Sprissler, me
The Pin Pals: (L to R) Patrick Padula, Carl Benson, Helen Sprissler, Ted Sprissler, me

I took some other shots as well, and those will be added to the “scrapbook” after I post about tonight on the forums.

I’d like to take this opportunity to wish my readers (my American ones, anyway) a happy and safe Thanksgiving holiday. 😀

November 2008 People’s Tournament results

The People’s Tournament site reported Nancy Nunez (AMF Silver Lanes {CT}, 134 avg.) as the winner of the November event at E. Providence Lanes. Nunez defeated Al Brown (Town Line Tenpin, 194 avg.) by a score of 237-203 (with handicaps) in the title match. Representing Westgate Lanes, Terrance Williams (180 avg.) was in the final four, and Jason Sherwood (210 avg.) also made the top 8.

Additional note: The December People’s Tournament at Westgate Lanes will be a year-end special, run on Dec. 6th and 7th, with a guaranteed first prize of $5,000. See the tournament site for entry details.