Category: Tournaments

Tournament news

March 2008 Northeast Amateur Tournament @ Town Line Ten Pin

The Northeast Amateur Tournament also held their March tournament at Town Line Ten Pin, and Craig McWilliams was reported as the winner (sorry, but since the NAT site doesn’t give cashers’ home centers, I don’t know where most of the cashers in the tournament bowl from). Christopher Corrigan was second. I did recognize Sean Richard as the 5th place finisher. Sean also won the first squad’s strike jackpot.

March 2008 “People’s Tournament” @ Town Line Ten Pin

The People’s Tournament site has reported that Ryan Oreste, bowling at his home center and carrying a 174 average, was the winner of the March tournament at Town Line Ten Pin in Malden, MA. David Gordon (Brunswick Lowell Lanes, 210) was second. Greg Hudson (195 avg.) led the Westgate Lanes bowlers (12th), while Linwood Cowen, Jr. out of AMF Taunton Lanes (180 avg.) was 10th.

Youth bowling note: The annual Massachusetts state scholarship tournament will take place on April 5 & 6 (two weekends from now) at Westgate Lanes, so if you want to see the area’s best young bowlers in action, Westgate Lanes will be the place to go in two weeks.

New high game since return

Only managed a 501 series today, but much of that was salvaged by a 224 middle game, which is now the best one I’ve had since my return.  I worked mostly on getting my feet faster today, but after talking it over with my bowling chat friends, I’m also suspecting that I close my shoulders to the foul line as I’m in my delivery, so that will need to be watched.  This will require a coach, but I want to make sure my equipment is squared away first (I’d still like to get a glove).

Result:  120-224-157=501

Running average (66 games):  165  Last 9 average:  166

I finally got a chance to talk to Rob Lawson, the guy that sets up the lane machine, and he told me he thought the inside-to-outside oil ratio for the Coke Classic shot was about 4:1 (which doesn’t make it a true sport shot), though he’d have to look at his notes on his laptop to be sure.  As I also learned that, starting this week, they put the house shot down in the morning on Monday, then the Coke Classic shot on the Coke Classic lanes in the afternoon, I’ll likely be bowling on the true house shot from here on, so I’m expecting my average to go up a bit.  Rob told me the house shot’s ratio was something on the order of 6:1, while we’re on the subject.

I also received the unofficial results of the Brockton USBC Association’s championship tournament in my email today, but I wrote Roy Garrigus, the tournament director, back, telling him I’d wait until the results were official before posting them here.

Quick-hitter in Taunton

With the Brockton USBC Association’s championship tournament taking place this weekend at AMF Taunton Lanes, I swung by there on a “quick-hitter” to check out the Saturday action. The early squad was for the doubles and singles events, and Sean Richard, Bill & Shirley Major, and Steve Travers were the familiar faces I saw there. Mostly, though, I was there to give one of my email addresses to two people, Alex Pacheco, the manager at AMF Taunton Lanes (so he could send me honor scores and tournament news from that house) and the Brockton USBC Association’s tournament director (so he could email me the tournament results). I had hoped to also speak with Bob Young about the association’s web site (it has not been updated in three years), but he was bowling his events today, so was unavailable for other purposes.

EDIT: I have also emailed North Bowl Lanes in N. Attleboro (hoping to contact Fred Delfino, their manager) with the same offer I’ve given to Alex Pacheco.

Sticking around

I was vacillating most of the day yesterday between going to practice at my usual time or going late and hanging around for the Coke Classic league, which is the big league at Westgate Lanes and where I have many old friends bowling. I eventually did decide to go late, so I left my house to catch the bus at around 5:00 PM so I wouldn’t have to be bored for too long while I wait for the Coke Classic bowlers to show up (and dinner would fill some of the time, as well).

My practice was pretty pedestrian, as I was mucking around with a first arrow shot some more (which turned out to not be a wise decision, as I’ll touch on later in this post). I did manage a first in my last frame of the day, however: converting the 2-10 split. The times I’ve had to face this split (not many), I was either hitting the 2 pin too full or too light, but I somehow found the right shot for this split yesterday.

Result: 176-146-160=482

Running average (63 games): 165 Last 9 average: 169

Talking with Junior immediately after practice, I found out that they also put down the Coke Classic shot, a sport shot, on all of the tenpin lanes (there are also a dozen candlepin lanes there) in the morning on Mondays, which surprised me, as I had been used to seeing Bob Hamilton put the shot down on the lanes to the right of where I usually practice. As the Coke Classic shot is a tougher shot, as should be expected for a league that attracts the best bowlers in the area, I figure being close to my old league average in practice on a sport shot means, in a lot of ways, that I’m actually ahead of where I was when I quit the game. In the long run, practicing on a sport shot can only help me, and as the shot is also put down for stuff like “The People’s Tournament,” I would like to be able to eventually do well on the shot.

Noting the shot I’m seeing, I chatted a bit with another pro shop employee, Tony Attardo, who is a Coke Classic bowler. I had been in the pro shop briefly before practice to see if they had the Ebonite Reactor/R Palm Pad glove in stock, but having time to kill before the league bowlers filtered in, I asked him about how bowlers were playing the shot. Asked about playing outside, he said it’s tough to play outside on the shot unless you can hit the 1 to 3 board consistently and have a lot of hand in the shot. As I’m more of a stroker with not a whole lot of hand action, he recommended second arrow for me, which I had been playing most of the time.

I caught up with my old friends who were bowling in the Coke Classic league between dinner and the start of bowling for the night. Particularly, I wanted to see two people: Steve Travers, who had been the best bowler in the house during the time I was in leagues and is still very good, and Jim Yost, who is also part of my tournament story, but who was also my opponent for individual points in the league I was bowling in the night I shot my 268. I stayed past the start of actual bowling and ran into another old friend I had asked people about: George Hamilton. As I also knew George from hanging around the local slow-pitch softball scene years ago, I made it a point to ask him if he was still playing that in the summer, and he indicated that he was. I told George that I would let a mutual friend know I saw him. I was hoping to be able to also stick around to do a karaoke song in the pub, but decided against it and called a cab home. It has indeed been good to reconnect with my old friends the last couple of weeks. 😀

Tournament notes:

  • The Northeast Amateur Tournament has scheduled a stop at Westgate Lanes for April 13.
  • The originally-reported winner of the February “People’s Tournament” at E. Providence Lanes has been disqualified for reporting an invalid entry average, and Brian “Hawk” Earle was declared the official winner of the tournament. Congrats again Hawk! 😀

Mike Zeoli perfect @ Brockton-Foxvale-Tri-City mixed doubles

I don’t have full results from the annual Brockton/Foxvale/Tri-City mixed doubles tournament at Westgate Lanes (at least yet), but I can report that Mike Zeoli rolled a perfect 300 game in the first game of today’s squad. Congrats Mike! 😀

Most of the reason I was there was to catch up with some old bowling friends, but in particular, I was hoping Joyce Bernard (she’s a big part of my tournament win story, which I will tell in the future) would be there, and she was. Wanting to post local bowling news, I also gave one of my email addresses to the Tri-City Women’s Bowling Association manager with a request to send honor scores and tournament results my way. As a bonus, my cousins David and Debbie turned up, so I chatted with them a bit while I was there. I told David that the thing I missed about bowling the most was the camaraderie, so I want to tell my bowling friends reading this that it was great seeing everyone again. 😀

February 2008 TPT @ E. Providence Lanes

Joshua Engelhardt, carrying a 165 average and bowling at his home center, won the February “People’s Tournament” at E. Providence Lanes. Notably for Westgate Lanes bowlers, Brian “Hawk” Earle was second. Good show, “Hawk”…better luck next time! 😀

Plan for today: I plan on making a run to the lanes to get my ball in the “Rejuvenator”. Saturday’s about the only day I can do it b/c it’s the only day I know for sure that the pro shop is open.

Update: The operation took longer than I planned, so I had to take a later bus home. I mentioned to Chris about my problem with the thumb sticking occasionally, and he thinks it may be because I’m squeezing the ball. I do kind of grip it too tightly, now that I think about it, so this is something I’ll work on in practice.

Tomorrow’s plan is to check out the mixed doubles tournament, but when my brother took me food shopping this morning, he was still suffering from a bad cold, which may ruin this plan, depending on how I feel tomorrow. If it’s bad enough, it could also jeopardize practice on Monday.

January 2008 People’s Tournament

Forgive me for not posting about this earlier, but The People’s Tournament site reported that Westgate Lanes’ David Diamond won the January TPT at East Providence (RI) Lanes. Westgate Lanes bowlers did very well in the tournament, as several bowlers calling Westgate “home” cashed, including Ray and Chris from the pro shop. Good show guys! 😀

The February TPT was back @ E. Providence Lanes yesterday, and I’ll post when the results are up.

Practice summary, 2/4/08

I resolved to practice today no matter how much sleep I lost from the Super Bowl last night. It was a pretty cool day, but warm and dry enough to take the bike to the lanes, so that helped me wake up a bit.

It turned out to be a pretty strange practice session. I had been setting up around board 18L (that would be the 18th board in from the left gutter) and going for a second-arrow shot, but my ball just wasn’t making it back to the pocket, with my first game suffering because of it. In the second game, I experimented with a couple of first-arrow shots, setting up around board 15R and not getting anything better, so I decided to go back to a second-arrow shot but move to somewhere around 18R. The adjustment was enough to get a couple of games over average, with the last game threatening a 200 after a turkey starting in the 7th frame. I needed a double and count in the 10th for the 200, but didn’t get it, only converting a spare with a 6-fill for a 183.

Result: 137-171-183=491

Running average (51 games): 165 Last 9 average: 169

Upcoming tournaments: Here’s a list of upcoming tournaments of interest to bowlers in my area…

  • Brockton, Foxvale, and Tri-City mixed doubles, Feb. 23-24, Westgate Lanes
  • Brockton Bowling Association Championships, Mar. 15-16, AMF Taunton Lanes
  • TNBA Boston Bowling Senate No-Tap*, Mar. 29-30, Westgate Lanes
  • Mass. State Championships, Apr. 5-May 18, Gardner Ten Pins
  • New England Bowling Association, Apr. 19-20, Westgate Lanes
  • People’s Tournament, Apr. 27, Westgate Lanes
  • Mass. Women’s State Championships, May 3-18, Town Line Ten Pin, Malden

Schedule subject to change, of course. If the Northeast Amateur Tournament reschedules a tournament at Westgate Lanes, I’ll pass the information along. Also, there’s no word on if USA Bowling Pro Shop is still running the monthly “King of the Hill” tournament at Westgate Lanes, so I’ll have to ask Ray about that next time I see him.

*”No-Tap” means nine pins on first ball counts as a strike.

I may have a special post or two coming in the next few days, so stay tuned!

Practice summary, 12/17/07

Not much to “write home about” today, but I did stay around my average for two games. I was having a pulling problem in the third game, which led to the weak 10 (where the 6 pin settles into the gutter instead of taking out the 10 pin) mocking me on the left lane, and I kept missing it with my pulling problem.

Result: 177-161-134=472

Running average (36 games): 164 Last 9 average: 169

Notes:

  • With Christmas Eve falling next Monday and my sister usually picking me up for a late afternoon church service on that day, I will not be practicing next week.
  • The Northeast Amateur Tournament was ready to go yesterday, but nobody showed up due to the nor’easter that was pounding the region, so the tournament was canceled. NAT’s next visit to Westgate Lanes will be in April.
  • Being my last visit to the lanes before Christmas, I left a card for the management and staff with Marcia in the office. She told me it was appreciated. 😀
  • Also, this likely being my last blog entry before Christmas, I’d like to wish my readers a happy holiday. 😀

Update on December 2007 TPT at Westgate Lanes

The People’s Tournament’s site reported that Michael Coren, based out of Boston Bowl, was the winner of the December TPT at Westgate Lanes. Coren was reported to have a 144 entering average, which should show you that anyone can win a handicap tournament if they bowl well enough. 😀

For the locals, David Diamond (203 entering average) was reported as Westgate Lanes’ best finisher in 9th place.

A Sunday morning at the lanes

With “The People’s Tournament” in town today, I wanted to head to the lanes this morning with hopes that I would be able to bowl in one of the qualifying squads as a pacer (pacers are used in tournaments sometimes when a pair of lanes has less than the full complement of bowlers assigned to it). The part of the morning I could blog about actually got started when I left the house, as Simon Rosenthal (I call him Si), another old bowling friend, was driving the taxi I called for to get there. I mentioned I wanted to return to the game, and he told me he was actually taking the year off from bowling after averaging only in the 140s the previous season when he’s usually somewhere in the 180s.

When I got to the lanes, I told Junior about my intentions, but he replied that the tournament officials may not let me pace. I was OK with this, but I proceeded into the party room (which is used as the check-in room for tournaments) to meet the tournament director for TPT, Sherm Cowan. I let him know that I was considering bowling TPT in the future, and that I had linked his site on this blog. He thanked me for the link and wished me well.

I also stopped in the pro shop to talk with Ray about the previous week. Si had mentioned in the cab that reactive balls wear out quickly, and I asked Ray about this. Ray replied that those balls don’t wear out, but rather soak up oil, and said the pro shop has something called “The Rejuvenator” that will help restore the ball. He recommended that I do this every 60 games, and since a run in the Rejuvenator is only $5, I won’t mind the occasional additional expense.

Getting coffee at the snack bar, I ran into Sean Richard, who was warming up for the tournament on one of the lanes. He recognized me as the new blogger and we exchanged pleasantries. I finished my coffee, then headed back to the control desk to set up a two-hour rental (Westgate Lanes runs a lane rental special on Sunday mornings.).

There was nothing special in the practice session, but I did make my spares consistently, which helped my games stay around 180 for the most part (I had a 144 middle game, as I’ll recap below.) What I learned is that I definitely prefer a drier lane, as that is usually the condition in my Monday afternoon practices, and will probably bowl in late squads in tournaments rather than early ones. Despite doing fairly well, I wasn’t up to practicing for more than 3 games, so I asked Junior for a $10 credit (I had originally paid $20 for the two hours.). The printer at the control desk was also having problems, so I had to write the scores down on the business card Sherm Cowan gave me. I wished Sean luck in today’s tournament on the way out.

Result: 180-144-179=503

Running average (30 games): 163 Last 9 average: 164

Mark Roth, Part Deux

I didn’t think there would be a Part Two to my Mark Roth story, but as I walked into the building on my way to the control desk for today’s practice session, there he was giving someone a lesson (Why didn’t you tell me he was sticking around, Junior & Marcia?!). I waited until he had a moment, then said hello, shook his hand, and complimented him on the show he put on with Sean Richard the other day. If I had known he was sticking around, I might’ve thought twice about skipping the opportunity to get pointers from him, but I wanted to conserve my cash for the holidays.

As for the practice session itself, I definitely feel better about it than I did last week’s session. I started the session with a 189, easily my best starting game so far. I had a let-down the second game and only shot a 139 (three different splits didn’t help matters), but I recovered in the last game, getting 5 in a row from the 7th frame to the 2nd ball in the 10th. I wanted to repeat the “half-perfect” feat from an earlier practice, but I missed my target well right on the last ball and only fell 6 pins to finish with a 212 and a 540 total for the three games. I caught Ray from the pro shop on my way out, so I had to brag a little bit to him. 😀

Running average (27 games): 162 Last 9 average: 165

EDIT: A quick check of the New England Bowling Association site (see sidebar for link) finds that Mark Roth also competed in, and won, the NEBA tournament @ Westgate Lanes this past weekend. Congrats Mark! 😀

Having a ball

After checking the bank balance and doing a little mental anticipation of possible future spending on other things, I decided that now was the time to make my next major equipment purchase: a new ball!

After consultation with Chris Mark at the USA Bowling Pro Shop on the premises (they are also located at Boston Bowl), I went with a blue 15 lb. Circle High-Voltage, which was on closeout because the ball is no longer being manufactured, but which I was told was still an awesome ball for these lanes. My fit was checked using the U-Dot with modifications (Chris wanted the thumb all the way in the ball), the ball was drilled, and the grips glued into place.

A trial fit of the ball revealed a problem with the thumb…the thumb release was resisting in the back of the thumb. A vent hole was first drilled to see if that would correct the problem, and when it was found that that was only a partial answer, Chris used a sanding bit that attaches a standard hand drill to make the thumb hole larger at the back. We eventually got the problem corrected and I was ready to try out the ball (which was my first brand-new ball, BTW…I had been used to buying all of my balls used).

The nice thing about this pro shop compared with the guys I knew when I was last bowling seriously is that the new guys give you a complimentary game of bowling with any ball purchase, so I was able to try out the new ball without breaking out my sister’s gift card. A lane was turned on, I put on my shoes, got my other equipment ready, and I prepared for my first shot with the new High-Voltage.

I fell in love with this ball from the first shot…a solid strike. As the game progressed, I noticed that the ball had more back-end action than the U-Dot, and I ended up adjusting by moving my feet 2 boards left to the 12 board on the approach. I ended up shooting a 167, with a double in the 6th and 7th frames. I intend to retain the U-Dot for my right-hand spares and on unfamiliar lane conditions, and use the High-Voltage for all other shots. My thanks to Ray, the pro shop owner, and Chris for doing an excellent job on the ball…I hope to be working with you guys in the future. (Note: the 167 will not count toward my “official” practice average, as the only purpose of the game was to try out the ball.)

League found: Checking the other standings sheets, I noticed the Brockton Ten-Pin league, a 4-man league running on Tuesday nights, had a couple of openings, so I intend to join this league after the holidays.

Tournament scene: Along with the monthly “King of the Hill” tournament at Westgate Lanes, an operation called “The People’s Tournament” runs occasional handicap tournaments at Westgate Lanes, as well as the Northeast Amateur Tournament (EDIT: I originally couldn’t find a site on their flyer, but found a full one from them that had their site listed on the back) and the TNBA’s Boston Bowling Senate. Thus, it appears I’ll have as many opportunities to compete in tournaments as I did when I was last active (I used to bowl occasionally with the Amateur Bowlers Tour and National Amateur Bowlers, Inc., but neither tournament club operates in New England currently.)