As “Mr. 900’s” anniversary was approaching, he threatened another 300 game last Friday night in the TNBA league, evidenced in the weekly highs. However, Kris Higgins had a great night, with a 279 game in a 778 series, and Devon McGregor also checked in with a 275 game.
Nice bowling everyone! 🙂
Aaron Major had his best league night yet, according to his mother, Debbie, when he went 289-300-257 for an 846 the other night in the His & Hers league, noted also in the league’s weekly highs. Debbie messaged me asking if I was aware; I was, not having posted yesterday due to dealing with Hakim’s 5th anniversary. However, I did put it up on the association’s new Instagram, which I’ll embed here if I can figure out how to do it.
WTG Aaron! 🙂
Note: Aaron’s average in the league is currently 250.50. The highest average in the state that I’m aware of is Alex Aguiar’s 250 for 96 games in the old Westport Match Play Classic league at Holiday Lanes in the 2009-10 season. Henry Verdini, president of the state association, along with his wife, Barbara, are helping me try to find other state record candidates.
UPDATE: Attempting to embed the Instagram about Aaron’s night here:
My Week 23 bowling, frame-by-frame
I ground out an over-average first game, in which I didn’t strike until the 10th frame double, but I wasn’t able to keep that up the rest of the night. The 10 pin I made in the first game was dead-on perfect, but I wasn’t able to repeat that the other three times I had that pin. The time I lined up on the 10 at the end, I had the 3 standing with it, and then chopped the 3-6 twice bookending a double. I’ll probably have a few of these nights the rest of the season, but I’m counting this as semi-competitive practice for next season, anyway.
Result: 172-126-148=446
Average (15 games): 159
9-game moving average: 159
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 492
We lost the first game by 20 and didn’t get any closer the rest of the night, so we won no points.
Current standings (after Week 5 of 2nd half)
Team 6 is tied for 9th with 10th Frame Magic and Spare Us (Team 6’s opponents tomorrow night), six points behind Last Empire. The leaders are a point ahead of a three-way tie for 2nd between Still Stacked, 4 Spares, and Sweet Rolls and two points ahead of Party of Six and Creedens Mustangs.
Going oldest to youngest by age division, here are the notable youth league scores from last week:
Nice bowling, everyone! 🙂
A few bowlers to give a nod to for last week in Westgate Mixed, per the weekly highs:
Great bowling, everyone! 🙂
A great Pepsi league night should be 700 for the set, and Kevin Thibeault hit that on the button last week, per the league’s weekly highs. Nice bowling! 🙂
Finalists of the Northeast Amateur Tournament One-Ball Doubles at East Providence Lanes on Feb. 16 (L-R): Champions Jayme Silva Sr. & Ed Grossett, runners-up Jim Ferguson & Sean Richard (Photo courtesy of NAT)
Per the Northeast Amateur Tournament’s Facebook post (must be logged in to view), Jayme Silva Sr. & Ed Grossett won the One-Ball Doubles event yesterday at East Providence Lanes with a 541-475 victory (handicap added) in the final match over Jim Ferguson & Sean Richard. This was the first NAT doubles event with the One-Ball format, meaning a competitor used his same ball for all shots in qualifying and in match play if his team qualified.
A notable game was turned in by Sean Richard in qualifying, a 300, the video of which the BPUSBC obtained from Sandi Litchfield and made the first video on their new Instagram, which can be found here.
Nice bowling everyone! 🙂
The Tenth Board writer/editor Rich Vogel shown here presenting Ed Roberts with his trophy at his induction into the Brockton Athletic Hall of Fame on Dec. 22, 2019. (Photo courtesy of The Enterprise/Alyssa Stone)
I’ve taken on a few service projects on the side recently, and I’m proud of one of them that has a bowling connection.
I’ve developed an association with Bill “Hogie” Hogan, a Brockton native and resident who’s a big Brockton history buff, particularly in sports. He’s known I’m a bowler, so when his idea to develop a Brockton Athletic Hall of Fame for Brockton sports figures that would include the public high school’s Hall of Fame, but also those who can’t be in the BHS Hall of Fame because they didn’t graduate from BHS or their sport isn’t offered by the high school, came to being, he asked me about who would be worthy bowlers to include. Of course, I agreed to join the committee, but, because I also know a fair amount about other Brockton sports, I slid into a role as his lead researcher.
Our first official inductions started last summer with Mike Gordon, a late Brockton High School star in the 1970s who reached the major leagues in baseball as a catcher for the Chicago Cubs, and the Brockton High School Sports Foundation, AKA Save Our Sports, as an organization, at Campanelli Stadium before a Brockton Rox game. Former world welterweight boxing champion, and a friend of the late Rocky Marciano, Tony DeMarco, was recognized last October at the main Brockton Public Library at his book signing, which was part of the Downtown Fest Brockton event.
It was decided that we would induct our first bowler at last December’s Bristol-Plymouth USBC Holiday Doubles tournament at Westgate Lanes, and, with the cooperation of the center and association, the induction was for New England bowling legend Ed Roberts of Braintree, who has bowled in the Coke/Pepsi league at Westgate since the league’s inception over two decades ago, and, indeed, many of his more notable bowling achievements have come since becoming a Westgate league bowler. There will be more bowling inductions to come, so readers should keep an eye on the Hall of Fame’s Facebook page; we will have at least one to announce in the coming week, in fact. As this post’s “administrivia”, the Hall of Fame’s Facebook page is in the Local/New England sidebar list.
Finally, everyone will note the jersey I’m wearing in the photo, which is another design I wanted to promote the website and Facebook page. Although it’s not quite what I had in mind, everyone still seems to like it. Thanks again to Danny Khuu and Solstice Sports Gear, who helped me with my first custom design, the red & black Brockton Boxer design.
I don’t know if he’s had an 800 in this league yet, but Aaron Major got fairly close to one in the Thursday Night Mixed league at Ryan’s Amusements in Raynham last night with a 755 set, per the league’s weekly high scores. Note: If I haven’t mentioned it here already, Aaron bowls in this league with two of my former Brunswick Mixed teammates, Barry & Donald Wood.
Nice bowling, Aaron! 🙂
Per the league’s recap sheet, Aaron Major Tuesday night went 300-268-248 for an 816 set in the His & Hers league. I’m not sure what the state record average is, but I want to say it belongs to Alex Aguiar with something in the 250s. If Aaron’s heater is extended, that record could be threatened.
I also need to mention Ray Fischer’s 279 game, which is on the same page of recap sheets. Nice bowling everyone! 🙂
Per the league’s weekly high scores, Tasheka Douglas had a 266 high game in a nice 713 series Sunday night in the Rhythm & Bowling league. WTG! 🙂
My Week 22 bowling, frame-by-frame
A little bit of a setback with my spare game last night, but I was also not helping myself with the pins I was leaving. For what it’s worth, I did get it together somewhat in the second game, so I guess I can take what I can out of that.
Result: 150-197-134=481
Average (12 games): 161
9-game moving average: 161
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 488
All the team won was the first game, with Ed Godino III absent.
Last Thursday in the Patriots league, it was Mark Zimmerman leading the way with a 278 game and a 765 series, per the weekly high scores. Jim Ferguson (279) and Dan Esdale (278) both also had games in the 270s that night. Nice bowling everyone. 🙂
Congrats to Sean Richard, who had the back 11 in a game last Wednesday night in the Westgate Mixed league, per the league’s weekly high scores. 🙂
Last week (Feb. 1) in the Seniors youth league, Chris Zalewski (206 avg.) put up a high 288 game in a 767 set. Those scores would have been good enough for me to post as adult scores. Nice bowling Chris! 🙂
Current standings (after Week 4 of 2nd half)
Team 6 is in 9th place, four points behind a tie for 1st between Last Empire and Creedens Mustangs. The tie is a point ahead of a 3rd place tie between Still Stacked and 4 Spares, and three teams are two points behind the lead in a tie for 5th. Note: Last Empire was the first half winner. Team 6 bowls against 10th Frame Magic Wednesday night.
Ed Godino Jr. was high scratch game and series, and high handicap series in his average division, shooting “the number” with his handicap.
I’ve made it no secret since I connected with my half-sister Pam that I’m also connected to Special Olympics bowling through her daughter, Becky, and that I’ve been able to join them most of the times she’s bowled the Special Olympics qualifier since the event moved to Westgate Lanes after the closing of AMF Taunton Lanes.
This year, however, they decided to only bowl the Saturday morning league at North Bowl, which was featured in this month’s issue of Action, as shared on the Facebook page. I still wanted to support the qualifier with my presence at Westgate, as I try to do for everything here. However, NEBA was also at East Providence Lanes this weekend, and, with some of the Westgate bowlers taking part in that, I was conflicted. I decided that it would be Aaron Major who would indirectly make the decision by his performance last night, with the odds actually favoring me going to NEBA by Aaron missing the squad cut and bowling the 12:30 squad today.
Aaron did make the cut, however, so I was at Westgate basically first thing this morning. Becky’s Special Olympics team is named Heller’s Angels, and I knew one of the coaches, Becky Dean, from seeing her with my family. I did eventually introduce myself to the other coaches, Jim and Susan (I didn’t get last names). The summary of the day appears on the Heller’s Angels Facebook page as the post at the top of this article, but I’ll follow with some more detail in the next paragraphs.
Not being tied to family this time allowed me to network a bit with the other Special Olympics groups at the qualifier, and I particularly sought out the ones that practiced at centers in my association. I was hoping to find either websites or Facebook pages to connect to, and succeeded with a few of those, which I liked as the association page when I got home.
Also, wanting to play up some of Westgate’s history, I was able to tell the more fortunate groups, including Heller’s Angels, that their bowlers were on our most famous pair of lanes, 47 & 48, which, of course, we’ve affectionately dubbed “Hakim’s pair”. I also texted about that to Pam, who told me she thought that was very cool.
Finally, by pure chance, one of Ed Roberts’ daughters, Rachel, seeing that I was wearing the jersey I wore at his Brockton Athletic Hall of Fame induction (more on that in a future post), introduced herself to me as one of the day’s volunteers, and also introduced me to her daughter, Carlee, who was also volunteering. We talked a bit throughout the day from that point.
Again, it was a great day, as I said in the Facebook post I chose to open the article with. This post’s “administrivia” was linking both the Heller’s Angels Facebook page and the Massachusetts Special Olympics website in the Local/New England sidebar list. I ran a Mass. Special Olympics fundraiser on Facebook for my last birthday and would like to do so again, particularly if I can earmark it for Heller’s Angels.
Most of my readers already know about the Action e-newsletter, but I was on the fence between adding their Facebook page immediately and waiting until they had a website. However, a piece on the North Bowl youth program, which is in the Bristol-Plymouth association, that appears in this month’s issue has forced my hand, and I’ve added a link to their Facebook page in the Local/New England sidebar list. Jimmy Bessette, a member of the UBA’s Chyna Sindrome, is Action’s lead writer, but Vicki Prevost, the IBMA board member who recently retired from the New Bedford Standard-Times, is also a contributor. As a final note for this “administrivia”, the piece on the North Bowl kids also mentions the Heller’s Angels, who my big sister and niece are associated with.
I rejoined one of my bowling groups on Facebook and saw a first post by Mikey Pinel, son of noted Radical ball designer Mo Pinel, of one of his YouTube videos on hand positions. It’s part of his new channel, Bowling Science, and, if anyone can explain the science of bowling, you’d figure it would be a member of the Pinel family, so I put a link to the channel in the video sidebar list. Enjoy! 🙂
I’ve been hanging around the Patriots league more because you never know what will happen. To wit, last night, Samantha Gustin, carrying a 134 average, threw off a century (100 over average) 235 last game, her very first game over 200, closing a 545 effort, also her first series over 500. And she even beat her fiance and teammate, Alex Major, by a couple of sticks in that last game. To be fair, Samantha has been taking lessons from one of Alex’s cousins, Stephen.
Nice bowling Sammi! 🙂
Aaron Major, still in pursuit of breaking his own association record average, helped his cause with a 256-279-279 performance Tuesday night for an 814 set in the His & Hers league, per the recap sheet. Also that night, Chris Galarza posted a 299 game, also evidenced on the linked recap sheet.
Congrats to both! 🙂
My Week 21 bowling, frame-by-frame
This was a hard-won 500 because of my spare game, which may have been my best spare game night ever. I was definitely struggling first ball, but something John Zawalick told my table at the NEBA awards dinner last month (to take as much care on spares as you do first ball) clicked. Pretty much every spare I made felt good off my hand, and I made most of what I was supposed to. I suppose if I get my spare game back first, the strikes should follow soon enough. 🙂
Result: 162-167-176=505
Average (9 games): 162
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 495
Team won three of four, largely on Ed Godino Jr.’s first two games.
Current league standings (after Week 3 of 2nd half)
Team 6 is tied for 12th with 10th Frame Magic and Team 14. The tie is 7 points behind Creedens Mustangs, who lead Sweet Rolls (Team 6’s opponents tonight) by three points and Last Empire by four points.
Ed Godino III and Dana Gomes, both teammates of mine, swept the weekly high scores in their average class.
Where I wish to cooperate with Bowlage.com in bringing the Northeast bowlers news from around the region, I have added an RSS feed from that website to this one, and set it to show the 15 most recent articles rather than the usual 10. It also appears above my national RSS feeds in the sidebar, so I hope the bowlers like the addition. 🙂
Sean Richard had the one notable game last week in the Westgate Mixed league, a 279, as evidenced by the high scores. Nice bowling!
As reported by the Bristol-Plymouth USBC above, Ricky LaRouche became their first ever Masters tournament champion today at Westgate Lanes by defeating Kevin Thibeault, 246-202, in the championship match.
I hadn’t planned on it, but, at the suggestion of some of the bowlers, Danny Khuu and AJ Voisine in particular, I decided to make this tournament the association’s first live stream event for the match play portion. Three matches appear in the Facebook event discussion, but I also transferred the title match to the main page, and it appears below:
For the record, Kevin did win our first live stream match, over Mike Griffin. Rob Young, our president, has always wanted me to live stream something for us, so I was happy I was able to make it happen for him in a way that made our first Masters tournament even more special. I hope we’ll get better at this as we gain experience.
Kevin also had the tournament’s first 300 game this morning to open the round of 16, so congratulations to him, as well as Ricky for winning the tournament.
I have one more trick up my sleeve for tonight, which I’ll also give a heads-up for on Facebook before I do it.
I often forget to peek in on the travel league, but Ethan Reyes brought to my attention that he shot 289/791 Sunday at Westgate, and I also found in the high scores that Craig Souza of Wonder Bowl had a 270 game and Janie Hillman of North Bowl a 267 game. Nice bowling everyone! 🙂
Great bowling last week in the Senior youth league by Ashley Major, with a 245 game (168 avg.), and Aiden Delehoy, with a 236 game (171 avg.). WTG! 🙂
Nice bowling to the His & Hers league’s Chris Galarza, who had a 278 game Tuesday, night, per the weekly high scores. 🙂
