“Tripped 4s” dodged a huge early bullet when we had “sk8shorty01” of Team 3 (not yet named) throw an 823 series against us, which was just a pin shy of the league record, but we still won five of seven points. This places us in an early tie with “Good Luck Bad Luck” for third, as “Live2Bowl” and “6-Pack Abs” were the teams that won all seven points in the first week.

“sk8shorty01’s” 823 series also had a 290 game in it, good for another VL honor score.

The winter virtual league started with this week’s bowling (Jan. 6-12), and my team, “Tripped 4s” (arrived at in part because of our team number) consists also of “AmpleSound”, “Dave800”, “TheBigCat”, and “vdubtx”. Everyone except for “TheBigCat” has been in the virtual league before. I should have the first week’s results tomorrow.

BTW, the league consists again of eight five-man teams, but will only run for 15 weeks, going twice through the round robin cycle before a single position round.

“Crazy Eights” did pass “SR Spares” to get out of the cellar, and Team 16 hung on to get first place in the first half by a point over “The Doables”. The second half for us starts Wednesday night against “The Mustangs”.

My Week 17 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK sheet)

Well, I can’t really blame “rust” for breaking my streak of over-average league nights because I was actually over average in the first two games. I did miss a couple of single pins in the third game, a 7 and a 10, but I was missing more of the former than the latter (two 7s vs. the lone 10).

Result: 182-179-148=509
Average (51 games): 173
Average for last 9 games: 174
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 542

I got over-average nights from my first three bowlers (Carl, Brian, and Berta) for all four points against the vacant. I didn’t find out what happened in the match to our left, so I won’t know if we moved up until I see the final first half standings.

Shawn was only able to run four brackets on Dec. 11, so I received a $1 refund. I did well in three of the four brackets, finishing second to Jim Anderson in two of them and second to Shawn in the third for what turned out to be a $2 profit in the brackets that were contested.

(Note: Since there was no bowling the last two weeks, this update is based on my league standings after the bowling on Dec. 18)

After failing to win points from “Nuckin Futs”, “Crazy Eights” fell back down to 17th and are stuck bowling against the vacant in the coming position week. We are a point and a half behind a tie between “WTF Over” and “SR Spares”. At the top, Team 16 lead “The Doables” by three points, so the latter team would need at least three and a half points out of the match to force a one-game roll-off for the first half and a sweep to win outright.

“X-Factors” only managed two points from “Professional Amateurs”, leaving us tied with them for third place. “Splits For Brains” won five of seven from “All Balls On Deck” to win the league championship; congratulations to the team members, “bigcall”, “Mikestormbowler91”, “rrb6699 (RayRay)” (I usually post him as just “RayRay”), vdubtx, and Vic44.

Going to try something different: Instead of uploading it to my Google Drive, I’m going to try to post the PDF program sheet of the shot (oil pattern) for the second third of the Coke league directly through this blog’s media library. I’m not going to be sure how it will link it, but the results will be below:

2013-14 Coke Classic League 2nd third oil pattern

The blog apparently inserts a link to the PDF, so the link above will load the PDF in a new window/tab.

My Week 16 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK sheet)

I sometimes forget I’m decent at changing speeds, and I recognized late that that was the adjustment needed in the third game, though it did save my game once I could throw slower, but good, shots. The second game I’ll blame on the splits: I left all four I had on the night in that game.

Result: 189-142-192=523
Average (48 games): 173
Average for last 9 games: 181
AVG+1 score for Jan. 8: 529

Team lost all four. I had the high two games on the pair, but, because of my second game, not high series on the pair.

Shawn couldn’t bowl tonight (his daughter’s concert was postponed to tonight from last night due to the weather), so I won’t know about last week’s brackets until after the holiday break, and there were no brackets tonight.

“X-Factors” only won two points from “5 Fingers of Destruction”, while “Splits For Brains” won all seven from “All Balls On Deck”, meaning the latter team leads “Splits For Brains” by a point and us by two points. The scenario in which we get at least a share of the championship is taking at least five from “Professional Amateurs” and “Splits For Brains” wins 4-3 against “All Balls On Deck”; we win outright with at least six points in that scenario.

After winning a point from Team 16 (who still lead), “Crazy Eights” now stand in 14th place, a half point ahead of “WTF Over” and “3 Plus 2”. We are 18.5 points behind the lead, and the second place team, “The Doables”, are four points behind. We bowl “Nuckin Futs” this week, which will be both the last week of bowling before the holiday break (The league’s by-laws state that the season is shortened when Christmas and New Year’s Day or Eve fall on Wednesday.) and the last week before the position round for the first half.

My Week 15 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK sheet)

I was looking pretty decent through two games, but then the wheels fell off of the proverbial wagon, particularly when I missed a move in, and then throwing a bad shot when I finally did. I still ended up with the high game on the pair (second game), and was over average for the fourth consecutive week. I probably wasn’t high enough over average for a prize, though, because this was the league’s “Christmas Bowl” night.

Result: 174-227-138=539
Average (45 games): 173
Average for last 9 games: 182
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 530

The second game point was the only one we won. Brian had his first two over average, but couldn’t maintain that in the third game.

Last week was a breakthrough kind of night in my brackets: It was the first time I got money back in all five of them, winning a bracket from Mike DiBenedetto, finishing second to Shawn Coles in three other brackets, and second to Ed Godino Jr. in the last one for $8 in clear profit.

“X-Factors” managed to cut directly into the lead, taking five from the leaders, “All Balls On Deck”, and my virtual team is now four points behind in second with two weeks left. We are four ahead of “2 Lazy 2 Chose”, who are now in third.

We again had the high team game of the week (and this game is now the second high team game of the season), paced by “Charlie98”, who had a new personal best game in tying (with “sk8shorty01”) for individual game honors for the week.

Winning 2.5 points from “3s Company” brought “Crazy Eights” to 15th place, 16.5 points behind our opponents in the coming week, Team 16; that team had “The Doables” reduce their lead to three points. The standings on LeagueSecretary.com haven’t been updated at press time, so I’ll comment if any of us earned weekly honors.

My Week 14 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK sheet)

As I noted on BowlSK, this was really my most consistent night of the season to date. Through the third game, I was matching my fewest open frames ever in a series until I chopped consecutive 6-10s on lane 25. Until then, I had only missed a 4 pin and a light split (the 4-5) in the second game (first game was a clean 208).

Result: 208-190-171=569
Average (42 games): 173
Average for last 9 games: 182
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 547

For my teammates, Brian’s 176 first game and Pat’s 168 third game stood out; we won the first two games and ended up tying for total for 2.5 points.

The three points “Crazy Eights” won from “SR Spares” was enough to pass that team for 16th place, but we are now 18 points behind Team 16, who hold a five-point lead over “The Doables”. My team bowls “3s Company” tomorrow night.

“X-Factors” won five of seven from “Splits For Brains”, but “All Balls On Deck” won all seven from “5 Fingers of Destruction”, who had been in second, so that meant that we are now alone in second, but seven points behind the lead. As a team, we had the high game of the week (I believe for the second time in the season).

My Week 13 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK sheet)

I was a little more consistent tonight, but always one bad game in there, it seems. I was over average largely on my spare game, but I still missed three 10s, which, how the night went, cost me 19 pins in count.

Result: 188-186-160=534
Average (39 games): 172
Average for last 9 games: 171
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 552

Team won three of four, with Pat being over average all night; however, I needed the first strike in the 10th third game for the other point and threw a bad shot.

None of us won “Turkey Shoot” prizes; however, I made it through two brackets last week, beating Kris Higgins in one and finishing second to Jeanne Bowker in the other for a $2 profit.

After winning one point from “The Doables”, “Crazy Eights” are still in last place (other than the vacant), one point behind “WTF Over” and “SR Spares” (our opponents tomorrow night) and 18 points behind the leaders, Team 16. Team 16 has lengthened their lead to six points over “The Doables”.

If I see that any of my teammates (or myself, for that matter) won a prize in the “Turkey Shoot”, I’ll note that in my league night recap post tomorrow night.