2015 Mass. state tournament Day 8

Before I wrap up the final day of the tournament, I’ll tie up a couple of loose ends from yesterday, as Jim Sicard had games of 258, 279, and 278 for an 815 series and Mike Farrar had a 300 game in the singles event of the 3:30 squad.

Today belonged to Tom Hedding, who, in the 9 AM squad, bowled games of 290, 258, and 300 for an 848 series, and because this was in his singles event, this is a new state tournament record, set just last year in Lowell by Ralph Marple. There were a couple of honor games in doubles prior to that, with Dave Chalifoux’s 300 game and Steve Travers with a 290 game.

The last squad of the tournament saw Scott Corkhum throw games of 279, 280, and 259 for an 818 series, which I believe helped him and his brother Ken into the scratch doubles lead. Rounding out the final day of the tournament, Jim Simon had a 299 game in doubles, and Chris Carter another 299 in singles.

I will post the final results link and acknowledge the champions when the results are made official.

2015 Mass. state tournament Day 7

The noon team event got the scoring going today, led by Bruce March, a 2003 inductee into the state Hall of Fame, with games of 263, 300, and 257 for an 820 series, with Dan Esdale (297) and Jim Wallace (279) having 11 in a row games. I got the video of Bruce March’s last strike for 300, which is below:

Another Hall of Famer, Brockton Bowling Association Hall of Famer Jim Ferguson, followed up on last week’s team performance in doubles in the 3:30 squad, when he went 249, 258, and 300 for an 807 (doesn’t count for all-events, as this was a re-entry). Gary Weiner added a state tournament 300 game to his two this year in the Westgate Mixed league, and Lou Rosa also had a 290 game. I am aware of another 800 series in singles, but I don’t have the details, so that will be posted in the future.

Richard’s Warriors follow-up

Co-tournament director Gerry LaTremouille was kind enough to scan and send me a copy of the scoresheet for Richard’s Warriors (which will be in the singular in the results), which I link here. You’ll have to turn your head to view it, but a thing you’ll notice is that they wanted to rename themselves “It’s Gotta Be The Shoes” afterward, but we couldn’t change the team name without deleting their entry, so their name will officially remain Richard’s Warrior(s). It does show the individual games and totals as well as the team totals (1,215 and 1,138 for the first two games, respectively), so I’m happy to have a full record of their performance up now. 🙂

2015 Mass. state tournament Day 6

Mother’s Day meant the slowest day of the tournament, but some bowlers did bowl, and a couple of the “usual suspects” had honor scores: Danny Khuu, with games of 289, 279, and 254 for an 822 series, and Sean Richard with a 300 game, both in doubles during the morning squad.

The tournament’s final weekend is in the coming weekend.

2015 Mass. state tournament Day 5

Sean Richard got things going in doubles in the morning with games of 289, 276, and 256 for an 824 series, but it would be the 3:30 PM squad’s team event, which Sean was also part of, that would highlight the day:

“Richard’s Warriors”, with a lineup of Brian Gaskill, Jim Ferguson, Brian Egan, Bob Hamilton, and Sean Richard, put up a 1,309 third game, thanks in part to a 300 game from Ferguson and a 297 from Richard, which helped them post a 3,662 series, which was just one pin shy of the state tournament record by “The Winers” in the 2010 tournament at AMF Auburn Lanes. The video of Jim’s last strike is below.

Since I had the opportunity, I also took the photo below (pardon the blurred image):

A meeting of the old state record holder and the new one. You know the man on the left, and Jim Lovewell is on the right.
A meeting of the old state record holder and the new one. You know the man on the left, Jim Lovewell is on the right.

Actually, I could have made it three record holders in the same photo, as Shirley Major, the former women’s state record holder, was also bowling in the squad.

Isabella & Ethan Reyes win youth tournaments at Wonder Bowl

The Mass. USBC Youth Association ran two tournaments recently at Wonder Bowl, the annual state Pepsi tournament on Apr. 11, and the spring singles tournament the following day. In the former (link is to official results), Isabella Reyes won the U10 girls division, and in the latter, Ethan Reyes won the U15 boys division (competition in the spring singles tournament was based on handicap scores).

Congrats to both. 🙂

My 2014-15 season, by the numbers

As I usually do at the end of my winter bowling season, I dedicate a post here to breaking down my league performance with the help of the BowlSK reports. First, the first-ball numbers (numbers before the pipe | character reflect last year’s performance):

Strike percentage: 32.2% | 32.3%
Pocket shots: 67.2% | 64.0%
Carry percentage: 45.7% (333/728) | 46.9% (322/686)
Double rate: 32.7% (110/336) | 32.0% (106/331)
Average first-ball count: 8.7 | 8.6
Average first-ball non-strike count: 8.0 | 7.9

Most of these numbers were about the same or actually improved, but I was hitting the pocket less, leaving a few less-manageable spares, which my first-ball counts confirm. However, let’s see what the numbers have to say about my spare game this year:

Overall spare percentage: 63.2% (436/690) | 55.7% (384/690)
Single-pin spare percentage: 75.8% (235/310) | 67.6% (188/278)
Multi-pin spare percentage: 64.2% (179/279) | 60.3% (185/307)
Makeable (non-split) percentage: 70.3% (414/589) | 63.8% (373/585)
Split conversion percentage: 21.8% (22/101) | 10.5% (11/105)
Washout conversion percentage: 30.8% (8/26) | 28.6% (10/35)
Percentage on single 10 pin: 68% (83/122) | 60.6% (63/104)
Percentage on single 7 pin: 70% (49/70) | 61.2% (41/67)

Clearly, my spare game suffered this year, particularly where I’ve left more than one pin on the deck, because I did leave fewer single pins this year, where my multi-pin spares, splits, and washouts went up by a noticeable number, as hitting the pocket less would indicate. My overall game needs work, and that’s why I hope to connect with Larry Lichstein in the future.

Live blog: 2015 Brunswick Mixed roll-off

Blogging each game of the roll-off between “Striking Gentlemen” and “Bowling Stones” as we go along:

Game 1: “Bowling Stones” won the first game 967-941 (team scores will be with handicap) after taking control in the 9th frame after all of the present “Striking Gentlemen” failed to mark. Alex Frisbie had the high game for “Bowling Stones” with a 171, while John Beliveau was high for “Striking Gentlemen” with a 176.

Game 2: This game was won by one pin by “Striking Gentlemen” 970-969 after Kevin Hart’s double in the 10th set up their finish. Kevin finished with a 154, while John Beliveau again finished high on the team with a 169. Peter Cappola was high for the “Bowling Stones” with a 197, and they still lead the match by 25 pins.

Game 3: “Bowling Stones” took control of the game in the 8th frame and didn’t look back, winning 992-931 and the match 2928-2842. Peter Cappola had a 184 and Alex Frisbie 180 to lead the winners, while Kevin Hart was high on his team with a 150 in a losing effort.

Congrats, Stones! 🙂

EDIT: As unusual, because I have it available, I’ll post the winning team’s photo here rather than wait for the banquet.

2014-15 Brunswick Mixed league champions, Bowling Stones (Front, L-R: Ellie Painter, Warren Painter; Rear, L-R: Lisa Frisbie, Alex Frisbie, Peter Cappola)
2014-15 Brunswick Mixed league champions, Bowling Stones (Front, L-R: Ellie Painter, Warren Painter; Rear, L-R: Lisa Frisbie, Alex Frisbie, Peter Cappola)

“Lane Side Reviews” added to sidebar

I came across “Lane Side Reviews” in one of my Facebook bowling groups, and saw that they have a wealth of recent ball demo videos on their YouTube channel, from not only Storm and Roto Grip, but the other major companies, so I thought it worthy of a link in the sidebar; they do have other videos, so I thought the video/streaming list the best fit.

Coke league bowlers move into top 10 at USBC Open Championships

Cambridge 2, with Coke league bowlers Brian Gaskill and Stephen Dale Jr., bowled games of 1,004, 1,084, and 1,096 for a 3,184 total to move into 6th place in Regular Team at the USBC Open Championships in El Paso, TX. The team also included New England bowlers Bruce Hall, Chris Sole, and Ryan Graywacz, who paced the team with a 715 series. The team is part of Chris Viale’s Cambridge Credit group, for which Team USA member Shannon O’Keefe bowls at the Open.

Nice bowling guys! 😀

2015 Mass. state tournament Day 3

There were no honor scores in any of the squads today, but we did have a notable presence in multiple PBA Tour title winner John “Buzzsaw” Gant, and he had a chance at 800 in his team event until a 6 pin (lefty) stood up on him in the 6th frame of the third game, finishing with a 780 series.

The association has been running raffles to raise funds, and I’ve been going into the ball raffles last weekend and this weekend, with Storm’s Crux being the raffle ball (last Saturday was the pearl version, and we also got three of the original hybrids). I led this paragraph with this in order to note that Ken Gerraughty from my league won today’s ball raffle, which he immediately had drilled and bowled a practice game with.

I’m expecting a busy day tomorrow.

Ed Godino III throws 290 game in TNBA (with tournament note)

Congrats to Ed Godino III, who used to be in my league and whose father is still in same league, for a recent 290 game in the TNBA league. As has been mentioned, there’s been a technical problem getting standings uploaded, but we couldn’t place an exact date on this one. WTG Ed! 🙂

Deaf tournament note: Rai Doblmeier of the Tuesday scratch league let me know that he finished second to Peter Kaczmarcyk today in the Masters competition of the Eastern regional deaf tournament at Empire Lanes in Rochester, NY. Good bowling Rai! 🙂

Sean Richard bowls 832 in Patriots league, sets new Westgate record average

Sean Richard and Danny Khuu were separated by only 19 pins for 90 games in the Patriots league going into tonight, both needing a 727 series to break Jason Sherwood’s Westgate Lanes record average of 236.79 set two years ago, and the duel would take place on the same pair of lanes, 53 & 54, as their teams were matched for position round.

The first game would see Sean Richard run the first ten strikes before leaving a 4 pin for a 289, which, with Danny Khuu’s 266 left Sean just four pins ahead. A 7 pin miss in the 6th frame by Sean would lead to a 266 second game, while Danny posted the front 11 before leaving the 2-10 for a 298, leaving Danny ahead by 28 pins for the record.

Danny’s first three frames in the third game would prove to be his undoing, however, as he left the 4-6-10 split in the first frame and a 10 pin spare in the third frame, while Sean ran strikes until a 7 pin in the eighth frame, ending with a 277 for an 832 series, giving him the new record average of 237.70. Danny ended with a 225 game for a 789 series.

I’ve seen some amazing performances in my return, and Sean’s tonight would rank up there among them. He and Danny are friends off the lanes, but both competitive on them. It was good to see them both try to bring the best out of each other.

Congrats to you two on a good show tonight. 🙂

Apr. 29 league night recap

My Week 33 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK sheet)

I might have been able to raise my average with a better second game, but I was happy I was bowling better toward the end of the season, so I’m hoping to rebound next season.

Result: 185-139-192=516
Final average (99 games): 167
Average for last 9 games: 169

The second game was really our undoing, as none of us had a mark in the 6th and 7th frames other than what the vacants provided. Barry bowled better bookend games, as well, and those were the two points we won.

“Bowling Stones” ended up winning the second half, so they will roll off for the championship against the first half winners, “Striking Gentlemen”, next week.

Apr. 28 Coke league note

Devon McGregor posted on Facebook today that, last night, he had his first ever clean set in 31 years of bowling. I’ve been saying that 30-clean is still a feat in today’s bowling, even on a house shot, so Devon doing so on the Coke league’s more challenging conditions is rather impressive. WTG D’Von! 🙂

Winter 2015 Week 15 virtual league results (final week)

“Diamond Flush 2.0” was swept by Team 5, and fell to 7th in the final standings. There was a surprise at the top, however: Team 3 just needed to avoid being swept to win the championship, but “The Big Red One” pulled off the sweep, setting the new five-man series record in the process. Congrats to “Bavant”, “bigcall”, “Gohokies”, “ijohn83”, and “Vannman”, but I need to mention that “Chuck” was subbing for “Vannman” in the last week (“Vannman’s” league finished early), and “Bavant” couldn’t bowl because of a medical emergency and had to take his blind.

Individually, “Fin09” ended up the average leader, with 236+ for 39 games.