Aug. 8 site tweaks

Formally logging some sidebar tweaks I’ve done, with two items:

  1. The widget with the Facebook logo now indicates that more (New England bowling) coverage will be found on the Facebook page in the widget title.
  2. I removed the full event calendar link from the “Local/New England” links list, and have given the link its own widget, which is located above the “Upcoming Events” widget, which now also indicates that links in events are clickable in the full event calendar. Hopefully, this widget combination makes the calendar more accessible to those interested. 🙂

Coverage of NEBA to expand on Facebook

Some of you may have already seen the post on Facebook, but I’ve decided to give NEBA expanded coverage, and will do so in the manner I’ve adopted for the IBMA Facebook group, by sharing what NEBA posts about an event on Facebook, with the winner’s photo as the main post and the final match video, prize list, qualifying scores, and match play results in the comments to that post. You may want to note I’ll usually have the video up first, and the JPEGs of the other material later. While coverage of NEBA will be primarily on the Facebook page (look for the Facebook logo in the sidebar, which is clickable), I’ll still post about NEBA on the website when it’s at Westgate Lanes, and when Westgate bowlers do well in it (usually 1st or 2nd, though I may note 3rd/4th for the NEBA majors, the Cambridge Credit Invitational and the Brunswick Tournament of Champions).

Hakim Emmanuel, Danny Khuu bowl 300s in Monday doubles

Paying the usual Wednesday summer visit, I saw Ray had a couple of new 300 games on the wall from the other night in the doubles league. One was for Danny Khuu’s, but I had to pay closer attention to the other one, as it was “Mr. 900” Hakim Emmanuel’s, and I did note it was on lanes 47 & 48, the pair the 900 series was on, so that’s now five career 300 games for Hakim, all on that pair.

Good job to both! 🙂

Official: Stephen & Aaron Major national boys doubles champions

I got word today from Sharon Evans of the Junior Bowling Sport Challenge that Stephen & Aaron Major are now officially the national U20 boys doubles champions, but there was something else that happened involving Stephen in Indianapolis: According to the posted final standings (PDF), he placed 7th with his grandfather, Ray Fischer, in the 12 & over boys division of the Adult/Youth Baker doubles side event.

Congrats again! 🙂

Dutch Bowling TV, The Bowling Universe added to sidebar

A visitor who has The Bowling Universe online pro shop alerted me to a couple of dead links, and one is actually not dead, but changed: TalkTenpin.net has been partnering with Dutch Bowling TV for their streaming. Dutch Bowling TV is sometimes Dutch language, which was why I’ve been hesitant to add them, but TalkTenpin.net’s webmaster told me that Dutch Bowling TV is always English-language when TalkTenpin.net partners with them. The changed link in the sidebar (under the “Bowling Streaming/Videos” sidebar category) reflects the partnership in the listing. Also, while I was talking to TalkTenpin.net’s webmaster, he told me they’re going to have next week’s Weber Cup on Facebook Live, so you might want to “Like” their Facebook page for notifications.

As for The Bowling Universe, they do have some helpful guides on the site, so I did add their link in the “Other Equipment Sites” pro shop catch-all.

Dan Hamilton passes at age 59

I need to pass along my condolences to the Hamilton family at this time, as Dan Hamilton, brother of Brockton Bowling Association Hall of Famer Bob Hamilton, has been reported to have passed away at age 59. This is open to correction, but association president Rob Young told me that Dan had once held the Westgate Lanes house record in the 1970s with an 818 series.

Keith Kaestner, Mark Paradis shoot 300s in NAT

Striking a compromise between timeliness and my wish to not post about a tournament until I get something official from it, I’m reporting on the honor scores from Sunday’s NAT first, which were the 300 games bowled in qualifying by Keith Kaestner and Mark Paradis. Danny Khuu got video of the last strike of Keith’s game, which I share below:

Congrats to both, particularly Keith, as he bowls in my Wednesday league. I hope to have results soon. 🙂

July 25 No-Tap Shootout results (with league note)

With 13 entries in the no-tap tournament last night, Sean Richard won with an 875 score, TomTom Hedding second with an 854, and Danny Khuu third with an 847.

Also, I usually don’t mention 300 games bowled in the no-tap tournament because of the nature of the tournament, but I need to note here that Jewell Wilson managed a natural 300 game in the second game. Good going!

Mike Botelho converts 7-10 split: There may not have been many great scores tonight in the league, but Mike Botelho, who I know from the Coke and Westgate Mixed leagues, did something very notable tonight by converting the 7-10 split. I knew he was shooting the split, but looked up just in time to see the second pin fall. To my memory, it was the first time I had ever seen a 7-10 converted in person. WTG Mikey! 🙂

Stephen Major makes first cut at 2016 Junior Gold

Congratulations to Stephen Major, as the USBC has reported that he ended his Junior Gold tournament tied for 147th place, his best Junior Gold finish to date. He ended qualifying tied for 159th with a 190+ average for 16 games, then bowled -97 (five games) today to finish with a 188+ average.

If any New England bowlers reach the match play portion of Junior Gold, there will be post(s) to come.

EDIT: The advancers round standings linked has an apparent error in average calculation. I corrected the average in this post.

Aaron Major bowls 300 in Youth Open doubles

Junior Gold week has started off well for Stephen & Aaron Major, as, according to the current standings, they are leading U20 scratch doubles with a 1,439 score at the Bowling.com Youth Open, which runs for the next three weekends at Expo Bowl in Indianapolis, IN, the Junior Gold host city. In the last game of the event, Aaron had a 300 game (Tim Major’s video of the last strike of the game is below) and Stephen added a 279.

There’s still a lot of bowling left, but most of the best youth bowlers in the nation are in Indy for Junior Gold this week, so we have some hope that the Majors’ score holds if they can get through this weekend.

Alex Aguiar wins two events at 2016 BTM Tournament

As Jeff Richgels posted on Facebook (look in first comment), Alex Aguiar of Dartmouth, MA has unofficially won Open Singles and Open Doubles (with Alex Cavangaro) at this year’s BTM (Bowling This Month) Tournament, which has been running concurrently with the USBC Open Championships at Coconut Bowl in Sparks, NV. Alex shot 739 in singles and combined with Cavagnaro for a 1,463 score in doubles. According to the posted program sheet (PDF), the lane condition was Sport-compliant (40′, 25.83mL, 1.92:1).

Update: Official final standings from this year’s BTM Tournament have been posted here.

July 11 No-Tap Shootout results

The no-tap tournament last night had 19 entries, the most we’ve had for it recently. Ed Roberts ended up winning with an 877 (and had the no-tap 900 series alive until the 6th frame of Game 3), Sean Richard was 2nd with 857, and Stan Lewis 3rd with 832.

There will be another one soon, but not next week because of a few bowlers being in Indianapolis because their children are bowling Junior Gold.

July 2016 SEMBA Century Doubles results

The Senior E. Mass. Bowlers Association held its inaugural Century Doubles (sum of the ages of the bowlers on a team must be at least 100) tournament at Westgate Lanes today, with John Kirker & Todd Lathrop winning the final match, 446-335, over John Hayes Jr. & Brian Egan, as reported on the SEMBA website, which also has the other cashers (eight total).

There were 26 entries, which I believe was better than expected, and I might have been able to run some brackets if SEMBA management had known they were going to get that turnout.

9th anniversary post

I tend to post on the anniversary of my return to bowling (meaning the outing with my brother that sparked my return to league bowling), but I don’t have that much to say on the occasion this year. The thing I did want to mention is that I made more of a commitment to reporting local bowling news to those outside the area, mostly taking the form of a partnership with NEBA to post their tournament results, as they post on Facebook, to the IBMA’s group, which began with the March tournament at Westgate Lanes. I do see myself expanding my involvement with the other local tournaments (most notably the Bay State Open) in the coming year.

I usually thank my readers (the bowlers) at this time, as this blog probably wouldn’t still exist without having bowling news to report. 🙂

Vicki Prevost elected to IBMA Board of Directors

International Bowling Media Association Operations Manager Jackie Wyckoff announced in the organization’s Facebook group that legendary New England bowling writer Vicki Prevost, whose “Pin Tales” column has been running in the New Bedford Standard-Times for over three decades, has been elected to a two-year term on the Board of Directors. Along with former Enterprise bowling columnist Dick Roche, Vicki is someone whom I’ve respected in the local bowling media, and would like to congratulate her on her election.

As administrivia, a link in the “Local/New England” sidebar list to the sports section of the South Coast Today website, where Vicki’s column appears online, will be added. Really long overdue. 🙂

June 22 sub recap

If I haven’t already mentioned, I’m not staying completely away from league bowling in the summer, as I may sub on occasion Wednesday night. Tonight was my first opportunity to do so, and I ended up with Ralph Marple, once my summer league teammate, and his namesake son. I was replacing Brian Shea for the night, with Gary Weiner also being absent.

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

This was not too disappointing a night, considering I hadn’t bowled a ball in anger for a few weeks. The key to my first game was the ball change to my Alpha Crux in the 10th, and the punch-out in that frame helped the team win the points. I improved with every game, throwing a one-open 194 to end it. The team also won the third game and total, so I was happy I could help the Marples out tonight. 🙂

James Bessette bowls 300/814 in UBA position match at Silver Lanes

The lack of posting about the Westgate Warriors from me is indicative of a disappointing Underground Bowling Association season for them, but they did end it on a high note today at Hall of Fame Silver Lanes in E. Hartford, CT by winning 32 of 40 points against Norrage in their position round match. The bowler doing the most damage in the match was James Bessette, who had 22 strikes in a row bowling in the scratch portion of the match en route to an 814 series that had a 300 game in it.

Of course, I’m hoping for a better season next year. Something I can already post about next season is that there will be two UBA districts in New England, North and South, with the Westgate Warriors set to bowl in the North district.

2016 Mass. women’s state tournament results

The Massachusetts Women’s Bowling Association has made results of their state tournament, conducted at Ken’s Bowl in Pittsfield, official, and the full prize list is linked here (PDF file). As always, I’ll list the state champions below. The association represented will be in parentheses, the scores for division champions are with handicap, and the scratch champions are those who entered the optional scratch events.

Team

Div. 1: Spitfires (Berkshire County) 2,728
Div. 2: Webbles (Berkshire County) 2,718
Scratch: Four in the Zone (Greater Springfield) 2,131

Doubles

Div. 1: Gisela Dellmuth & Catalina Sweeney (Greater Gardner) 1,401
Div. 2: Deb LaRose & Mary Freeman (Greater Springfield) 1,436
Div. 3: Dorothy Hopkins & Michelle Geloran (Tri-City) 1,449
Scratch: Katelyn & Marieann Laurin (Greater Springfield) 1,173

Singles

Div. 1: Stephanie Chiera (Southern Berkshire) 784
Div. 2: Laura Kane (Worcester County) 761
Div. 3: Jodi St. Peter (Berkshire County) 803
Scratch: Stephanie Chiera (Southern Berkshire) 736

All-Events

Div. 1: Stephanie Chiera (Southern Berkshire) 2,152
Div. 2: Dale Snyder (Worcester County) 2,107
Div. 3: Jodi St. Peter (Berkshire County) 2,276
Scratch: Stephanie Chiera (Southern Berkshire) 2,008

Congrats to all! 🙂

2016 Mass. state tournament results

The North Adams USBC Bowling Association has made results of the 2016 state tournament, recently concluded at Greylock Bowl & Golf, official, and the results can be found on their website (links to PDFs of event standings and prize list on linked page). As usual, I’ll recognize the state champions below (association represented in parentheses):

Handicap Team: Live Free or Die (Worcester County) 3,815
Scratch Team: The Bearded Beasts (North Adams) 3,583
Handicap Doubles: Jim Ferguson & Danny Khuu (Brockton) 1,639
Scratch Doubles: Buddy Wilt & Rob Young (Brockton) 1,499
Handicap Singles: Lou Rosa (Southeastern Mass.) 872
Scratch Singles: Danny Khuu (Brockton) 815
Handicap All-Events: Dan Morse (Brockton) 2,437
Scratch All-Events: Danny Khuu (Brockton) 2,347

Recognizing the team champions as individuals:

Live Free or Die: Dave Rice, Valerie Calberry, Eric Frost, John Bercier, Mike Klosin
The Bearded Beasts: Tom Mongeon, Josh Sweet, Rob Carter, Dave Rice, Scott Demarsico

As previously reported, Danny Khuu’s scratch all-events score is a new state tournament record.

If the Brockton bowlers who usually read this don’t know Dan Morse, he’s actually, as Mike Violette told me, a first-year North Bowl bowler who actually started in one of the leagues in Rhode Island and was convinced to join a league at North Bowl. Mike said Dan has really improved in his first year, already threatening honor score level at times.

Congrats to all! 🙂

June 10 practice

I’ve recently said I’ve often found it hard to find time to practice, but another reason why I don’t practice enough is that I’ve found I bowl too quickly when bowling alone, with one game enough before my league play.

Things were different tonight, however, as I got an offer from my Wednesday night teammate Jeff to practice together while his son Phil bowls the Friday night youth doubles league. The pace was slow enough for three games bowling with him, and I used the time to work a little more with my Alpha Crux, but I struggled early on, with my few weeks layoff showing. I didn’t put a double together until a turkey to start the third game, and still missed enough spares for that to not be a 200. Still, I plan to meet up with Jeff occasionally to keep my game in order for the fall.

May 15 NAT doubles results

May 2016 NAT doubles finalists
Finalists of the Northeast Amateur Tournament doubles event on May 15, 2016 at Westgate Lanes (L-R): Runners-up Barry Muise & Jim O’Neil, champions Dale Doody & John Bekish (Photo courtesy of NAT)

The Northeast Amateur Tournament’s current newsletter reports Dale Doody & John Bekish as the champions of the regular season-ending doubles event at Westgate Lanes, defeating Coke league bowler Barry Muise and his partner Jim O’Neil by a score of 984-886 (with handicap) in the two-game final match. Other Westgate bowlers cashing were Stan Lewis & Tom Hedding, Paris Cook & Ralph Dahlgren, Tina Gannon & Bill Briggs, Chuck Paige II (with partner Jim Handy), and Matt & Sean Richard.

There was a 290 game during qualifying, bowled by Jeff Wilson, but it needs to be noted that he had the first 11 rather than the more normal back 11.

The NAT has also announced on Facebook that their August 14 tournament will take place at the brand new Wamesit Lanes in Tewksbury, with qualifying taking place in the main bowling center and the head-to-head finals in the Pow Wow Room. Unless I miss my guess, this will be the first tournament Wamesit Lanes hosts.

2016 Brunswick Mixed banquet note

I just thought I’d note that my Wednesday night league finally had our banquet last night (It’s traditionally the third Saturday night in May, but we couldn’t get that date for the function hall, so it was last night, instead.), and the prizes I won (other than team point money) were 2nd high scratch team game (with an 825) and high scratch game in men’s “C” (with my 235). Apparently, the high scratch game individual prize was worth more than 3rd high average (which was where I ended up in the division).