The sweep of the “Killer Bees” this week helped my team jump up to 5th place in the league standings. However, we are still 14 points behind Team 18 for the lead with only 2 weeks left. We bowl against another team behind us, Team 9, next week, then it will be the position round, which, if it were to be next week, would put us up against Team 12, which took 6 points from us earlier in the season.

The six point night this week allowed my team to move up one position to 8th. Team 18 still leads the league by a healthy 6 point margin over Team 5 with three weeks left. The remaining schedule until the Week 13 position round has my team facing two teams currently behind us in the standings: the Killer Bees and Team 9. If the standings remain more or less the same, Team 18 will not face Team 5 until the position round.

My night started strangely enough with a shot that had my thumb stick in the ball and left the 1-2-7, however, I did make the spare. Following that with a 6-10 make and a strike, I missed the 10. I then sandwiched a strike between a couple of single pin spares before chopping the 2 off of the 1-2-8. I got myself straightened out to end the game by taking it off the sheet (4 in a row) to save a 191. Brian and Ralph had decent games, but Joy really struggled, leaving 5 splits in the game and we lost the first game by just a bit more than the handicap difference (about 60 pins).

I doubled to start the second game before my last major mistake of the night, leaving the 4-6-7 split on a slightly pulled shot and whiffing on it. I recovered with another double, but was coming in light, which meant to me that my line was experiencing carry down, requiring a move outside. I didn’t quite make the adjustment all the way, as I left the 2-4-5-8 “bucket” (which I made), then a single 2 pin (also made). I struck on the next shot, but then got a couple of bad breaks with a ringing 10 and a 7 (both made), striking on the fill for a 195. Ralph had a game in the 230s, Brian had a 200, and Joy recovered with a decent game, with our opponents struggling, resulting in us winning the second game by more than 100 pins, meaning that we were about 40 pins ahead for total starting the third game.

I started with my ball creeping high again, leaving first a 4, then a 6 (both made) before getting a strike. Getting a fast 8 (4-7) in the 4th frame by going high again meant to me that the lanes were breaking down, as I knew I threw decent shots. Therefore, I determined to make a move back inside. The move paid off in spades, as I very nearly took it off the sheet with 7 in a row before leaving a 10 on my final shot of the night for a 258, my best game in competition since coming back. The huge third game also meant two things: 1) that I broke 600 for the night, and actually fell 9 pins short of matching my personal best sanctioned series from last week with a 644; and 2) with Ralph also shooting in the 200s, Brian going over his average again, and Joy having her best game of the night, that we took third game as well for 6 points on the night. As a note, 634 was my high sanctioned series going into this league…I have beaten that score three times (not counting my near 700 in practice) just this summer. 😀

Result: 191-195-258=644
Average (30 games): 194 Last 9 average: 206
Next week’s AVG+1: 587

With the green light for winter league given by my brother, I informed Donna Bickel that I would be joining the Westgate Mixed League on Wednesday nights in the fall. I had hoped to hook up with Brian and Ralph again on Tony Attardo’s team, but their team of five was full save for the required female, so I told Donna that she could feel free to put me on any team that needs me.

According to the updated league standings, my team is still in 9th place, but taking 6 points from us helped lift the Lounge Lizards from the league’s basement. If we’re going to make a run at the league championship, it will have to start next week, as we’re 14 points off the pace and there are only 4 weeks left.

As I thought, our poor performance the other night pushed my team back to the middle of the pack, as we are now in 9th place out of 18 teams. In fact, we actually helped our opponents, Team 18, grab the league lead. Looking ahead, one of the teams ahead of us, “Shake ‘N’ Bake,” will be our opponents in two weeks.