Category: Administrivia

Files news about blog itself and changes to posts of older than the current day

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.

Link to 900 Global added to sidebar

A visitor in the #BowlingFans IRC channel alerted me to the existence of 900 Global, another manufacturer of bowling balls and shoes, so the link to 900 Global’s site has been added to the sidebar in the “Equipment Sites” category. I don’t think 900 Global’s stuff is selling anywhere online, but the site has a pro shop listing (look on the bottom of the menu on the left) where you can pick the state you reside in from a drop-down list and get a listing of pro shops carrying 900 Global equipment in that state.

BowlSpace exclusive: “Best series ever!”

As I would like to do whenever I have a notable event, my full post on my new best-ever series has gone up on my BowlSpace blog rather than here. I will sum up that the new best-ever series is a 694, narrowly missing my first 700 series.

I will repeat the additional note I made in the post here, however: Dan Monahan nearly had the first 300 game of the league tonight, getting the first 11 before leaving the 6-10 (as a lefty) for a 298. Great game Dan! 😀

EDIT: The “About” page has also been edited to reflect the new high series, and I also took the time to make additional edits to make the first paragraph more concise.

Link to “Petersen Classic” added to sidebar

I had heard my two Chicago friends from the BowlingFans.com gang talk about this scratch tournament, and I finally found the tournament’s site today, so I decided to add a link to it in the “Bowling Sites” category of the sidebar. I don’t know if I’ll ever be good enough to have a chance in this one, but it is one of the better-known tournaments, so that led me to include the link.

Also, as my friend who runs the bowling scorekeeping site wants to have the site known as “BowlSK”, I have renamed that link. It is my plan to start using the site for my fall league so I don’t waste blog space on stating what happened during the night, as I can just link the series sheet on BowlSK.

Blog updates

Just a couple of updates to the blog for tonight…

  • Given tonight’s accomplishment, the “About” page of the blog has been updated to reflect the new personal best official series.
  • I got a photo of my cousins’ team after we finished bowling tonight, and that has been uploaded to the “scrapbook” page.

More “Equipment Sites” links added

I added a few more bowling ball companies to the “Equipment Sites” sidebar list, but two other sites have been added that are worth mentioning…

“Buddies Pro Shop” is, of course, the popular online pro shop, so now you can do a little comparison shopping with Bowling.com.

“Video Ball Reviews” is not necessarily a review site, but more like a video demo site where they tell you the lane condition, the drilling info, and pin placement for each ball, and then you can see for yourself how the ball reacts on the lane.

“Equipment Sites” category and links added to sidebar

I figured it was time I added a new sidebar category for bowling equipment-related links, so I have done so. A couple of links, “Bowling Ball Reviews” and Bowling.com (the online pro shop), have been moved from the general “Bowling Sites” category to the new category, but mostly the links in the new category are to equipment manufacturer sites, including popular bowling ball and shoe lines. This is by no means an exhaustive list, so try to supplement this listing with a web search. As an additional note, Storm’s site was slow in responding at press time, but they haven’t gone out of business, so be patient.

Understated goals

My revised plan for practice today was to just use the first game to work on mechanics, the second game shooting just corner pins (I was going to spend the whole practice doing this, but decided I didn’t want to neglect the other phases of my game.), and the last game trying for score. The first two games went just about as expected (I only missed 2 corner pins, a 7 and a 10, the whole second game), while I could only manage a 171 third game because of a 4-6 split and a washout. I did learn that another key to making my corner pins was extending for my target spot to make sure I didn’t miss it. I suppose I’m happy with this practice, but I hope to line up better in league Wednesday night.

Scrapbook update: I brought my camera with me to practice to get shots of Junior, Marcia, and Bev. I could’ve had a photo with all 3 of them, but I had thought my batteries were dead (when it was really the lens barrier not fully open), so I only managed to grab Junior and Bev before I had to leave to catch the bus back home. Marcia will have to wait for another day, but the two photos I got will be uploaded to the scrapbook page momentarily.

Richie V. is now on BowlSpace

With some help from my friend Brandon from the BowlingFans.com/BowlingCommunity.com community, I have set up a page on BowlSpace, a social network (like MySpace) for bowlers. I had been eyeing this site for a while as a place to tell a little more about myself other than bowling (I want keep mostly bowling stuff on this blog) and to give my bowling readers more opportunity to interact with me. There is a blog on my BowlSpace, and I have made an initial post to it. I won’t use it often, but if something major happens, I may want to make it a BowlSpace exclusive, alerting my readers here to the post via “administravia.” I do have a post in mind that I’ve been saving for BowlSpace, as well, and hope to post it there in the next week or so.

The link to my BowlSpace page is in the sidebar under “Author’s links,” and I hope some of you will sign up soon and request a friend addition…I will give preference to bowlers from my area and those I know from the BowlingFans.com/BowlingCommunity.com community. See ya there! 😀

“Westgate Lanes scrapbook” launched

Along with getting my team photo taken, I took some shots of some of the other people I see at the lanes (those who would let me, anyway), and I have started a new “scrapbook” page with those, which is linked in the “Pages” category of the sidebar. The team photo is repeated, but there are a few more included to start the page. This page will be updated as I take more pictures, of course, and I will let readers know about updates through “administravia.”

I hope you will enjoy them. 😀

“Dick Ritger Bowling Camps” added to sidebar

I swung by the lanes after a dentist appointment today and saw the flyers at the control desk for a two-day clinic run by Dick Ritger Bowling Camps which will be conducted at Boston Bowl on August 22 & 23. The cost may be prohibitive for me ($295 for the clinic), and I have to be at a wedding on the second day of the clinic, in any event. However, as Dick Ritger is one of the best-known bowling coaches around, I have added the link to his site to the sidebar list. There is a good links page on the site, as well, so it may be worth it to visit the site just for that.

USBC membership info added to “Author’s links”

With my USBC membership card arriving in the mail today, I am now able to link my USBC membership information page as it appears on Bowl.com (the USBC’s site) in the “Author’s links” category. The page is rather bare right now, but the page will track the averages in my completed leagues as well as note any honor score awards I may receive (I hope there’s something on that part of the page someday, of course).

The big payback

I was really geared up for the rematch against “Fun and Games” tonight, but I wanted to keep my team’s mood loose, so my choice of garb for the night was the “Split Happens” t-shirt. When I got to the lanes, Bob Hamilton said something to me on the order of “We’re going to get you for what you did to my daughter’s team last week” (apparently, Bob’s daughter’s team were our opponents last week), and, although I didn’t tell my teammates about it, I kind of wanted to use that internally as “bulletin board material” of sorts, so I didn’t really say anything back to him about it. It did seem lonely this week with the pro shop closed for vacation for 5 weeks and no Ray or Jon to talk to, so I watched Ralph and Brian warm up prior to league starting, making small talk when I could.

The “Split Happens” kind of emerged as a theme for the night at first, as, while I was able to put together strikes, a 4-6-7 split and a 4-9 split marred my first game. However, my team was in a position where we all had strikes working in the 10th, and everyone except Ralph was able to add at least a double to that. I struck out in the 10th for a 207, with my team winning that game. The splits continued in the second game, however, starting the game with the 3-10 (which I converted), and having another 4-9 in the 5th. I was not able to string anything together, completely whiffing on a 3-6-10 in the 8th frame and making single pin spares in the 9th and 10th (filled with a strike) for a 169. My team couldn’t string anything together that game as well, but, though it was fairly close, we lost the second game and entered the third game fairly even for total. The third game for me started with a washout, but I had some of my best bowling so far in this league by stringing together six in a row before missing a couple of single corner pins (making the 10 in the 9th, however) for perhaps the ugliest 213 I’ve ever had. My teammates also did well in that game, so we won third game and total by a fairly comfortable margin for a six-point night, exactly what “Fun and Games” did to us in the first meeting. The 589 series was once again over my AVG+1, so I’m now carrying a 190 league average for the first time in my life.

I had wanted to ride home with Brian again, but wanted to talk to my cousins first. They were still bowling when we finished, so I hung around their lane pair, but Brian took off while I was watching my cousins. Ralph hung around to see if my cousins would take me home, and when I learned that they could (after hanging around for a bit), I said goodbye to Ralph with a hug, thanking him for the night and letting him know how much I had wanted our team to do well tonight.

Result: 207-169-213=589
Average (18 games): 190 Last 9 average: 194
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 581

Edit to BowlingCommunity.com link: I edited the sidebar link to BowlingCommunity.com in a way that lets readers know that those are the forums I post to.

Still on a roll

We finally had some semblance of a normal league night tonight, as all four members of my team were present. My ankle was feeling better than it did last week, so I didn’t feel a need to take a warm-up game to test it. I’ve gotten into the habit of getting my medication stuff out of the way before the lanes were turned on for league, so all I had to tell my sister was that league was about to start, and she knew I had taken my evening medication early.

The only blemish of the first game was a 3-10 baby split where I hit the 3 pin too full and failed to convert the split. I had a turkey in the middle of the game, and had a double plus 9 in the 10th for a 211…a nice start. I opened the second game with a double, but then only picked up the 7 pin on a 4-7 leave after getting distracted by a scoring error and having to make the appropriate change. I was leaving an awful lot of corner pins in the middle of the game, including the 6-10 twice. I had a double in the 9th and 10th frames, but needed the second strike in the 10th for another 200+ game and left a 3 pin with the first fill ball; I converted the spare for a 199. There was a scary moment to start the third game where the lead bowler for our opponents left her shoe covers on and slipped, falling over onto the lane, when she threw her first shot in the game; she was OK, but the score had to be changed to reflect the obvious foul. I left the 6-7 split to start the third game, had a strike in the second game, but then missed the first of two single 10 pin leaves I would miss in the game left. I had a double in the 4th and 5th frames to make up one of the open frames, but then missed another 10 pin left in the 8th frame. My personal highlight of the night came in the next frame, not because I had a strike, but because I left the 4-5 split, one of the more difficult “fit” splits, but converted that, which Ray managed to catch and told me he liked seeing me pick that up. I ended with a 169, the first time I had been under 170 since the opening week. However, the 579 total was 6 pins better than what I needed for the average-plus-1 (total needed to raise average by one pin…I’ll start including that information in the wrap-up with this post), so I still had a good night. Brian was still a bit untracked (after having practiced Sunday on the slicker tournament shot), but Joy and Ralph had decent nights for them. The opponent that slipped on the lane recovered to have a decent third game, along with the other female on the team, so, although it was close, we lost the third game, which prevented an eight-point sweep for the night.

Result: 211-199-169=579
Average (15 games): 189 Last 9 average: 200
Next week’s Average-Plus-One score: 579

Errata: The Bowler’s Ledger, a bowling newspaper published in the area, reported Rosemarie Daniels as a member of the Tri-City USBC WBA in the results of the women’s state tournament, but Ray informed me that she actually bowls out of Boston Bowl, so she calls the women’s association for Boston her home association.

Bowling Scorekeeper added to sidebar

CMG, one of my forum and chat buddies (and he of one of the bowling blogs in my blogroll), has recently launched a very comprehensive bowling score tracker application at bowlsk.com. He put it together out of frustration at the lack of features found on most bowling score tracker sites. What he has come up with is outstanding; not only will it show a line score for every game of a set, but it will also show your leaves (with pins still standing after spare attempts shown in red), and also has space for notes on stance (as a board number), target, and the board you actually hit, and even what ball you used for your attempt at a strike in the frame. You can take a look at the bowlers already registered on the site to see what I mean.

I do plan on using the site myself down the line, but I don’t feel I need the detail bowlsk.com offers at this point. However, I do feel the site deserves a link in the sidebar and I have added it. Last note: if you use the site, please consider donating; as the site grows in number of users, the site’s bandwidth needs will become greater, so donations will help pay for that.

New sidebar category and links

I’ve been waiting since before the start of my Wednesday Summer Mixed league for this…

I have added a new category, called “Author’s links”, to the sidebar. This category will be for links to my personal bowling stuff that is online. Eventually, this category will include such stuff as my USBC membership information, but there are two links to start off this category.

The first one, which is why I’ve been holding off on creating the category, is the link to my current league standings on LeagueSecretary.com. The current standings sheet shows the standings after last week (the bowling on June 4), but I believe it is in the process of being updated. Check here to track my team as we go through the season (paid members of LeagueSecretary.com can access previous weeks’ standings).

The second one will track how well I do from week to week in the league at a glance. It is a stat sheet on a site called BowlingTracker.com, and will even give such stats as averages on each lane pair. The larger site has also been added as a regular bowling site link in the “Bowling Sites” category. Thank you to Brandon from the BowlingCommunity.com forums and the associated IRC channel for pointing me to this site.

It’s official!

As per plan, I went to the lanes early yesterday because I was scheduled to have another lesson with Ray. It had turned out that Ray was running a half-hour late, so I didn’t start warming up for my lesson until about 4:30. After a while, Ray got his camcorder out and started to film a “before” session.

The “before” showed that my timing was still good, and that my release and follow-through were getting better. I was still having trouble staying under the ball, however. The “before” this time included a series to show axis tilt and revolutions. For good pin action, a bowling ball must have at least 12 revolutions before hitting the pins, but I was only getting 9 or 10 revolutions by that time. The problem staying under the ball and not getting revolutions are related, because, as Ray showed me, my elbow was going away from my body. Another problem related to leverage was that I was not bending my left knee enough in my downswing, so in my drill work during the session, the elbow and the knee were the two points of emphasis. When we filmed the “after”, Ray said I had 8 good shots in a row, and my revolutions picked up to the point where I was getting 11 of them on the ball. Ray said I would get that last revolution with practice. Foreshadowing the league night I would have later, he said he had a feeling I would bowl well.

I was prepared to have to hang around after the lesson, so I had all of my medication with me, including my cholesterol medication, which, on Wednesdays since starting the league, I would take before eating at home prior to leaving for the lanes, and I took the cholesterol pill shortly after my lesson. I later ordered a cheeseburger and a Sprite from the snack bar, and I had dinner while watching Ralph warm up. Ralph said that Brian had pre-bowled because of a school awards function that his daughter was involved in. Joy was also back after missing the regular league session last week.

My work in my lesson carried over to my league bowling immediately; I started the first game with a turkey, picked up a single 2 pin, then had a double, and the only open frame I would have that game was in the 9th frame, in which I only picked up the front pin of the sleeper 2-8. I ended the game with a spare and 8-fill for a 214. My second game was not quite as good, but I sandwiched a lone open frame, throwing an attempt at the single 10 pin in the ditch, between a couple of doubles. I made all of my other spares during the game, and I ended up with a 201. I was worried about running out of gas during the night, but my last game would turn out to be my best of the night…a clean 227 in which I tossed a hambone starting in the 6th frame. The resulting 642 series was my best ever in actual competition. Brian’s pre-bowl scores were around his average for the most part, but he did have a 235 in the first game. Except for the second game, Joy and Ralph were also around their norm, and we ended up taking 6 of the 8 points from our opponents, the team known as “G Force.”

Result: 214-201-227=642
Average (9 games): 186 Last 9 average: 186

My team faces last year’s league champions next week, so I’m really looking forward to that. If we have a good night against them, I feel that it would be a statement of sorts.

The administravia of this post is the fact that I have edited the “About” page of this blog, linked in the sidebar, to reflect last night’s accomplishment. Here’s hoping I make more edits like that in the future. 😀

“National Mixed Championships” added to sidebar

I saw the ad for this last night during the ESPN2 telecast of the USBC Queens…the most recent site added to the sidebar is the home of the National Mixed Championships, sponsored this year by Storm, which will be held through October and November at the National Bowling Stadium in Reno, NV.  The tournament features mixed teams (of four, two men and two women) and mixed doubles, as well as singles and all-events competitions for both men and women in scratch and handicap divisions, and there are also divisions for youth and senior bowlers.

Two more sites added to sidebar list

Two more bowling sites have been added to the sidebar list…

“Joe Slowinski’s Tips” at bowlingknowledge.info is the site of this Top 100 coach. Be warned however: this site is for the more advanced bowler.

“Bowling’s Bookstore” is an online bookstore, offering a wide variety of bowling-related books and videos, including specialized material for the bowling proprietor and pro shop operator (including a video series on bowling ball fitting and drilling).

Taking a step back

I spent pretty much all of practice today working on keeping my left arm in, so I wasn’t really focusing on score today, but 2 games ended up being under my practice average, so I kind of regressed, but I’m OK with that…sometimes you have to take a step back in order to get better, and with my return to league bowling approaching, I want to use the remaining time in the winter season to work on my game.  I already have enough of an idea of where I stand after having 78 games of “official” practice under my belt, so I’m not so concerned about practice score now.  In my next practice (not next week, as per note below), I will probably work on the towel drill.

Result:  136-148-173=457

Running average (78 games):  163  Last 9 average:  153

Holiday note:  Next Monday is the Patriots’ Day holiday in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.  As schools in the state also take a vacation that week, Westgate Lanes is likely to treat Monday as a holiday and charge the holiday rate (meaning no half-price special).  Being ever mindful of my budget, I will therefore take the week off.

Edit to NAT post:  As I alerted in my last post, I have edited that post with the name of the bowler who shot the 289 game in the NAT tournament yesterday.

Exhibition match Saturday:  In connection with this coming weekend’s NEBA tournament at Westgate Lanes, USA Bowling Pro Shops will hold an exhibition match on Saturday between Alex Aguiar of North Dartmouth, who recently cashed in the US Open and was also the winner of the 2004 Storm Las Vegas Challenge, and Mike Rose Jr., the 2007 USBC Open All-Events champion.  Both bowlers will hang around after the match for autographs and to answer bowling questions.  The match will begin at 3:30 PM EDT.