“Pin Seeking Missiles” won four points from Team 1 and moved back into the lead by a point over “Probable Cause” and a point and a half over Team 7; eight points separate the entire league, so it’s still anyone’s race with five weeks left.

My Week 11 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK sheet)

Some of tonight was shaking the rust off of my “B” game after I decided that my “A” game wasn’t working and started trying to play straight up the 10 board, but that got better at the end of the night. Two single pin misses, but I left so many of those I was actually well over 80% on them for the night.

Result: 166-138-164=468
Average (33 games): 162
Average for last 9 games: 160
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 512

Opponents won all four, but we only lost the second game by a single pin.

With my good first two games last week, I was bound to get good news in brackets, and I finished second to Ed Godino Jr. in two of them, and one each to Mark Pinnetti and Kevin Hart (who were two of our opponents tonight). The bracket I won was “teammate on teammate crime” (against Donald in the finals), so the brackets I finished second in made up all of an $8 profit.

One bowler was granted an extension to the deadline in the virtual league for the week, so that’s why my results post was delayed.

“Pin Seeking Missiles” lost all seven to “DJSW” and now stand two points in second behind “Triple x-X-x”, with “The Whole 9 Yards” three points in back of the lead in third. There is a five-point spread between the top five teams.

After winning three of four points from “Incredibowls”, “Turkey Hunters” stand tied for 10th place with “Bowl Pack” seven points behind a tie for the lead between “Knock Em Down” and “Striking Gentlemen” (our opponents this week); “Bowling Stones” are a point in back of the lead in third.

My Week 10 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK sheet)

With a better start to the third game, this would have been my best night of the season to date, but I’ll definitely take the first two games (and particularly the clean first game) as something to build on. I also haven’t missed a 10 pin in a while, and I’ll share what has helped me with that pin: I’ve started putting my thumb in my spare ball first when shooting at the 10.

Result: 207-180-142=529
Average (30 games): 162
Average for last 9 games: 159
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 491

My bad third game virtually cost the team that point, but we won the first two comfortably for three points on the night.

My fear last week was that my first game cost me all of my brackets, but I actually made it to one final, beating Carol Andersen in that to get my money for the week back.

After splitting 2-2 with “Sweet Rolls”, “Turkey Hunters” are now in a four-way tie with them, “The Doables”, and “Bowl Pack” for 10th place, eight points behind “Knock Em Down”, who lead “Striking Gentlemen” by three points and “Anger Management” by four. “The Incredibowls” will be our opponents tomorrow night.

“Pin Seeking Missiles” won all seven points against the team that had been in first, “Probable Cause”, and we now lead by three points over “8 Ain’t Enough” and “Triple x-X-x”. It was a low-scoring week, with the league averaging nearly three full pins lower than the league’s average for the season going into the week (201.20 for the season going in, 198.32 for the week).

My Week 9 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK sheet)

If it was possible for me to leave more “junk” than I did last week, it happened tonight. The sure thing I’ve noticed so far is that it isn’t an easy house shot out there for me, with out-of-bounds on the outside, and my need to have the right release or else I go through the nose even if I hit my mark. Five single pins, but I missed two of those, both 7s (and making both of my 10s).

Result: 138-153-159=450
Average (27 games): 161
Average for last 9 games: 160
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 501

After winning the first two games, we lost the third game by enough to lose total by 18 pins. Barry had the high set on the pair (543).

After “Turkey Hunters” won three points from “The 508 Boys”, we’re tied for 11th with “Sweet Rolls”, who we will be bowling against tonight in the first position round of the first half. We are seven points behind “Knock Em Down”, who lead “Ebony and Ivories” and “Bowling Stones” by three points.

“Pin Seeking Missiles” won first game and total against “8 Ain’t Enough” for a total of three points, and now stand tied for 3rd with “Triple x-X-x”, three points behind “Probable Cause”, who hold a two-point lead over “8 Ain’t Enough”.

“Probable Cause” improved on their all-time series standing, as they shot 2,712 to take over second place all-time.

My Week 8 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK sheet)

This was a strange night (for another reason I’ll mention later, as well), as I wanted the game to be on the line earlier in games, since my clutch bowling turned out to be better than my other bowling. I ended up throwing the first strike in the 10th second game to win, and just got a bad break on a 7 pin ending the last game that would have tied the game had the 7 fallen. The other thing I’ll take out of the night is that I didn’t miss any of my four single pins (and I had two 10s on the night), but just left too much “garbage” most of the rest of the night.

Result: 165-143-149=457
Average (24 games): 162
Average for last 9 games: 163
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 492

Team won the first game more comfortably, so it ended up being a three point night for us.

The other strange part of the night is that a thunderstorm came through the area as the night was winding down, and I guess a lightning strike knocked out the power. The good thing was that my pair had finished bowling by the time the power went out.

I had my best night in brackets yet last week, beating Jo-Ann in two finals, Shawn in one, and Patrick Doten (one of the members of tonight’s opposing team) in a fourth bracket to get $20 back. I did so well I forgot to look to see who knocked me out of the fifth bracket.

After failing to win points from “Anger Management”, “Turkey Hunters” are tied for 11th with “Sweet Rolls” and “Bowl Pack”, eight points behind “Knock Em Down”, who lead “Bowling Stones” and Team 16 by two points. “The 508 Boys” will be our opponents tomorrow night, with the first position round of the first half coming next week.

“Pin Seeking Missiles” won only the first game against Team 7, and now stand tied for 3rd with “8 Ain’t Enough”, just a point behind the leaders, “Probable Cause” and “Triple x-X-x”.

Individually, a member of “Triple x-X-x”, “SteveH”, submitted what he thought was his personal best series, a 672.

My Week 7 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK sheet)

Finally put together three decent games, but I didn’t think I deserved decent in the last game because I did catch some breaks on Brooklyn hits near the end of the game. A 4-7-9 conversion in the 10th second game was saving it a bit, as well.

Result: 180-177-181=538
Average (21 games): 164
Average for last 9 games: 170
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 508

Two bowlers on the other team shot over 700 tonight, and that’s tough to beat in any league; we lost all four.

I was alive in two brackets after two games last week, but one of them was a tie with Jim Andersen. In brackets, if there’s a tie in the first or second game, the next game breaks the tie, and my third game cost me the bracket that I had the tie in. I did finish second to Shawn in the other one, so I did get $2 back.

After winning one point from “The Doables”, “Turkey Hunters” are now tied for 8th place with “The 508 Boys”, 4 1/2 points behind “Knock Em Down”, who lead “Bowling Stones” and “Striking Gentlemen” by a half point and “Ebony and Ivories” by a point and a half. “Anger Management” will be our opposition tomorrow night.

“Pin Seeking Missiles” won four of seven points from “Wrecking Balls” and increased the lead to two points, with second being held down by “Triple x-X-x” and “Probable Cause” in third, four points behind.

After winning three of four from “Bowl Pack”, “Turkey Hunters” are now tied for 7th with “The Doables” (who we bowl against tomorrow night), four points behind “Striking Gentlemen”, who lead “The Incredibowls” by two points and “Knock em Down” by two and a half points.

Individually, I had the high scratch game and series in my average class last week, as well as the high handicap scores.

“Pin Seeking Missiles” won all seven from the vacant “bye” team to take a one-point lead over “8 Ain’t Enough” and two points over “Probable Cause”.

Individually, “Chuck”, a member of “8 Ain’t Enough”, submitted his third 300 game for the virtual league and is now the all-time leader.