Files news about blog itself and changes to posts of older than the current day
Ed Roberts has brought to my attention that, as reported on TalkTenpin.net, he has successfully defended the Rock Masters title he won last year. Congrats! 😀
As administrivia, I’ll be linking the TalkTenpin.net site, as it appears to be a good bowling news site, and also their UStream channel, in the sidebar.
I created the bowling streaming/videos sidebar link category with every intention of adding to the list, and did so today with two YouTube channels I thought readers of this blog would be interested in:
The first is NEBA’s channel, which has most of the recent NEBA title matches. Subscribing to the channel on YouTube will help you be alerted to new uploads.
The second may be less familiar: “sk8shorty01”, more properly Storm and Roto Grip Florida amateur staffer Michael Bauer, is one of my better bowling friends online, and has a YouTube channel worth subscribing to, particularly if you’re a Storm and/or Roto Grip fan. Most of the videos are reviews of Storm and Roto Grip releases, of course, but two series are worth it for anyone, “The Language of the Pins”, in which he gives an interactive lesson on how to read the lanes based on the pins and adjust off of those, and “Between the Lines”, which will explain all of the lines your driller draws on your ball before drilling it. All of the videos on his channel are high quality, thanks to his expertise in computer animation.
The USBC reported that Ed Roberts of Braintree, MA, a Brockton Bowling Association Hall of Famer, was the third place finisher in the 2014 ITRC Super Senior Classic at the International Training and Research Center on the International Bowling Campus in Arlington, TX. Ed was the second seed in the stepladder and faced Jim Knoblauch of Waukesha, WI in the semifinal match. In the match, Knoblauch opened with a five-bagger before leaving a 4-7-10 split, and it looked like Ed would apply pressure with a run of three strikes from the 5th frame, but he never really had it on the left lane and left the 4-6-7 split in the 8th frame, from which he didn’t recover, losing by a score of 218-196. Knoblauch went on to defeat defending champion Kerry Painter of Henderson, NV in the title match 224-213.
The event streamed live on BowlTV, and I’ll embed the archive below.
Congrats Ed! 🙂
In a bit of administrivia, I added NEBA to the text of their link to make it easier for users who know the organization by its initials to find the link.
I try to keep an exhaustive list of links to the ball manufacturer sites in the “Ball sites” links list, and I saw a new company, Blend10, on Facebook, so the link to their website is now in that list. In a bit of housekeeping, I removed the link to MoRich after seeing that it is now a foreign language site (Indeed, Mo Pinel, the mind behind the MoRich brand, now designs balls for Radical; I’ve also been putting off mentioning something that everyone at Westgate knows: Sean Richard is now on Radical’s staff.).
I rarely do consecutive administrivia posts, but today I also added a site I learned from through Mike Rose Jr., the 2007 USBC all-events champion (who I met around the time I returned to bowling when he was at Westgate Lanes for a NEBA tournament), via a Facebook post: MyBowler.com, which is a good, personalized bowling calendar site. Being also mainly geared toward allowing tournaments to promote themselves, I thought the “Tournaments” sidebar category was the best fit for this link.
With bowling’s trend toward “narrowcasting” over the web, I figured it was about time to have a list of sites and such that regularly do bowling streaming, as well as other bowling videos, and that list, named, of course, “Bowling Streaming/Videos”, is now in the sidebar. Of course, I moved Xtra Frame to that category, and also added a few other sites, one of the lesser-known ones being MichiganBowler.TV, with that being added mostly because they’ll do a live stream next month from the Miller High Life Scratch Challenge at Strikers East in New Hampshire.
My Week 6 bowling, frame-by-fram (Linked to BowlSK sheet)
On a night when scoring was low across the leagues, I was actually in play for over average after two games, but then the wheels came off the wagon in the last game, with a pocket 7-10 in the 9th frame of that game being the unkindest cut. In the second game, I couldn’t avoid 2-10 combinations, but struck out in the 10th to go over average in the game.
Result: 176-167-135=478
Average (18 games): 161
Average for last 9 games: 164
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 488
Team won only the first game, with my bad third game wasting Donald’s personal best one (148).
Brackets started a week late because of Shawn’s vacation with his family a few weeks ago, and I was fearful my second game last week cost me in those. However, I was in two finals, beating Jo-Ann (Coles) and Marsha Jones in those for a $5 profit on the night. The administrivia for this post will be me throwing up a link to the profit-loss sheet for this year in the “Author’s links” sidebar list.
The USBC has recently launched their Bowling Academy site, replete with advice and video tips from Team USA and certified Gold level coaches. Being that this is an official USBC site, I had to add it to the sidebar (under the “Coaching/Tips” list). While there is a “premium” membership available, much of the content is free…an example of your USBC membership dues at work, which is why I shared it on the Brockton Bowling Association Facebook page first.
It hit on me tonight that I might not have noted on the BowlSK sheet for my league night on Sept. 24, 2014 that I took a re-rack in the 2nd frame of the 2nd game prior to a strike in that frame, and I had wanted to, so I made the edit after confirming that I hadn’t made that note. The note can be instructional for some of you: It can pay to pay attention to how the pins are spotted in the full rack.
A bowling forum buddy (who happens to be in New England) alerted me to Modern-Bowling.com, which is a site with tips from Rob Mautner, a Las Vegas-based USBC Silver coach who was listed among the Bowlers Journal Top 100 coaches last year. His tips are organized into three sections, physical game, adjustments, and bowling balls, and he also invites you to ask questions on his forum site, BowlingIntel.com. Both sites have been added to the “Coaching/Tips” sidebar list.
Junior league note: Marcia wanted me to let everyone know that, although the junior leagues have now started, they’ll still be accepting new bowlers, so registration is ongoing. You may ask for details at the desk.
With Carl taking a year off and Brian and Berta starting later this year, the team got shifted around, and Pat was placed on a different team. I haven’t noted here that AMF Taunton Lanes closed late this summer, and I picked up a couple of bowlers from Taunton’s old Thursday Mixed league, a father and son pair, Barry and Donald Wood, with Brian and Berta joining us when they start. Barry is actually a pretty decent bowler, so I’m hoping he can take some of the pressure off of me this season. Barry was OK with “Turkey Hunters” as our team name, so we went with that.
My Week 1 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK sheet)
I almost never seem to start a league well, and that was the case tonight. The first-frame gutter would prove to be a microcosm of the night, though I tried to hang in there. It should also be said that my left foot wasn’t feeling its best, but I’m hesitant to make that an excuse, as I’ve bowled OK w/ a sore foot before.
Result: 139-146-144=429
Average (3 games): 143
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 435
As bad as I was, my team was close to winning the first two games, and it took a good third game to steal the two points out of the night. The reason I know this is that I am now familiar enough with the scoring system that I could enter the team handicaps as provided by Shawn tonight, so the scorers on our pair were calculating the correct totals.
The usual links transition has begun, as I set up my Excel log and the league in BowlSK and added the links before bowling tonight, removing the corresponding summer links (also archiving the Excel log from my summer league). It should be noted, too, that the Excel log will probably display incorrectly in the Google viewer, but you may download the file and view it in Excel, if you choose.
I teased this on Facebook, wanting to actually do so with a photo, but my tease said I’ve joined another bowling-related organization. Before I tell about it, a little background, first:
There’s a large bowling group on Facebook that I’ve contributed to discussion in, and through various contacts with group members, who knew I had a blog, I came in contact with Jackie Wyckoff. She happens to be a member of the International Bowling Media Association’s Board of Directors. The association, abbreviated IBMA, is what used to be the Bowling Writers Association of America, but now encompasses the whole bowling media, including websites and blogs.
At Jackie’s urging, I submitted an application for membership, which was delayed in processing because of some kind of technical error (I eventually had to mail them a paper application.). On Friday, however, first by email and then by postal mail, I received word that my application was approved. While not officially a member at the time, I have also been contributing bigger news items from my blog (mostly about this year’s state tournaments) to their Facebook group.
While operating this blog is, of itself, enough to qualify me for IBMA membership, I must add that I’ve also recently contributed some articles to The Bowler’s Ledger, which Kathy Valerio of the Coke league and Sherm Cowan, the People’s Tournament’s TD, are involved with. This is a free monthly New England bowling newspaper which is available at the Westgate Lanes waiting area as well as in the pro shop. Two articles in particular that I’ve submitted had to do with the Westgate Lanes youth team’s national high series honor and the 600 doubles game thrown in this year’s city tournament by Ed Roberts and Alex Aguiar. While not paid for it, this does also qualify me as a published bowling writer.
With my membership in the IBMA now official, the administrivia for this post will be inclusion of their website in the sidebar list (under “Bowling Sites”) and updating the “About” page to note the membership.
As a final aside, membership does have its perks. I received an IBMA lapel pin with my postal membership notification (which was what I wanted a photo of for the teaser, but I was afraid my cellphone wouldn’t take a good closeup). Also, I’m able to get a discounted subscription to Xtra Frame, which I already subscribe to but will be happy to take the discount for.
The Mass. state women’s and youth associations have had homepages for a while, but, at our emergency board meeting this morning, I learned from one of the board members that the men’s state association now also has a homepage, and I’ve linked it in the sidebar in the “Local/New England” category. I’d like to thank the Pittsfield local association for taking the lead with this, and would also like to note that the state association page currently is offering condolences for Bob Young, so thank you to the state association for that, as well.
I got wind of a new tournament, called the Bay State Open, on Facebook, and, now that I know that they have a website, I threw the link to it on the sidebar under the “Local/New England” links category. Zach Thompson, the tournament director, was bowling in the Coke league toward the tail end of last season, so I want to wish him the best in this endeavor. 🙂
EDIT: Zach told me they’ve booked Westgate for Oct. 18, so that date has been placed on the calendar.
Just a quick note…I have updated the GIF with my arsenal to include the IQ Tour Fusion, and dropped the Hy-Road from the rotation. The latter ball may come out of “retirement” down the line, but I’m studying my options with the surface (I had noted a loss of back-end motion even after its latest cleaning and polishing.).
Once again, hanging on the BowlingCommunity.com forums has yielded a useful link, this time Strikeability.com, which is the website of well-known bowling coach Susie Minshew, who has written for Bowling This Month. One of the forum members recently had an in-person lesson with her that helped him get his first sanctioned 800 series, but the “Learn” section of her site has many mini-tips for your game.
The link has been added to the sidebar, in the “Coaching/Tips” list.
Four teams of the 12 split the points, including my team (listed in the standings as Team 6), and that tie is for 6th. Team 1 was the team that won all eight in the first week. Our opponents are “Lucky Thirteens” tonight.
Administrivia for this post will be the addition of the standing sheets that I can find online to the sidebar, under “Author’s links”.
Sandi Litchfield has given me permission to upload her photo of this year’s Westgate Mixed league champions to the blog, and I’ve put it in the “scrapbook” (Page 2). Congrats guys! 😀
My Week 1 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK sheet)
If my “point of emphasis” this summer is to make better second-game adjustments, this wasn’t a very good start. I also missed more than my share of spares, so I’m thinking the only place to go from here is up.
Result: 154-122-156=432
Average (3 games): 144
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 438
Fortunately, my bad night was made up for by Lou and Jim, and we ended up splitting 4-4 (this is an eight point league).
Administrivia for this post is the start of the summer links transition. I will again link my Excel log, but, where this is a shorter season, don’t expect much statistical detail in it.
This is a backlogged item that can’t be properly sourced because the NAT has been transitioning to a new website, but I did report it on the Brockton Bowling Association’s Facebook page the day it happened…
Brockton Bowling Association Hall of Famer Jim Ferguson teamed with Ralph Dahlgren to win the Northeast Amateur Tournament doubles event on Mar. 16 at Town Line Luxury Lanes in Malden. The pair defeated Paul Smith and Scott Fisher in a two-game final match by a score of 986-860 (with handicap).
The administrivia attached to this post is that I do now know the URL for the new website and will update the sidebar link to the NAT.
I found it necessary to make a couple changes to the links list. First, I got wind that Richard Shockley’s Virtual Bowling Academy no longer exists, so that link was deleted. Secondly, the WTBA (World Tenpin Bowling Association) got a new domain name, worldbowling.org, so that link was updated.
Just some notes related to Ed Roberts and Alex Aguiar’s doubles performance in the city tournament yesterday:
Administrivia note: The first post about the 600 doubles game will be updated with Ed & Alex’s photo.
Quick note…the link to Facebook on the post about the Hall of Fame announcement now points directly to the announcement status. Also, if you’re wondering, that was indeed Junior that we elected. 😀
Seeing a need for it, I was looking for a way to put Westgate Lanes’ tournament and event calendar on my blog, and a solution was found in both an iCalendar widget and Google Calendar. I have implemented this idea two ways, as the iCalendar widget taking a feed from a Google Calendar and by linking the full calendar in the “Local/New England” links list. I’m hoping this not only publicizes our upcoming events, but can also serve as a tool for everyone looking for an open date to book Westgate Lanes (which is why I linked the full calendar).
Enjoy! 😀
My last post mentioned Dan Robinson and Steve Travers and their big night last night, but Junior also got their team photo last night and posted it to the Westgate Lanes Facebook page, which I copied and added to the “scrapbook”. There’s a bit of a surprise in the photo, as well. 😉
BowlingCoupons.com is an offshoot of the Kids Bowl Free site which allows users to register to receive coupon deals at participating bowling centers (Westgate Lanes being one of them) by email. With my home center participating, it was only natural to include the site in the sidebar, in the general “Bowling Sites” category.
I’ve become aware of a new URL for Lane Masters (bowling ball maker), so that company’s sidebar link has been updated. I think the site only features new Lane Masters balls, but buzz is that they may bring back the Legends brand, as well.
I thought the look and feel of this blog was getting stale, and I wanted a fresh look but not too radical a change. I saw that the theme, “Contempt”, was a more professional version of the “Kubrick” theme I’d been using. I’d lose the header graphic with this theme, but, at the same time, I would gain the ability to have the sidebar on all posts and pages, which was what I really wanted. The new theme has been activated and will be the theme for the foreseeable future. I hope everyone likes it; you can give me feedback on the “Contact Rich” page. 🙂
EDIT: My comments to this post note some of the other changes I made, but a big one, one that I hope improves user involvement, is the inclusion of a “User links” widget in the sidebar, enabling the user to register on WordPress.com (if they don’t already have an account), log in, or subscribe to the RSS feeds for posts and comments. There is also a link to the main WordPress.com page. Remember, you can also comment on posts right on the blog by logging into your Facebook, Twitter, or Google+ account from the post you wish to comment on.
It may appear to be just another online pro shop, but “LongLiveBowling” is owned by USBC Gold level coach Sean Klug, who happens to be one of the first Gold level coaches as well as a former member of the Team USA coaching staff. What Sean will do on his site is pretty neat: He will answer any bowling question you submit on his site, and all for free. It was this that had me decide to add it to the sidebar, but I saw it as a fit in the “Other Equipment Sites” category; just bear in mind his offer to answer any bowling question you have.
Just wanted to alert everyone that the photo of “Chanyu”, the last third winners of last season’s Coke Classic league, is now up in the “scrapbook”. FYI, I already have the overall winners: They were “Riordan”.
The Tenth Board 
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