There was not much change in the standings overall this week, as the only match not to split points was “8 Is Great” going up against “The Badgers” (who won the match 3-1), so the margins at the top and bottom remain where they are. My team has “DNFTD” next week, then we bowl the second-half position round the following week.

Individually, Ed Godino of “The Dynasty” had the first 700 series of the season in the league with a 708, paced by a 257 first game. Rob Dickens of “The Handicaps” also continued his hot bowling, repeating for 3 USBC awards (2 180 games and a 500 series)

My Week 31 bowling (BowlSK)

What I failed to mention in my league night post last week was that my left foot was bothering me, and that continued tonight, so that might have been in my head these last couple of weeks. Unlike last week, however, I did manage to grind out an over-average night, thanks in large part to a clean 213 last game. Also, I only missed three non-split spares (two in the first game) out of 21 opportunities tonight, so that kept my night respectable.

Result: 166-177-213=556
Average (93 games): 184 Last 9 games average: 189
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 618

The team really only had one bad game, the first one, but it was bad enough (and “The Mustangs” were good enough) to allow “The Mustangs” to take total after we won two close games. Carl, with a turkey in the 7th, 8th, and 9th frames, was a big part of the last game win, as it helped keep the margin high enough to withstand a late charge by our opponents.

The good news is that, despite being swept by “Backyard Bowlers” this week, we remained in 8th place in the second half standings. The bad news is that the gap to last place is now only 2 points. At the top of the standings, “The Dynasty” swept “The Mustangs,” who are now in 2nd place, trailing by that 4 point margin. My team faces “The Mustangs” next week.

Despite what the standings sheet says, there are only 3 weeks left in the season.

My Week 30 bowling (BowlSK)

Although I had some moments, this was just an overall bad night. I didn’t have the speed control I had last week, and I missed my target a few times, to boot. Add to that the fact that I missed 4 single pins by not very much, and you get an idea of how bad it was. I’m just fortunate that my average stayed at 184, but that means (as I note below) I need another 600 next week to get near 185.

Result: 161-160-175=496
Average (90 games): 184 Last 9 games average: 196
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 619

The bad night carried over to my team, as we lost all 3 games by 50+ pins. “Backyard Bowlers” are still the last place team, but they significantly closed the gap to us tonight. Mark Boerman set the tone for them early with a four-bagger, and they did little slowing down the rest of the way.

There are only three weeks remaining in the season.

It’s rare that a standings update is a week late, but Shawn didn’t get them posted on LeagueSecretary.com until last night.

I had hoped my team won the last game last week by enough to take total, but that didn’t happen, so we only took 1 point. However, my team remained in 8th place for the second half, but we are now 13.5 points off the pace (set by “The Mustangs” and “The Dynasty”) with time running out in the season.

Individually, I tied with Bobby Geddes (ironically enough) for second high scratch game this week with the 247, and (also ironically) that was in the game Bobby had his 247 in. I’ve already noted Rob Dickens’ 256 game, but Shawn Coles, the league’s secretary (and holder of high average at this point), almost had the first 700 set in the league this season with a 696.

We face “Backyard Bowlers” tonight, who are 5.5 points behind us in the basement. The “marquee” match-up tonight is on lanes 39 and 40, where the aformentioned teams, “The Mustangs” and “The Dynasty”, will have at it for the second half lead.

My Week 29 bowling (BowlSK)

Getting the oil removed from my ball yesterday turned out to be a good call: I had a fairly bad first game trying to figure out the line and speed I needed to play, but once I did, there was almost no stopping me, as I had a run of six straight in the second game and five straight in the third game en route to my best set of the season, a 654. As I noted in my own comment on BowlSK, a better first game and/or better spare shooting would’ve allowed me to threaten my first 700 series. The good games later proved to me that I could hang with one of the bigger dogs in the league, Bobby Geddes, and, indeed, I think I had him rattled a little bit in the third game.

Result: 173-247-234=654
Average (87 games): 184 Last 9 games average: 204
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 560

I think we won the last game by something like 80+ pins, but lost the first 2 games, so I didn’t know if we won the last game by enough to take total. If we did, it would be the best performance we’ve had against “The Badgers” this season. As another note from the league tonight, Rob Dickens continued his hot streak with a 256 second game, which I believe put him well over the “century” (100 pins over average).

It was a memorable night in the Westgate Mixed League tonight, as well, and I will deal with that in my next post.

I had hoped that the standings would be posted on LeagueSecretary.com by now, but they haven’t, so the only thing I have to go on is the sheet on BowlerExpress. According to that, my team remained in 8th place last week, 13.5 points off the pace, represented by “The Mustangs,” who are now 3 points ahead of “The Dynasty.” “The Badgers,” our opponents this week, sit in 6th place 2.5 points ahead of us, so I’d like to see my team at least take 3 of 4 from them this week.

My Week 28 bowling (BowlSK)

We lost the night 2.5-1.5, but what made the night fun was my being able to stay with Eric, if not actually beating him (I’m not sure what he ended up with in the last game, but I should find out in the next couple of days). The three makeable spares I missed weren’t fun, but I still shot in the 620s, and, except for the first game, every game came right down to me and Eric. I actually screwed up in the 10th of the second game, one of the few times I haven’t been clutch in the 10th when my team needed me, but my team still ended up winning that point. To turn the tables a bit in the last game, I struck out in the 10th to force Eric into a strike to win situation on his last ball; Eric left a ringing 10, so that’s how we got the half-point each.

Result: 212-201-208=622
Average (84 games): 183 Last 9 games average: 202
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 572

The sweep at the hands of “The Dynasty” meant that my team fell back to 8th place, now 11 points off the pace. “The Dynasty” could only keep pace with “The Mustangs,” as the latter team also executed a sweep of “8 Is Great,” whom, as I have mentioned, we face next week. The week after next could be important for position, as we go up against “The Badgers,” who are tied with “DNFTD” for 6th place, a point ahead of us.

My Week 27 bowling (BowlSK)

Tonight, I had one of the most consistent spare game nights that I can recall having. Except for a chop of a 6-10 at the very end to leave the 10th frame of the third game open, I made every spare leave that wasn’t a split. I made all 7 of my single pins, and most everything else except the 4 splits, including a 2-4-8 partial bucket that I hit dead on. I mixed in enough strikes to get all but the second game over average, and I didn’t miss my average by much in the second game.

Result: 191-180-192=563
Average (81 games): 182 Last 9 games average: 198
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 558

We got swept by one of the more dangerous teams in the league tonight, so we will have to regroup next week, and “8 Is Great,” the team which Eric, the Sprisslers’ nephew, is on, will be our opponents. Patrick was the only member of the team to have a really good night, so it wasn’t a total loss.

This update is late because the standings had not been posted on LeagueSecretary.com until Sunday night.

Our winning night last week was good enough to improve our position one spot to 7th, 7 points behind “The Mustangs,” who are now in sole possession of first place by a point over “The Dynasty,” who we face this week.

Individually, my night was good enough to run the board last week, taking high scratch game and series as well as high handicap game and series. A member of “The Handicaps,” Rob Dickens, has been showing steady improvement of late, and he won a couple of USBC awards last week, a 500 series (he qualifies for the award w/ a 129 average) and a 180 game (also based on the fact that he had an average lower than the cutoff for the award).

Despite not getting the full sweep against us, “MT Bed” grabbed sole possession of the second-half lead this week.  My team slipped back down to 8th, 7 points off the pace.  None of our bowlers present (myself, Patrick, and Carl) had a performance worthy of a high for the week.  We face “Team 3,” the 4th place team, next week.

My Week 25 bowling (BowlSK)

The night felt strange for a couple of reasons: 1) I was still somewhat sapped from battling a cold during the latter part of last week and most of the weekend, and 2) we didn’t have our full complement, as Helen and Ted were completely absent, and Patrick had to miss the first game because of his job. More on what #2 meant for the team later in the post, but I was having some trouble bowling at a quicker pace so soon after recovering from my cold. I still managed a night well over average, but missed more spares than I would like, which prevented me from going 600+.

Result: 198-189-196=583
Average (75 games): 181 Last 9 games average: 198
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 586

As for the team, we had to forfeit the first game because of having only 2 bowlers (me and Carl), so “MT Bed” had to bowl within 50 pins of their average to take the point, which they didn’t. First game was not a win for us because of the forfeit, but that just meant “MT Bed” didn’t get the point either. We had our legal line-up for the other two games, but still lost those, although the last game was pretty close. As a result, “MT Bed” wound up winning the night 3-0 (the forfeit meant we couldn’t take total, as well).

The win against “The Handicaps,” coupled with a split at the top between “MT Bed” and “The Mustangs,” brought my team to within 4 points of the lead, sitting in a tie with “The Badgers” for fifth place (the tie for the position week would be broken in our favor on the basis of pinfall if the position week was next week, but we would have to face “The Badgers,” in any case). We can halve the deficit against “MT Bed” if we have a winning night against them next week.

My 646 set was the high scratch series for the week, but I no longer have the top series on the season with handicap: that honor now belongs to Nick Gomes, who had a 749 series with handicap this week. The league may pay out for high game and series based on average class, however, and, if that’s the case, I would still have high series with handicap in men’s Class A (Nick Gomes is in men’s Class C). Nick has really been bowling well all season, and it would not surprise me if he won most improved honors in the league (Indeed, he has the highest differential between entering average and current average at this point.).

My Week 24 bowling (BowlSK)

The momentum I thought I had off of my 257 game last week pretty much continued this week, and I ended up having my best set of the season, a 646. Did I bowl my best all the time tonight? Not really, as the first-ball gutter in the middle of the second game attests to, but I had three solid games for a change, and, if not for 20 more pins in the first game, I would’ve had a nice 222 triplicate. Indeed, I only had 3 really bad frames tonight, so I’m hoping for more of this and better in the coming weeks.

Result: 202-222-222=646
Average (72 games): 180 Last 9 games average: 196
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 548

My performance tonight was a big part of a team win. My teammates failed to support me in the first game, and we got shellacked. As I told my team at the end of the night, however, in my mind, I was not giving up, and they showed me they weren’t giving up, as well, as we turned the tables in the other two games to take total after a first-game loss by 100+. I’ll give special mention to Ted here; he’s far from the best bowler in the league, but he had things cooking in the last two games and ended up well over his average on the night.

The reader this week is directed to the standings sheet on LeagueSecretary.com rather than the one on Bowler Express (link can be found in the sidebar under “Author’s links”; click header to go to main blog page if viewing the individual post).

The sweep this week meant that “The Pin Pals” dropped all the way to 8th place, but still only 5 points out of first with plenty of time left. “MT Bed” and “The Mustangs” are the teams tied at the top, with those two teams bowling against each other next week. My team has “The Handicaps” next week, a team we usually do well against.

Now, for the good news: the 257 game qualifies me for the USBC’s 75 pins over average game award, the patch for which is pictured below:

This represents my first USBC award since my return, and, indeed, my last one, the 100 pins over average game patch I received for my 268 game all those years ago, came before the merger of the ABC, WIBC, and YABA into the USBC. I’m undecided about whether to put the patch on my old red bowling shirt (where I had put my award patches prior to my long hiatus) or the new one. I had thought of a poll to ask my readers about that, but that would require yet another online account, so I think I’ll just let you guys comment with what you think. 😀

By the way, the 257 game was the high scratch game bowled in the league this week. 😀

Tom Hedding’s 300 Saturday was the sixth perfect game overall at Westgate Lanes this season.

My Week 23 bowling (BowlSK)

Very sloppy bowling the first two games, and I was in danger of failing to break 500 at that point if my pace stayed the way it was, but then, one game turned it around. I had the front seven strikes on the way to my best game in the Brunswick Mixed League to date, a 257 in which my only mistake was missing a single-pin spare on a strike in the 10th frame. The big game ended up saving an over-average night, which is why it only takes one game on an otherwise bad night.

Result: 143-157-257=557
Average (69 games): 179 Last 9 games average: 180
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 579

Even with my big third game, the team got swept…see what I mean by struggling against DNFTD? 😕

A split against “The Mustangs” was not enough to maintain our position in the standings, and we slipped one place to 5th. We are still, however, within 2 points of first place, with a lot of time left in the second half. Next week will be a challenge, however, as we face Shawn’s team, “DNFTD,” who are behind us in the second-half standings, but against whom we’ve struggled so far this season.