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.

Saving the best for last

My league night tonight started with a surprise: Carl, one of my new teammates, was driving the bus I took to get to the lanes. When he told me who he was (I wasn’t expecting him, so I didn’t recognize him), I became worried that he wouldn’t show up for tonight’s session on time. Carl said he’d be there, however, though he did tell me during bowling that he was going back to the morning shift so he wouldn’t have to rush to get to the lanes on Wednesday nights.

The main business before bowling tonight was finding the league’s treasurer and asking how many weeks’ league dues I was responsible for. Getting the answer from her, I was then able to write the league a check for the proper amount, taking into account that I paid the first two weeks last week.

Stopping in the pro shop, I was introduced to the new person working there, Brian Frank. I also learned something I’m going to devote my next post to, which was something I’ve been waiting for.

My bowling for Week #2

I was a bit lost in the first two games when I found I actually had to slow down my ball speed, but I managed to finish every game strong, and, even though I only had a 160 in the second game, I’m a bit proud of my finish to that game, as my team needed the big finish to take the point for that game (this league only gives a single point per game and for total). After being swept last week, my team (which got renamed to simply Team 10) took all 4 points this week.

Result: 177-160-225=562
Average (6 games): 191

In the first game, on one of the adjacent pairs, Eric Nordstrom threatened a 300 game in the first game in my league tonight, but left the 2-10 split in the 10th frame. Great game anyway, Eric! 😀

Back to work

After taking a couple of weeks off from practice (first week to recover from my busy birthday weekend, and the second because of the Labor Day holiday), I hit the practice lanes again today. Since I knew the Coke Classic League would start their bowling for the season tonight, I had to ask Bev (who has returned to full-time duty) which lanes had the house shot and to make sure she knew to give me a lane with the house shot. Bev also informed me that the half-price Monday rate went up to $2/game, so my gift cards are going to be used up a bit quicker.

I just wanted a light-hearted practice, so I was shooting every game for score, and ended up with a game in the 180s, a game in the 190s, and a 205 last game. I got plenty of work on my single 10 pin, as I was leaving a bunch of weak 10s, and made all but one of them, so at least there was progress on that front. I mentioned the plethora of weak 10s to Bobby Hamilton, who was putting down the Coke Classic shot on their lanes, and he told me that, to him, the new pins (just put in for the start of the fall/winter season) seemed heavier than the old set, so scores are going to be relatively low until the pins are broken in. I also brought in a printout of my Wednesday night series as entered on BowlSK to show everyone my “new toy online” (Thanks cg! 😀 ).

August 2008 “People’s Tournament” results

The People’s Tournament site reported that Don Lango (205 avg., AMF Silver Lanes {CT}) was the winner of the August event at Westgate Lanes (which I had participated in). Lango defeated Elliot Miller (170 avg., Westgate Lanes) 263-215 (with handicaps) in the title match. Additionally for the locals, Maya Christie (120 avg.) finished third, while Jim Yost Jr. (194 avg.) and Sean Richard (208 avg.) also made the top eight.

Change of plans

I arrived for the first Wednesday night of the fall/winter season hoping to land on a team in the Westgate Mixed League, and had a check all written out in the expectation of doing so. However, when I was directed to the roster sheet, I could not find my name on any of the teams, and all of the teams were full, save for one team that had a vacancy. The vacancy was filled fairly quickly, leaving me, for the moment, a proverbial “man without a country.”

There is one other five-man mixed league running at Westgate Lanes on Wednesday nights, so during the time my status was still unresolved, I was in touch with the secretary of the Brunswick Mixed League, and I eventually landed on a team in that league, which includes a husband and wife team, Helen and Ted Sprissler, along with Pat Padula and Carl Benson. I got a glimpse of the league by-laws at the meeting just before bowling: handicap is 80% of 1000 (team) and runs for (I believe) 33 weeks, ending at the end of April (with a roll-off in the beginning of May, if needed). Dues for the league are only $15/week (I paid $30 in cash for the first 2 weeks), and the last three weeks of bowling are free, which is a relief for my finances. There will be a banquet where the prizes and awards will be given out in May.

Before bowling started, we elected Helen as our team captain, and named ourselves “The Pin Pals.” I learned that my teammates are fairly low-average bowlers, so it looks like I may be carrying this team through the season. We should have handicap in our favor much of the season, which should make for some interesting matches. I also looked at last year’s standings for the league and learned that high average was only something like 208, so high average in the league is a goal that might be reachable.

As part of the “Administrivia” for this post, I would like to announce that I have joined BowlSK, the scorekeeping and stat tracking site, and will refer to that site for my bowling on each night. There will be a link in the “Author’s Links” section of the sidebar linking my profile, and each night’s session will be linked in the posts as below:

My week 1 bowling

The linked page shows graphically how I did, including notes on such things as stance (where I start on the approach) and target (which board I’m spotting at the arrows). The sheets also give room for notes, and I will be taking advantage of that feature.

One thing about last night’s series that I didn’t include in the notes is that my spare game was scattershot in the first game as I was getting settled in. I still saved a 182 in that game, however. No one was on my line, so I didn’t have to move much during the series, only moving outside in the third game when I thought it would help my carry, and back inside when I sensed the lanes finally broke down. We probably won’t know how my team did for points until after the third week. This league’s standings won’t be online, so I’ll endeavor to keep everyone posted on my team’s progress by posting our position going into the night before posting about each night’s bowling.

Result: 182-201-203=586
Average (3 games): 195

We’ll get out around the same time the other league does, so I’ll likely still be riding home with Brian Shea on most nights. On the ride home, we talked about our respective nights, and he said his team took 6 points.

Sean Richard shoots 299 on Westgate Mixed League opening night: During the night, I had heard that my buddy Sean shot a 299 in the second game in the Westgate Mixed League last night. I didn’t learn what pin he left in the 12th frame, but good shooting still, Sean. 😀

More administrivia: With the new league, there will be a new BowlingTracker.com stat sheet, so I’ll probably get around to editing the stat sheet link in the sidebar sometime today.

World Men’s Championships wrap-up

I felt I should devote a post to the just-completed WTBA World Men’s Championships, which was held in Thailand, and marked the first time that PBA professionals have been allowed to compete in the event. The decision to allow PBA participation really benefited Team USA, as they’re coming home with the lion’s share of the medals. Americans medaled in every event, which I’ll list here:

  • Doubles: Patrick Allen and Rhino Page (gold)
  • Trios: Bill Hoffman, Patrick Allen, and Rhino Page (bronze); Walter Ray Williams Jr., Chris Barnes, and Tommy Jones (bronze)
  • Five-man team: Bill Hoffman, Chris Barnes, Tommy Jones, Patrick Allen, and Rhino Page (gold)*
  • Singles: Walter Ray Williams Jr. (gold)
  • All-Events: Rhino Page (silver)
  • Masters: Walter Ray Williams Jr. (gold)

* Denotes team for knockout round. Walter Ray Williams Jr. and Rhino Page split duties during team qualifying, with one bowling with the national team for a three-game block while the other paced on a make-up team for All-Events score.

Complete coverage of the tournament, including full results, can be found on the tournament’s official web site. As an additional note about international bowling, the World Women’s Championships is scheduled for next year at the Cashman Center in Las Vegas, NV, and will be contested on the USBC Open Championships lanes.

Sidebar link to World Tenpin Bowling Association site added: As the World Tenpin Bowling Association, along with the member zone organizations, governs the major international tournaments (including, perhaps one day, the Olympic Games), I’ve included the link to their site in the sidebar. Links to future major international tournaments can be found from that site.

Change of seasons

There were a couple of mild, but nice surprises, in payouts: each bowler received an extra $6, but the bigger surprise (which I should’ve actually known would happen) was that my team, because of the 4th place tie with Team Amelia, split the 4th and 5th place money with Team Amelia (the pinfall tiebreaker only applies to determining positions for the position round). Therefore, the bowlers on my team ended up with $87.50 each (4th place was $90/bowler, while 5th place paid $85/bowler), other than what one of my old leagues called “point money.” The league was also taking up a collection for the Brockton association’s scholarship fund, and I felt I could spare $1.50 for it. The league also had a no-tap (9 pins on first ball counts as a strike) tournament for their bowlers, but, as I wanted to be present at the Westgate Mixed League meeting, I had to sit the tournament out.

There were a couple of discussions of interest at the meeting. First, the question of what constitutes “ready to bowl” came up, and the part of the by-laws dealing with that was clarified to saying basically that a bowler must be ready to bowl when it’s his/her turn, but that a delay for something like bathroom runs could be granted by agreement of the captains. Second, the issue of substitutes came up, and some of the people at the meeting felt the substitutes were being abused (by being constantly switched in and out of team lineups). A suggestion was made to limit each team to one substitute, while I suggested that floating substitutes, which could be used by any team that needs them, could be used. The league eventually voted not to allow substitutes at all, however. A last minor detail is that the snow committee (league officers) would decide whether to postpone bowling because of inclement weather by a half-hour earlier (now by 4:00 PM) than they used to.

The handicap basis is basically the same as for the summer league, with the basis being team handicap of 90% of 1000 (add another 200 for the 5th bowler) with full negative handicaps (for teams averaging greater than the 1000 scratch score). Because Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve fall on a Wednesday this year, the league schedule is a 34 week split season (rather than the normal 36 weeks), with position rounds coming in weeks 8, 17, 26, and 34. The winners of each half will have a 3 game roll-off for the league championship following the last week, and there will also be a roll-off if two teams are tied for first place at the end of each half.

The matter of my team placement is still not entirely clear, but it is clearer than it was before the meeting. There are three of us currently waiting for a team, the other two being Debbie Candora (from the “Shake ‘N Bake” summer team), and Tyler Prescott (a displaced sub in the league). I was told by Donna that if two other bowlers that she’s expecting show up next week for the start of bowling, then that would constitute the full team.

I ended the night at the lanes watching Brian bowl with his female winter league teammate, who I only know as Candy at this time. Noticing her dropping the ball, I made the suggestion of changing her thumb pitch (like what I did), but they really didn’t have the time to have her fit checked last night, so Candy and Brian decided that they would have it done next week.

Birthday bash

It is approaching 11:00 AM EDT on Sunday, and this is the first chance I’ve had to slow down and blog about my birthday bowling outing with my brother the other night because of a wedding in the extended family yesterday.

Anyway, suffice it to say, I kicked butt. My first frame was open and my last frame was open, but there were 28 clean frames in the middle. As I’ve noted before, my brother’s usually fortunate if he gets a score over, say, 110; I beat him by 99 pins in the first game, and over 100 pins in the other two. My first game, a 211, was my low game. I shot a clean 224 in the middle, but the last game really stood out…I got six in a row to start it, and my brother’s eyes were wide open in disbelief when looking at the scoring console by the fourth strike. I actually had my worst shot of the night to end it, leaving the 1-2-7, but I missed the spare for a 234. Before leaving, my brother handed me an envelope that had a $50 gift card for Westgate Lanes (predictable, but always appreciated). Afterwards, in the car, I told my brother that I was considering the outing “glorified practice,” but he admonished me to never say my bowling outings with him are that. I keep telling him he could be good, maybe better than me, if he worked at it, but he just doesn’t have the inclination.

A brief note from the wedding…my cousin Debbie told me she was one of the bowlers invited to the Brockton USBC Bowling Association’s Bowler of the Year Tournament at Westgate Lanes next month because of her high finish in the handicap singles event in the Brockton USBC Bowling Association championships back in March. She declined the invitation, however, because it is going to be a scratch tournament and she is not ready for those (at least not at this time).

Final 2008 Wednesday Summer Mixed League standings

Final league standings

It’s official…”Mad Blogger,” my team, finished the league in 5th place. We actually tied “Team Amelia” for 4th in points, but pinfall with handicap was the tiebreaker, and “Team Amelia” won that by 256 pins. The “Lounge Lizards,” my cousins’ team, finished 13th, but they were in the league’s basement for a while, so they put in a charge at the end.

To my league mates: good bowling everyone, and I’ll see everyone on payout night Wednesday. 😀

Local association tournament note

The Brockton USBC Bowling Association will kick off the 2008-09 fall/winter bowling season by running its Bowler of the Year invitational tournament on Sunday, Sept. 21 at Westgate Lanes. 32 bowlers representing all four of the Brockton USBC Bowling Association’s centers (AMF Taunton Lanes, Kingston Ten Pin, North Bowl Lanes, and Westgate Lanes) have been invited to compete in the tournament.

The last night

Tonight was the position round night for the Wednesday Summer Mixed League, and I told my teammates that, since my birthday will be on Friday, doing well tonight would be an early birthday gift for me, and they all said they hoped they could accommodate my wish. I had all strikes in the warm-up session before scoring started, so I was really hopeful I could do my part.

Things started well, with a double in the 2nd and 3rd frames after leaving a 6-10, and my first mistake came in the 5th frame, where I chopped the 3 off of the 3-6-10. There was a miss of a 10 pin in the 7th frame, but I got back on with a double in the 9th and first ball in the 10th before leaving a 4 pin, taking the spare for a 191. Ron Haynes, the lead bowler for “Shake ‘N Bake”, had a nice game for his team, and they needed it, as the first game wound up being close, taken by “Shake ‘N Bake.”

My only major mistake in the second game was missing another 10 pin in the 8th frame, but an earlier double (in the 5th and 6th frames) countered that miss, so I was able to save a 193 out of that game. Brian really was clicking in this game, going in the 230s, and we won the second game by something like 30 pins, so we had a slight edge for total going into the last game.

I had my worst shot of the night to start the third game, hitting the nose to leave a 4-6-7-9 split, and I decided not to try to be a hero and just got my count for that. The highlight for me of the night came as a result of another split in the 5th frame, this time the 3-6-7-10, which I converted, giving myself a lift, as I was able to piece together a turkey from that point before leaving a 6 pin in the 9th. I had a strike in the 10th, but left another split, the 4-6-7, in the 11th frame. I went for count again, but pulled the shot, which ended up in the left channel, giving me a 204 last game of the season…not a bad way to end after the way I started out the league.

“Shake ‘N Bake” took the third game, but it was again a close one, and they did not win by enough to take total. Getting total would prove to be important, as Team 12, the 7th place team going into tonight, won 6 points from “Fun and Games” and, being 3 points behind us going into the night, fell a point shy of tying us for 5th place, which would’ve meant 5th place for them if they had 107 more pins than us on the night. If Team Amelia, the 4th place team going in, got swept, we actually still catch them for 4th place, but I did not think to ask them how they did…I guess we may see on Friday, when the final standings should be posted online.

Result: 191-193-204=588
Final average (39 games): 197 Last 9 average: 204

All-in-all, I have to be very pleased with the summer overall. Personally, I exceeded all of my expectations, finishing with the highest league average I’ve ever posted (albeit not as “official” as a winter league average would be). I was only under my average on 4 of the 13 nights. As I’ve noted earlier, my best-ever series going into this league was a 634, and I beat that score four times this summer, including a new best-ever 694 series a couple of weeks ago, and I also came within 3 pins of matching my best-ever game on that night. I really found a line I could be comfortable with, and stuck with that most of the time. As a team, we finished in the top third of the league, so I had to be pleased with that, as well. At this point, I’d like to extend thanks to Brian, Joy, and Ralph for a great summer league season. I know I won’t be bowling with Joy again (unless I move where she is), but I hope to bowl with Brian and Ralph again down the road (maybe next summer? 😀 ).

How do I build on that? The shot in the Westgate Mixed League is also the house shot, so I know I can keep playing the same line, but my spare game will have to improve if I want to continue the momentum. I am setting a modest (now) goal for that league of averaging 200 or better, meaning I will need to improve on my summer league average by 3 pins, but I believe it’s an easily reachable goal if I continue to improve steadily.

Payout night for the league is next week, and it looks like we’ll take home some extra cash, as our early 958 game with handicap as a team looked likely to stand up as high on the season. As a final note about the league, Sean Richard nearly had a 300 game in his last game of the season, leaving a solid 8 in the 1st frame (which he made), but getting the last 11 in a row for a 290. Good bowling Sean! 😀

Photo to be added to “scrapbook”: Before bowling tonight, I grabbed a candid of Ray helping a customer in the pro shop, so I will be uploading that to the “scrapbook” page after posting this. 😀

Keeping it light

After skipping practice last Monday, it was back on the practice lanes today. However, with a crazy week coming up with my league’s position round on Wednesday night, my birthday on Friday, and a wedding in the family Saturday, I decided to just keep the practice light, shooting all three games for score in an effort to work on my total game. My first two were in the 180s and 190s range, but everything came together for the last game, shooting a 233 in which I only had a 6-7-10 split for an open, opening with a double, and stringing 5 in a row from the 5th through the 9th. I had a couple of nice shots to end the game, but wasn’t rewarded for them, tapping an 8 pin and leaving a 7 on the fill of the spare. Oh well, can’t win them all…hehehehe!

Cross-training #54

Yes, Peyton Manning, the NFL’s cover boy, is a bowler, as confirmed by a note in an article on a motor sports site. The event is the PeyBack Bowl, to be held on Aug. 18 in Indianapolis, which benefits Peyton Manning’s PeyBack Foundation. He will be joined by IndyCar series drivers Scott Dixon, Sarah Fisher, and A.J. Foyt IV (which is why the note appeared on a motor sports site), along with other national and Indianapolis local celebrities.

BowlingBall.com added to “Equipment Sites” list

BowlingBall.com is another e-pro-shop, one I found advertised on LeagueSecretary.com. Though the name of the site is BowlingBall.com, you can find other equipment there, as well. I thought I’d add this one to the list as another place to try to find a deal on equipment online, but keep in mind that none of the e-pro-shops actually drill balls, so your driller will charge a fee for drilling a ball bought online (with grips and/or slugs, if you want them, additional, of course).

Standings update for Aug. 15

The reader reading this before August 22 is hereby directed to the standings sheet as linked in the sidebar.

My team stayed in 5th place after this week, and will face “Shake ‘N Bake”, the team we got out of our collective funk against a couple of weeks ago, on lanes 47 and 48 next week. With a current total of 56 points, and with the second (Team 5) and third (SHIHOOTS!) place teams having 60 points apiece, we could conceivably move up with a sweep of our match. If the second and third place teams each split their matches, we would tie them for points, but the pinfall (with handicap) difference is currently about 400 pins to Team 5, and we hold the pinfall tiebreaker (by less than 100 pins) over SHIHOOTS!, so assuming the pinfall difference stays the same, we have a better chance of moving into third place.

As a side note, there is no way Team 5 can catch Team 18 (which has 70 points), so I’d like to extend congratulations to Team 18 (Steven and Bill Hudson, Brian Misasi, and Dan Monahan) on clinching the Wednesday Summer Mixed League title. Good bowling, guys! 😀

AZO Bowling added to “Equipment Sites” list

I found AZO Bowling while checking the price of a ball I’m looking at on the Buddies Pro Shop site. AZO’s site looks pretty basic, having only one distributor with sales territories covering much of the US (there is more than one distributor, but the sales territories of the others are quite limited), so you may want to do some searching and price-checking online if you’re interested in purchasing an AZO ball.

The penultimate night

Not having practiced on Monday and having had the oil bled out of my ball the day before, I wanted to get a couple of games of warm-ups in before league bowling tonight, so I joined Ralph on his pair. The second game of my warm-up session actually turned out to be the high point of the night, as I had a clean game in the 230s, but, as you’ll see, I wished I had another game like that in me tonight.

The first game saw me getting lined up on lane 45, but not on 46, as I alternated strikes with opens on 46, including a 5-7 split in the 4th frame that I narrowly missed converting. After a spare and a couple of single-pin misses, I finally found the groove, standing outside where I normally do on the approach, and I had 5 in a row to finish for a 183. The strike string proved to be critical, as we closed about a 40 pin late deficit in the final frames, with Ralph going on a similar strike spree for a game in the 230s, and he had to go strike for strike with Team 9’s anchor, who wound up missing in his 12th frame, giving us a 9 pin first game win.

I was clean with a double in the 5th and 6th, making 5 single-pin spares until the 9th frame, when I threw an attempt at the 6 pin in the gutter. A strike in the 10th gave me hope for a game over 200, but I missed a 7 pin on the fill for a 194. Brian led the way in this game with a 234, and we won the second game by a more comfortable margin.

I made a 7 pin to begin the third game, then doubled before missing a 10 pin, again in the channel. My strike shots in the next 2 frames were through the nose, leaving the “Big 4” (4-6-7-10) and the 4-6. My shot in the 7th frame was also high, but I left a more manageable 3-6-10, which I made. A double in the 8th and 9th got me back on track, but I left a ringing 10 in the 10th frame. I made that, then left the 6-10 in the fill for a 181. There was no big charge for us late in the game, but it was still close, as Team 9’s anchor could’ve struck out to make things interesting for total. He didn’t quite do it, but his team still took the third game.

Bowling the tournament earlier in the week might have caught up to me, as my left foot was kind of bothering me near the end, but the thing I’ll take out of this night was that, even though I missed a couple of 10s on the night, I made 4 other 10s, so I’m making progress on making that corner pin more consistently.

Result: 183-194-181=558
Average (36 games): 197 Last 9 average: 210
Next week’s AVG+1: 622

I had hoped to be able to tell everyone who our opponent in next week’s position round will be tonight, but Donna was still sorting that out when Brian and I had to leave, so the usual Friday standings update will have that information.

Donna also said it looks like the teams that have been submitted for the Wednesday night Westgate Mixed League look full, but she would know more about any new sign-ups before the league meeting in two weeks.

BowlingIndex.com added to “Equipment Sites” list

BowlingIndex.com was a site I wanted to copy to the blog’s sidebar list from my homepage, but, since I created the “Equipment Sites” category until now, I was unsure which category to put it under, as, though they’re mainly an e-pro-shop site, they also have bowling forums and an instruction section. Consulting w/ my buddy “cgeorg” on the IRC channel, I have decided to put the site in the “Equipment Sites” list rather than the general “Bowling Sites” list, as the e-pro-shop seems to be the main function of the site. Users will get “bubble help” about the other functions of the site when they mouse over the link, however, so I don’t feel it’ll be out of place in the list I chose to put it in.

“Bowling This Month” added to “Bowling Sites” list

I learned about the “Bowling This Month” site, which has been added to the “Bowling Sites” sidebar list, via our good friends from the BowlingFans.com site. “Bowling This Month” bills itself as the technical magazine for high-average bowlers, and is well-known for their bowling ball reviews, making mini reviews available for free download semi-annually. While they are best known for their equipment reviews, they do cover other topics, so I decided against putting this link in the “Equipment Sites” list and put it into the general “Bowling Sites” list instead.

Elite Bowling added to “Equipment Sites” list

I found Elite Bowling while on another e-pro-shop site looking at the Darth Vader Viz-A-Ball, and their site, which is now in the “Equipment Sites” sidebar links list, through a Google search. Notably, their pro staff includes PBA Hall of Famer Brian Voss and Robert “Maximum Bob” Smith, who throws one of the most powerful balls on tour.

As a side note, I didn’t practice yesterday, as my feet were a bit sore, not necessarily from bowling in the tournament, but because of all of the standing around I did in the pro shop that day, as well. I should be OK for league tomorrow night, however. I may stop in the pro shop later this afternoon to have the oil bled from my ball if it’s not raining.

A learning experience

I had decided against getting the oil bled out of my ball, but I did stop in the pro shop to greet Ray, who was just back from vacation. He was getting swamped with orders for new balls and other services, but he did get a chance to look at the copy of my league log that I printed out for him, as well a copy of the printout of my first anniversary post later (which I told him he could look at at his leisure). He did fill me in on something he’s going to be running in the future, but I won’t post about it until he has the paperwork done for it.

I did get a couple of games of warm-ups in, and the lane, which I knew had the tournament shot on it, was playing tighter than even I expected, ending up with me standing left of the 20 board and trying to go between the second and third arrows. I thought I had gotten lined up at the end of the second game, so I was still fairly confident as I checked in. I did have to make the adjustment on my entering average, and when I saw the scorecard, I was notified I had 22 pins/game handicap.

I made the acquaintance of last month’s winner, Phil Hall, in the pro shop, and learned that he had a major head injury in his motorcycle accident. I learned that he operated a pro shop before his accident, and as he was watching me bowl my warm-ups, he had a look at my ball, giving the opinion that my span was too short. He gave me an offer to drill a new ball when I wanted one, but I’ve been doing so well with the ball Ray & company drilled that I don’t feel that I want to “change horses mid-stream”.

The fact that I had to play a tighter line meant there was no margin for error, and it was a struggle to break 150 during the series, especially in the second game, where I could only manage a 130, my worst game in months. Most of the time, I was coming in high, leaving a lot of splits, but those times I missed my target right, it would not break back to the pocket, so it was, indeed, much different than the house shot I’ve been used to on Wednesday nights. In an attempt to find a line I could play, I later moved outside to right of the 20 board and tried to take a more direct line to the pins, and though I had a double in the last game, that wasn’t working well, either. I ended up w/ a 150-130-153=433+66=499. I was glad I decided not to get in either the high game and series side pools or the brackets (where you’re randomly placed in a bracket with 7 other bowlers in your squad and advance based on how well you do in each game), the latter for which my performance meant I would’ve been a major donor.

The cut score turned out to be 658, about where I was expecting it, but I hung around for a bit after bowling. I told Sherm Cowan, the tournament director, after I bowled that I would chalk this up as a learning experience, and that I hoped to do better next time, also noting that I’ll have to save up for a ball better suited to heavy oil. I’ll post the usual recap of this tournament when Sherm updates the tournament’s web site with the results.

Follow-up to “Cross-training #53”

The Yonkers Tribune notes that New York Knicks players Eddy Curry and Quentin Richardson, along with Elton Brand (Philadelphia 76ers), Emeka Okafor (Charlotte Bobcats), and Charlie Villanueva (Milwaukee Bucks), will join Ben Gordon for his “Ben’s Bowling Bash and Celebrity Fundraiser” on Aug. 15. The article also states that the event will also benefit Mount Vernon, NY mayor Clinton Young’s “Save Our Sports” initiative.

Pre-tournament thoughts

I am looking at the prospect of bowling in tomorrow’s “People’s Tournament” at Westgate Lanes tomorrow with optimism, as it comes at a time when I’ve been bowling the best I ever have. The shot is going to be different, but not one I haven’t seen before…they put down the oil pattern used in the Coke Classic League, which I have bowled on in my winter practices, for all of the tournaments at Westgate Lanes also. In fact, I was averaging slightly higher for more games on the Coke Classic shot than I did on the house shot in that time, and keep in mind that those games also included my earlier practices when I was doing stuff like getting my timing back. Considering my recent improvement on the house shot, I think I can do well on the tournament shot now, as well.

To assess my chances, I looked at the cut score for the last two People’s Tournaments at Westgate Lanes, and it was in the 650-660 range both times. If I’m forced to use my current average (198 ) rather than the average I put on the entry form (the 194 of two weeks ago), and I’ll have to show Sherm Cowan the standings sheet from my league to bear this out, I will be getting 21 pins/game handicap (handicap is 80% of 225). Keeping in mind the recent cut scores, this means that if I have a series somewhere around 600 scratch, and I think I’m currently very capable of having that kind of series, I will either make the cut to 32 for match play, or be right on the bubble.

I am entered in the 12:30 PM (second) squad tomorrow, but the plan will be to arrive very early. The pro shop will also be reopening from vacation at 10 in the morning, so the plan includes having the oil bled out of my ball (which will take about an hour, from past experience), wait about a half an hour for the ball to cool, then try to get a game or two in on a lane with the tournament shot (which may be dicey because they’ll have the tournament and also the Sunday rent-a-lane special going on). I hope to take my noon medication before ordering lunch, then check in for the second squad while waiting for lunch. Hopefully, I’ll have time to eat before reporting to my assigned lane pair. The benefit of waiting for the oil to bleed out of my ball is that I’ll have an opportunity to talk to Ray and bring him up to speed on how well I’ve been doing in the Wednesday Summer Mixed League, which I’ve been waiting to do since he went on vacation.

Everyone wish me well! 😀

EDIT: I’ve been advised against having the oil bled out of my ball right before the tournament by one of my BowlingFans.com friends. I’m tending to agree with her (she runs a pro shop in northern California), as I’ve been very happy with the way my ball’s been reacting on the house shot recently, so maybe my ball doesn’t need to have that done yet.