Nov. 29 league standings update

After splitting 2-2 with “Y Not Us”, “Turkey Hunters” are in 11th place, 11 points behind “Striking Gentlemen”, who lead “Knock Em Down” by a point and “Bowling Stones” by three points. “Mustangs” will be our opponents next week.

Individually, Barry had the high handicap series of the week for the men (680).

Nov. 26 league result

I pre-bowled yesterday for tonight, but made it in at the start of the third game, only to watch the team lose by two pins. It turned out we did win the second game by enough for total after losing the first game, largely on the strength of a 605 from Barry. Barry told me he couldn’t remember the last time he threw a 600 series.

Nov. 25 pre-bowl

I mentioned earlier that I probably wasn’t bowling league tomorrow due to family commitments, but most leagues now allow you to pre-bowl if you know you’re not going to make it, and my league does. Not being one who wants to “mail it in”, I availed myself of the pre-bowling privilege tonight.

My pre-bowl for Week 13, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK sheet)

Inconsistency seems to be my hallmark this season. I was fighting a tendency to pull it through the first game, but then was bowling as well in the first half of the second game as I have been all season. The insult came with no strikes in the third game and plenty of missed spares for a score that would have been better off for my team having me take my blind (AVG-5 in my league).

Result: 158-184-131=473
Average (39 games): 162
Average for last 9 games: 159
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 527

As I won’t know how my team did until later, the match result might only come in the next standings update.

Holiday gift card promotion note: Westgate Lanes is once again running their holiday gift card promotion, where every $25 spent is give three free games of bowling. Details available at the desk.

Nov. 22 league standings update

After winning three of four points from “Lickety Splits”, “Turkey Hunters” are tied for 10th with “Incredibowls”, eight points behind “Striking Gentlemen”, who lead “Knock Em Down” and “Bowling Stones” by a point. We bowl “Y Not Us”, my old buddy Si Rosenthal’s team, next week, but my participation in that match is in question due to a family commitment on that day.

Bob Hamilton throws 826 set in Patriots league; Team also qualifies for honors

Congrats to Bob Hamilton, with games of 279, 257, and 290 for an 826 set tonight in the Patriots league. Moreover, I’ll link his daughter Stephanie’s Facebook photo of the desk printout here, as, given that, he and Shirley Major threw a 526 third game and a 1,506 series, both of which are national honor scores for a mixed doubles team. Congrats to Shirley for this, as well! 😀

Bob & Shirley’s desk printout

Nov. 19 league night recap

My Week 12 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK sheet)

Call my effort “consistency by inconsistency” tonight, because when I threw good shots, I threw them for a little stretch, but then I’d lose it just as quickly. My spare game wasn’t helping either, as it was one of the worst ones in a night I can remember; fortunately, there was at least a double in each game to sort of cover for it.

Result: 163-166-161=490
Average (36 games): 162
Average for last 9 games: 165
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 511

My bad spare game ended up costing the team last game, as I missed a 7 pin at the end that enabled our opponents to steal the game by two pins. We did win the other two games comfortably, with Barry averaging 190+ for the night.

Nov. 18 league standings update

After failing to win points from “Striking Gentlemen”, “Turkey Hunters” are tied for 13th with “Y Not Us” and “Lickety Splits”, nine points behind “Striking Gentlemen”, who now lead by three points over “Knock Em Down” and “Bowling Stones”. We bowl against the aforementioned “Lickety Splits” tomorrow night.

Danny Khuu wins 2014 Brockton USBCBA Bowler of the Year

2014 Brockton USBCBA Bowler of the Year finalists (L-R): Danny Khuu (champion), Jason Sherwood (runner-up)
2014 Brockton USBCBA Bowler of the Year finalists (L-R): Danny Khuu (champion), Jason Sherwood (runner-up)

Congratulations to Danny Khuu on winning the 2014 Brockton Bowling Association Bowler of the Year tournament today. The stepladder results were as follows:

Match 1: Danny Khuu def. Bob Hamilton 256-191
Semifinal: Khuu def. Ryan Yelle 249-180
Championship: Khuu def. Jason Sherwood 257-205

Khuu was dominant throughout the stepladder, and the title match was no exception, with Sherwood just staying clean and Khuu throwing an opening four-bagger before leaving a 10 pin, from which point Khuu cruised to victory.

There was one honor score in the tournament, belonging to Ryan Yelle, who closed his round of eight match with the first 11 before catching a bad break with an 8 pin.

Full results will be available soon on the Brockton Bowling Association website.

Bay State Open obtains USBC certification

Tournament certificate for Bay State Open

The photo linked above says it all: The Bay State Open is now USBC-certified from next Saturday’s event at Lanes & Games through their Jan. 3 date at Westgate Lanes (which is already on the calendar), and they also announced on Facebook that they will keep their certification up as their future schedule is finalized. I’ve already made note of the certification on the Brockton Bowling Association Facebook page.

Nov. 12 league night recap

My Week 11 bowling, frame-by-frame (Linked to BowlSK sheet)

Some of tonight was shaking the rust off of my “B” game after I decided that my “A” game wasn’t working and started trying to play straight up the 10 board, but that got better at the end of the night. Two single pin misses, but I left so many of those I was actually well over 80% on them for the night.

Result: 166-138-164=468
Average (33 games): 162
Average for last 9 games: 160
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 512

Opponents won all four, but we only lost the second game by a single pin.

With my good first two games last week, I was bound to get good news in brackets, and I finished second to Ed Godino Jr. in two of them, and one each to Mark Pinnetti and Kevin Hart (who were two of our opponents tonight). The bracket I won was “teammate on teammate crime” (against Donald in the finals), so the brackets I finished second in made up all of an $8 profit.

Fall 2014 Week 9 virtual league results

One bowler was granted an extension to the deadline in the virtual league for the week, so that’s why my results post was delayed.

“Pin Seeking Missiles” lost all seven to “DJSW” and now stand two points in second behind “Triple x-X-x”, with “The Whole 9 Yards” three points in back of the lead in third. There is a five-point spread between the top five teams.

2014 Westgate Lanes NEBA results

NEBA reported Mike Lichstein won his record 28th NEBA title, and his 4th at Westgate Lanes, this past Sunday. They reported on Facebook that Lichstein defeated Alex Aguiar by a score of 217-205 in the title match. Westgate Lanes bowler Sean Richard made a run into the quarterfinals before losing to Lichstein, and he was joined out of Westgate Lanes as cashers by Brian Gaskill, Jason Sherwood, Danny Khuu, Brockton Bowling Association Hall of Famer Jim Ferguson, Eric Durden, Bob Hamilton, and Kevin Thibeault (who, competing as a youth bowler, will have his prize money deposited into his SMART scholarship account). Brian Egan of Westgate Lanes won the prize for high game outside of the cut.

The title match itself was a classic, as Aguiar had an early split, but it became apparent that whichever bowler could figure out the right lane first would win, and Lichstein broke through in the 9th frame. When Lichstein struck in the 10th to seal his victory, he was overcome by emotion (as it was his first NEBA title in four years) and flopped down on the approach. Entertainingly, Aguiar mimicked the gesture when he finally struck in the 10th on the problem right lane. An observation of Lichstein I made during match play was that he was constantly giving his opponents encouragement during the match. Mike Lichstein is a bowler who gets it, which reminded me of what the great bowling writer Chuck Pezzano said about the mindset of most bowlers: You want your opponent to bowl well, too, just you a little bit better.

There were five 300 games in the regular NEBA tournament, and I already posted about Brian Gaskill’s on Saturday, but one I missed on Saturday was thrown by Bob Dimuccio Jr. There were three more perfect games on Sunday, all of which I have video for, and I’ll go in order. First, Mike Wilson:

Charlie Bonis Jr.:

And, finally, Dave Martorella:

In addition, Mike Lichstein had a chance at one before a “super washout” (1-3-4-6-7 for a lefty) derailed him on the last shot.