“Fantastic 4” recovered from Week 2 by winning all seven points from “Cold Turkey,” and are now four points behind a tie between Teams 2 and 7 in fourth place, with “Nice Rack, Good Wood” two points behind the leaders.

“Spare Parts” ended up taking only one point from “The Doables” (after the handicap adjustment), and now sit in a five-way logjam for 8th place with “Angry Birds,” “Deadwood,” “Sweet Rolls,” and “The Incredibowls,” with my team listed in 10th place due to pinfall. The tie is 6 points behind a tie between “The Mustangs” and “There’s 3 and 2,” with “Dee’s Boys III” two points behind. “Deadwood” will be my team’s opposition this week.

After failing to win a point from “Angry Birds,” “Spare Parts” fell into an 8th place (out of 16 teams) tie with “The 5 G’s,” four points behind the leaders, “There’s 3 and 2,” who lead “The Mustangs” by a point and “Dee’s Boys III” and “Split Happens” by two points. My team’s opponents for tomorrow night will be “The Doables.”

My Week 3 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK sheet)

The 7th frame of the first game was foretelling of the kind of night I would have, as it was a rare tenpin leave of candlepin’s “Hi-Lo-Jack” (the 1-7-10 leave). Strikes were few and far between, and, while I would make most everything on my right side (including four of five 10 pins and a conversion of the 6-7-10), I had too many errant shots otherwise.

Result: 174-144-154=472
Average (9 games): 166
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 510

It seemed the whole team was in the same malaise I was, as our opponents took all three games comfortably.

“Fantastic 4” ended up winning five of the possible seven points from “Split Happens” in the first week of the virtual league. As no team took all seven from another team, the five points ended up being the leading total after one week, with the real teams in the tie being “Nice Rack, Good Wood” (who are ahead of my team in scratch pinfall) and “Schnitzengiggles.” One team was unfortunate enough to lose five points to the vacant team (which Perfect Secretary seems to want to use a team of four vacant 201 scores rather than recognize a team is bowling unopposed), so the vacant team is currently involved in the tie at the top, as well.

My Week 2 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK sheet)

Bottom line: I make my spares, it’s a good night. Getting the first five and only ending with a 199 in the second game was inexcusable, but the first game could have easily been at least in the 190s, as well. Two bad shots in the third game also ended up costing my team the point for total.

Result: 160-199-157=516
Average (6 games): 170
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 517

I mentioned that we lost total, but we did take the first two games and had a comfortable lead after those that we frittered away.

I meant to post yesterday, but the new virtual league season officially got underway with yesterday’s bowling, and my team assignment finds me on a team with “Charlie98,” “Rocket Jr.,” and “wklstoy.” “Charlie98” returns as a teammate of mine (albeit as a replacement on my team in my first virtual league as its secretary), while “Rocket Jr.” is one of the best youth bowlers in the state of Ohio right now. The team was named “Fantastic 4″…hope the name fits. 🙂

As an aside, the league has a vacant team for the first time since I took over the secretary duties, and, because we could do it in Perfect Secretary, our vacant/team unopposed rule is that a team has to bowl at least their team average to win points against the vacant/bye. I hope this makes things more interesting than if we just had teams bowl within 40 of their average against the vacant.

My team returned intact, but we made a name change to “Spare Parts” before we bowled tonight.

My Week 1 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK sheet)

I have a goal of just trying to reduce my physical game mistakes this year, but I didn’t get off to a great start in that regard, as my release was inconsistent all night. I may have left my best game on the practice lane yesterday.

Result: 184-179-143=506
Average (3 games): 168
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 508

In the time I’ve been bowling with him, Carl has had a few turkeys, but has never been able to add to that…until tonight. He got his elusive “hambone” with the second ball in the 10th frame first game, then repeated the feat in the same place in the third game, getting a 201 in that game. I think we had an outside chance at the second game, but I won’t know until the first week’s standings are posted.

The main item during the Brunswick Mixed meeting was the increase in lineage by the house, so the league voted to go up $1/week in dues. As for the no-tap tournament, I didn’t have the night I had last week, but still shot 676 “scratch,” which might be in line for a prize once handicap is figured in (I believe I had 745 with handicap).

Desk printout don’t lie…

The first time anything connected to a bowling score of mine said 300. Yes, it was the Wednesday Summer Mixed League’s no-tap tournament, and yes, I had five no-tap strikes in it, but the pressure is still similar when you’re actually trying for it. The funny thing is that it happened on my birthday, with Dick Asacker, a former association director, saying he hoped I got a 300 when he gave me his birthday wishes on Facebook, and I told a couple of other people on Facebook who wished me a happy birthday in a similar manner that I might get one that way. I guess some things were meant to be. 😀

I got first in the first game side pot (for the 189 average and under males, and I just was barely at the cutoff), threw a 259 second game to take second in that side pot, but then faltered because there was only Al Cochrane from my winter league (and bowled summer league on Shawn’s team) on my pair with me, and, with the pace of bowling quicker than I might like, only shot 186 last game. The last game proved costly, as Ron Haynes threw a set somewhere in the 760s to beat my 745. I still won $20 for second for a haul of $30 total, so, with entry being $13 (including side pots), I came out ahead. And nobody in the building had the night Harry Thibeault had…a no-tap 900 series to take first in the male 190 and over division.

“Froot Loops” ended up tied with just “C and S” for 7th place in the Wednesday Summer Mixed standings. I remembered to keep the prize list that was decided on, and, calculating the split of the 7th and 8th place prize money, we’re getting back about $69/bowler (there’s always a bit extra in the envelopes, as well).

“3 Kings and 1 Queen” overtook “Don’t Blink” in the first place match for the league championship, so congratulations to the core group of Danielle Barros, Ken Holmgren, Jim Young, and “Hawk” Earle, as well as their sub, Willie Crocker.

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

Yes, I thought I’d do better than just one pin over my average for the night, but where I had more games over 200 than under 200 over the last three weeks of this league, I can’t really complain. I’m ready to proclaim myself ready for the fall/winter bowling season coming.

Result: 202-201-166=569
Final average (39 games): 189
Average for last 9 games: 200

Shawn was crushing in the first game, running ten before leaving the 10 pin for a 289 and taking the game handily, but my team rallied for the other two games, so we know we ended up tied for 7th but not how many other teams we are tied with. There are definitely worse things than tying for 7th in a 20 team league, so I’ll definitely take this. 😀

One thing I wanted to improve on over the summer was converting on my single pin spares, and that goal was accomplished, as I made 76.4% of my single pin spares where I only made 68.7% of them last winter. Particularly telling was my single 10 pin: I made better than 2 out of every 3 10 pins, where I only made 53.3% of them last winter season.

The most important thing, however, is something I don’t really put a number on: I had perfect attendance again for my 9th straight league, and I take particular joy in being perfect this summer, considering where I was with my health. 😀

After a sweep of “Eileen’s Wenches,” “Froot Loops” are tied with “C and S” (led by my winter league secretary, Shawn) for 7th place, and said team will be our opponents this week due to this being position week. The match is for 7th place, because the top six teams are at least ten points ahead of us. For worst case scenarios, there are four teams, “Red Sox,” “The Oddballs,” “Eileen’s Wenches,” and Team 20, tied four points behind us, so if two of those teams sweep, the worst we can do by not winning points is 11th.

At the top, “Don’t Blink” lead “3 Kings and 1 Queen” by four points, so the latter team can tie by winning six points (not sure what happens in case of a tie for the league championship) or win outright with seven or eight points. “4 Wishers” are six behind the leaders, and can only hope for a three-way tie for first if they sweep “Nightouts.”

My Week 12 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK sheet)

I’m finding that I’m gaining a measure of consistency back this summer. This was the second time this summer that I’ve posted back-to-back 600 series, and I didn’t have a series that scored as high as tonight all last winter; you had to go back to my 700 to end last summer to find a higher-scoring night for me.

Result: 191-211-224=626
Average (36 games): 189
Average for last 9 games: 198
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 592

Team took all eight, but the second game was interesting, as I had to convert a baby split, then get one more pin on the fill than the other team’s anchor did; I left the baby again, but the other anchor left three pins on the deck to give us the single pin win. Berta nearly had her first 200 game by ending the night with a 199.

After splitting the points with “Don’t Blink,” “Froot Loops” sit in a three-way tie for 12th place with “RPMM’s” and Team 20 with two weeks to go. Of these three teams, my team has the highest handicap pinfall, which might come into play in determining Week 13’s match-up. We sit 30 points behind “Don’t Blink,” and our split had the effect of bringing the league championship back into doubt, as “3 Kings and 1 Queen” now trail “Don’t Blink” by only six points.

“Eileen’s Wenches” will be our final set opponent next week. As for the match-ups at the top of the standings, “Don’t Blink” has “RPMM’s,” while “3 Kings and 1 Queen” have “Woobundys”.

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

Going into tonight, I knew I wanted to at least be one thing: clean. With that, I succeeded, with only two open frames all night, both on splits. While the night didn’t score that high, I was satisfied that the night matched my best clean frame performance ever with the 28 out of 30 clean. 😀

Result: 223-188-195=606
Average (33 games): 187
Average for last 9 games: 189
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 576

It seemed my team was going to carry the day, but then one member of my team faltered while everyone on the other team shot at least 200 to take the third game by enough for total and the four point split.

After winning only two points from “Who’s On First,” “Froot Loops” are now in 13th place, two points ahead of “Wild Samoans,” but 30 points behind the leaders, “Don’t Blink” (our opponents tomorrow night), who lead “3 Kings and 1 Queen” by 8 points (a full week).

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

There were two things I could take comfort in about tonight: 1) I made all but one of my single 10s tonight, and I was leaving a lot of them in the first game; 2) I made the right ball change after moving and changing speeds to adjust for the 10 in the first game didn’t work. I was only chagrined about one thing…that my night ended on an 8-10 in the pocket after stringing the three previous to that frame.

Result: 168-199-188=555
Average (30 games): 186
Average for last 9 games: 184
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 585

My team had hope for total after winning the second game by enough to get us back in the match after losing the first game by a sizable margin, but we couldn’t win the third game.