Joe Bourhill wins Reloaded trios event at Town Line

Per the post above, Westgate bowler Joe Bourhill was a member, along with Derek DuBois and Daniel Nazzaro, of the winning team in Sunday’s Reloaded Scratch Tournament trios event at Town Line Luxury Lanes in Malden. Reloaded, formed by Jose Perez within the last year, is a different format in that they use average caps to equalize the competition rather than handicap, while the scoring is always on a scratch basis.

Nice bowling guys! 🎳😎

Oct. 14 Brunswick Mixed recap

My Week 5 bowling, frame-by-frame

I was looking pretty good after two games, but the last one proved to be a case of “when it rains, it pours.” The killer was converting the split I needed to save my 500 to end the night, but then failing to get the count I needed for it. The positive I’ll take out of this is that I’m still limiting my single-pin spare mistakes, and, if I do that, my spare game should hold me in good stead.

Result: 196-171-131=498
Average (12 games): 167
Average for last 9 games: 165
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 510

Donna was here last week before the postponement, but had to be absent again tonight. My first game ended up to be good enough for that game’s point.

Westgate league vacancy notes

I’ve been putting this post off, but this is about a couple of leagues I’m involved with that have one or more vacancies on teams:

  • Jewell Wilson’s team in the Pepsi league (Monday night) has an opening on it. Ideally, this should be filled by an experienced bowler who may or may not be bowling in his first challenge league.
  • My own team on Wednesday night has two vacancies, and can be filled by bowlers new to league bowling. The opportunity can be especially attractive to a married couple looking for a new hobby they can share.

Prospective bowlers for either team may use the contact form on the website to reach me.

Ethan Reyes posts 300, AJ Voisine 298 in Patriots league

Reporting in earlier than usual for a Patriots league week because Ethan Reyes became the second bowler with a perfecto in it this season, and the bowler with the first, AJ Voisine, nearly recording a second with a 298 game of his own. I recorded Ethan’s last strike, which is below:

Other bowlers with good scores will be noted on a later date. Nice bowling, Ethan & AJ! 🎳😎🎉

2020-21 Brunswick Mixed Week 4 standings update

Interactive standings after Week 4

Spares (as the scoring system has chosen to name my team) is in 10th place, nine points behind the leading 4 On 9 Man, who lead Spare Us by a point, Team 13 by two points, and Last Empire by 2.5 points. Spares will be opposed by Creedens Mustangs tonight.

I have been placed in the men’s “D” division (for now), and had the high scratch & handicap series in the division last week (see standing sheet on LeagueSecretary.com).

Sept. 30 Brunswick Mixed recap

My Week 4 bowling, frame-by-frame

All-in-all, the night was kind of fun, even though I wasn’t striking very much, because even my opponents remarked to themselves how I hadn’t missed a 10. However, that one at the end was joykill, because it ruined both a 200 and a clean game. Nuts! 🤬

Result: 158-177-192=527
Average (9 games): 168
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 516

Donna had to be absent, so I was bowling alone, but, as there are only two of us on this team, I made my lineup legal under our league’s rules. The opponents took most of the points, but I took the third game and nearly stole total.

Sept. 23 Brunswick Mixed recap

My teammate Jane was one only briefly, as she had to withdraw from the league because of a personal matter, so the team is just me & Donna for now.

My Week 3 bowling, frame-by-frame

Early on, I was pulling everything, including spare shots, and I likely had the wrong ball out, as well. After the first game, I pulled my Tropical out, and settled into a strike-on-the-right-lane, nothing-on-the-left pattern until I moved for my carry late in the 3rd game. That third game was probably better with better carry or made 10 pins, as well.

Result: 114-172-180=446
Average (6 games): 164
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 500

My team had it handed to us by Tim Major, who shot 700 in helping his team win all of the points.

My 2020-21 season preview

My 2020-21 bowling season is going to be more different, and a lot busier, than any of my previous ones. I’ll start with my own bowling, which has changed quite a bit in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic:

With many bowlers taking at least a year off, Wednesday night will have just the Brunswick Mixed league, and that will be a four-man league. I am on a team currently with Jane Waters, a holdover from Warren Young’s team last year, and Donna Dalia, who is new to the league after being away from bowling for many years. My team actually forfeited last week, with yours truly having to sit out in order to attend the Pepsi league’s meeting (more on that later). Some of the Westgate Mixed bowlers joined my league for this season, so it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out.

Last night’s bowling, frame-by-frame

Last night was a solid set by last season’s standards. The first thing a regular reader of my personal posts might note is that this league is now down the high end of the house, as it has never been on Lanes 49-50 in the time I’ve been in it. A study of the BowlSK sheet should also produce the observation that the progress I’ve made on my single-pin spares held over, as I missed only one. There was a rough stretch of three open frames to end the second game, but, other than that, I made few mistakes.

Result: 180-156-183=519
Average (3 games): 173
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 525

The team ended up winning three points against Shawn’s team. Shawn thought last night’s pair was a tough one, so going over last year’s average on that pair was a good start, I thought.

All of my “Author’s links” stuff about my league bowling has been reset for the new season. Keep in mind, however, that I’m going to try to do as much as possible either at the lanes or ahead of time at home (often meaning copying formulas over on my spreadsheet log at home before entering scores in it on my phone at the lanes).

After a season of less involvement in other leagues, I’ll be busier than ever in them, even if not necessarily bowling in them. For starters, I was given the opportunity to run brackets for the Patriots league. I no longer have access to my trusted Perfect Brackets application (Windows Defender saw a driver file I needed for the hardware key as a threat.), but I was able to upgrade to the new T-Brac at a reduced price (I’d had the old version). The new version fixed the bug I had with the old version concerning the insertion of byes in brackets when I had “No byes” set. It also makes it easier for me to load bowler information from LeagueSecretary.com, so it’s been worth the investment already.

The final piece of my season’s puzzle fell into place last week at the Pepsi league’s meeting. Gerry LaTremouille is taking the season off from his leagues (but not from being the USBC association manager at Westgate). Seeing an opportunity, as Gerry was the Pepsi league’s secretary, I ran for, and was elected, league secretary, and Monday night was my first night. I had to purchase and download a copy of BLS, which I thought a bit of an adjustment from the Perfect Secretary I used to run the BowlingCommunity online league many years ago, but I’m quickly picking up how to do things in BLS (Don’t I always? 😎). Donna in the Westgate office will still be doing the league uploads to LeagueSecretary.com, but I will be posting them in the center, and I present here my first real standing sheet as a certified league officer:

I probably will cover the Pepsi league as I always have, but feel free to follow on LeagueSecretary.com.

Bowling subreddit & Discord added to sidebar links

I recently found Discord, an Internet chat service, through my involvement in a videogaming project, and I got to wondering if the bowlers were there. I searched Google, and, sure enough, they were, and, in the process, also found the bowlers on another social media service, the long-standing Reddit (on the Internet since 2005). The bowling Discord server was started by users of the bowling subreddit, so I decided to add these two resources together, although I’ve never been a “redditor.”

The links can both be found in the “Bowling Sites” list, but the Discord link acts a bit differently, as you’ll be taken to Discord’s login page, where you may sign up for a Discord account if you need to, then be dropped into the #welcome-rules channel on the server. Many Discord servers require you to be a member for a specified period (ten minutes, usually) before you can send messages in the server, so you may need to be patient. The Discord link on this website will load in a browser, but Discord has nice desktop and mobile apps, so if you have either or both and know how to add servers in those, feel free. I’m on Discord if I’m online usually, but don’t expect me to be active if I’m busy at Westgate, but feel free to “ping” me (mention me in a message) and I’ll try to get to you when I can. 🙂