Taking only one point out of last week, “Babe and Balls” settled into a three-way tie in points at the bottom of the standings with “In It To Win It” (the opposition for my team this week) and “Fire in the Hole.” At the top, “The Incredibowls” hold a single-point lead over “The 5 G’s.”

My Week 23 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK series sheet)

I was only average in score tonight, but I felt I bowled much better than that. My release work the last couple of weeks seemed to pay dividends, with me having a better spare game night than many this season until near the end, when I missed a couple of single pins because I didn’t get out of the ball cleanly. Now, if only my muscle memory can take hold with my release…

Result: 165-215-178=558
Average (69 games): 186
Average for last 9 games: 183
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 577

Eileen had a great night, being over her average in all three games, but we could only manage to take a single point (the second game).

Saving my practice post for next because of something special, so I’m posting this first…

“Crazy Eights” only ended up taking two points from “Pinfall Wizards” in Week 5; however, “Wrecking Balls” got swept in their match last week, so my team is now only a point out of first place.

“Babe and Balls” fell into a tie for the bottom team other than the vacant with “In It To Win It” last week. At the top, “The Incredibowls” and “Bowling Stones” (last week’s opponents) are now tied for the league lead, a point ahead of “Dee’s Boys” (this week’s opposition) and “The 5 G’s.”

My Week 22 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK series sheet)

Mostly, I was trying to keep what I practiced on yesterday in mind, but that still didn’t keep me from getting splits and single-pin misses at inopportune times tonight.

Result: 172-180-185=537
Average (66 games): 186
Average for last 9 games: 186
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 574

To let you know how it was going for my team tonight, I’ll point to the 10th frame of the second game, where the lead-off bowler for our opponents had a slow-motion “backdoor” strike which led to a double, followed by the second bowler breaking up a 5-7 split for a strike. On the bright side for my team, John was a few marks shy of a 500 tonight.

“Crazy Eights” rebounded from last week by taking the lion’s share (5 out of 7 points) from “2 X 6 Pack,” but could not gain any ground on “Wrecking Balls,” as they also won five points this week. My team’s week was buoyed by a personal best game and series from “mikey0811.”

The four points “Babe and Balls” took Wednesday night proved to be valuable, as my team is no longer the bottom actual team in the second half, standing a point ahead of “In It To Win It.” “Dee’s Boys” hold a two point lead on three teams, “The Incredibowls,” “The 5 G’s,” and “Bowling Stones,” the latter team of which will be my team’s opponents next week.

My Week 21 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK series sheet)

Quoting my BowlSK comment on tonight is once again in order:

This night had the potential to be ugly, but I had an overall better spare shooting night than some in the past, as I was 80% on my single pins (missed two 10s, but that was it) and near 80% on my makeable spares. My run of punching out in the 30th frame ended with a solid 9, but that was on the third ball of the frame after two strikes.

Result: 189-162-206=557
Average (63 games): 187
Average for last 9 games: 191
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 616

I was mostly backed up by John (who had a solid, for him, 458) bowling against the vacant team, but the last game wasn’t easy, as my team needed me to close out, and we wound up getting 5 pins over the scratch score we needed.

Week 3 of the winter virtual league found “Crazy Eights” losing all 7 points to “Wrecking Balls,” who are the new league leaders. “Crazy Eights” are three points behind in second place.

Despite taking only one point against “Mustangs,” “Babe and Balls” still has company at the bottom of the second half standings, as “Fire in the Hole” also only has one point so far in the second half. At the top of the Brunswick Mixed standings, “Dee’s Boys” have emerged as the early leaders, as they haven’t lost a point in the second half yet and have a two-point lead over “Pairs and Spares” and “Bowling Stones.”

My team should have an easy night this week: we’re up against the vacant team once again.

“Crazy Eights” came decently close to setting a new league-record five-man team series in the process of winning all seven points against “Four Splits and Giggles.” My team is the only team in the league that has yet to lose a point two weeks in, with “2 X 6 Pack” and “Wrecking Balls” sitting four points behind us.

My Week 20 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK series sheet)

Tonight, in hopes of improving my spare shooting, I experimented with removing my wrist device for my spares. It has a chance to work, as I feel I can deaden the hook on my 10 much better now. The problem was, when I covered my 10 tonight, it was more often chopping it off of the 6, so it still wasn’t a great night for spares. I punched out in the 10th frame in the last game again tonight, so I feel my “endgame” is returning.

Result: 200-201-182=583
Average (60 games): 187
Average for last 9 games: 195
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 609

Except for Patrick, who was absent, the team put together decent games in the second game, but that would be the only point we took tonight. John and Eileen each had one game in the 150s and ended up over their respective averages for the night.

“Babe and Balls” weren’t the only team that failed to take points to start the second half, as “Warren’s Girls” and “Dee’s Boys” also took all four points Wednesday night to join “The 5 G’s” in the tie for high point total. “Warren’s Girls” had the high pinfall with handicap, so they occupy the top spot for now. “Mustangs” are up next to face my team.

My Week 19 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK series sheet)

As I said in my BowlSK comment, the biggest thing I took out of tonight is that I punched out in the 9th and 10th frames to end the night playing as deep inside on this shot as I ever play. It should’ve been a better spare-shooting night, however, due to my missing as many single pins as I made multi-pin spares (the one multi-pin spare I missed was a split).

Result: 202-180-204=586
Average (57 games): 186
Average for last 9 games: 182
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 568

We lost all of the points, but the last two games were fairly close against a tough opponent, who was missing a member, as was my own team (John was sick). Carl had a highlight for my teammates in the third game by shooting pretty close to his personal best game.

“Crazy Eights” did the best we could hopefully do in the first week: win all 7 points (against “Magnificent 7”) and shoot the high scratch team game and series to take the top spot in the league. Two other teams, “Sk8ing On Thin Ice” and “Wrecking Balls,” also won all 7 of their points in the first week.

As I thought I could with the road conditions having improved following yesterday’s winter storm, I got in my post-bowl for the virtual league today. I took neither my netbook nor a paper note sheet for BowlSK, but will summarize the three games below, with my memory being assisted by the desk printout:

Game 1 – Front 4; opens were chopped 4-7 (5th) and a Greek Church (9th); almost punched out in the 10th for the deuce

Game 2 – Front 4 again, then flagged a 10; clean from there, w/ a turkey to set up the 10th

Game 3 – Chopped a 2-4 (4th) for the only makeable miss of the game, but there were also a 3-4-6-7 (5th) and a swishing 7-10 and a 4-7-9 to end it; only one double (7th & 8th) to make up for the opens

Result: 208-232-159=599

I’d really like to have the third game back, but still almost got the 6, so this post-bowl was not a bad start to the winter virtual league season.

My league decided to cancel bowling tonight due to the snowstorm currently belting the area. Typically, my league doesn’t make up the week, but they may if the league’s banquet night hasn’t been scheduled yet. As for the virtual league, I plan to make the week up with open bowling later in the week.

I’m posting mostly to congratulate “The 5 G’s” on winning the first half. They did so by posting a 3-1 win over “Vakanczz” to force a one-game roll-off to break the tie, in which Dana Gomes had the front eight to pace his team to the win. I’ll comment when I know the final totals for the game.

“Babe and Balls” will have the aforementioned “5 G’s” to start the second half Wednesday night.

My Week 18 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK series sheet)

I chatted on Facebook with “CoachJim” in the wake of my bad night last week, and he thought I may have been trying to help the downswing instead of letting the ball fall into it. That was the point of emphasis tonight, and, when I remembered it, I generally made good shots.

Result: 210-192-184=586
Average (54 games): 186
Average for last 9 games: 175
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 593

As I’ve noted earlier, my team was bowling the vacant tonight, which meant we should’ve won points easily tonight, and we did so fairly comfortably.

Halfway through the season, despite the ups and downs, I’m right where I started the season: 186 average.

I did the real work leading up to the start of the Winter 2011 virtual league over the weekend, and found myself on Team 8. Again, two of my chat buddies are teammates, this time “Kelly” and “ryanfeia.” Users “B Fury” and “mikey0811” round out the team, and, at press time, only the former of those two had yet to read my introduction message. We have already settled on “Crazy Eights” as the team name…I hope my team gets better karma out of that name than “5 Blind Squirrels” did for my fall team.

It was a foregone conclusion before last week, anyway, but “Babe and Balls” will be bowling the vacant team this week in the position round. At the top of the standings, “The 5 G’s” need a net win over “Vakanczz” to force a tie for the first half. I’m not sure what the tiebreaking procedure is if two teams are tied at the end of a half, but I’ll let everyone know if it happens.

Shawn had a 712 last week, so he’s now in the lead for the overall scratch series, and there have now been 3 series better than my best since I posted the first 700 series of the season back in September.