SPARE SHOOTING: LOST ART OR LOST SCIENCE?

Richard Jacobson, SILVER Level USBC Coach

I found this article about spare shooting by Richard Jacobson, who operates the Great Balls of Fire pro shop in White Plains, New York. It's worth a look for this article and many others about improving one's game.

OVER THE WALL II - WEEK 11 RESULTS

We broke out the new bowling shirts and took over first place by grabbing 3 of 4 from The Gunners.

Both teams started a bit cold with The Gunners being off their game a little more than we were off ours. We held on to win the opener by 26 pins. In the second game, The Gunners warmed up while we slumped. They hammered us by 99 pins to earn a split and take a commanding lead in total pinfall. It looked like we would have to pull out a win in the final game just to earn two points for the night. But in the third game we went nuclear (including seven consective strikes by The Coach) and put up the league's high scratch game. Our score of 771 (average of 192.75 for the team) crushed The Gunners by 159 pins. We took the third game and with our series score of 1962 besting their 1876, we also claimed the point for total pinfall.

While we were winning 3 of 4 from The Gunners, One Time lost 3 of 4 to Mashed Up Leftovers who were lifted by a big night from Shamrock Power. One Time was one game ahead of us in the standings entering Monday night but when it was over, our record improved to 29-15 while One Time fell to 28-16.. Mashed Up Leftovers, our opponents next week, are in third place, two games behind us at 27-17.

WEEK 11  01  02  03  SER AVG
Sharon  176 169 168  513 171
Olivia  120  81 181  382 127
Mark    170 177 202  549 183
Gary    148 150 220  518 173
Total   614 577 771 1962 164

SEASON  HG   HS AVG
Sharon 191  531 161
Olivia 181  469 138
Mark   243  607 184
Gary   220  528 160
Total  771 2056 162

THE SHIRTS HAVE ARRIVED!

They're colorful, they have a cool old-time design and they're very sturdy.

I think they look great. Will they inspire us to bowl better? We will find out Monday night.

We have The Gunners on the schedule this week. I don't know how they fared last Monday but entering the evening they were right behind us. We may need another hot night like we had last week to keep ahead of them.

SPOTTED IN THE DIABLO LANES PARKING LOT

Clever!

LEAGUE STAT SHEETS

I should have mentioned this earlier -- I created a new page for our league stat sheets. Just below the site's banner you will find a page menu bar. You're on the "HOME" page now. Click on the "STAT SHEETS" tab and the page with our stat sheets will open. The most recent stat sheet will be at the top. To return here, click on the "HOME" tab.

OVER THE WALL II - WEEK 10 RESULTS

We started the night trailing One Time by four games. After our four-game sweep of Team 7 while One Time were losing three of four, we are now only one game out. Our record improved to 26-14.

It was a big night for us as we surpassed our previous high game of 692 in the first (703) and third (698) games. We dipped a bit to 655 in the middle game but we did well enough to top our previous high series of 2007 with a score of 2056. Sharon scored her high series and tied her high game for the season.

WEEK 10  01  02  03  SER AVG
Sharon  174 166 191  531 177
Olivia  149 155 123  427 142
Mark    221 175 194  590 196
Gary    160 159 190  509 169
Total   703 655 698 2056 171

SEASON   HG   HS AVG
Sharon  191  531 159
Olivia  175  469 138
Mark    243  607 184
Gary    209  528 157
Total   703 2056 161

Next week we bowl the Gunners on lanes 23-24. They were only one game behind us entering tonight.

MPOA Tournament

Olivia finshed first in the women's division of this month's Most Pins Over Average Tournament at Diablo Lanes. She also won the high game pot for the socond game. With her victory, she qualified for Bowler of the Year Tournamet in December. Well done!

Monte Carlo

Monte Carlo Pins at Paddock Bowl

Sharon and I met Kris & Chris Kiiskinen at Paddock Bowl tonight to play their Monte Carlo game. Kate was in charge tonight which is always good for some extra games on the side and a lot more fun. None of us won any big money but each of us hit a few small winners. Dave, on the lanes next to us, hit the dollar strike pot which I think was good for $240+.

Paddock Bowl hosted a six-game tournament in the afternoon and it seems the lanes weren't dressed after the tournament's conclusion. They were as dry as the Mojave Desert. At one point, Sharon resorted to shooting for strikes with the Columbia White Dot (plastic ball) she normally uses to pick up the 6 or 10 pin. I struggled early but after switching to my Black Widow Pearl, I scored games of 219 and 226. Chris came close to breaking 200 with a 196 (or was it 198?) score in the final game.

Even though we didn't score any big winners, the three games and the "bowling for dollars" action were a lot of fun.

BOWLING ON TV

There won't be a pro bowling event on ESPN this weekend. The NCAA basketball tournament is again dominating ESPN's broadcast schedule. Next Sunday (March 25th), the PBA returns to ESPN with the Mark Roth-Marshall Holman Doubles Championship at 11:30 PDT.

The Bowling Links over to the right now has a link to the PBA TV schedule.

CLASSIC BOWLING SHIRTS

BowlingShirt.com has a spring cleaning sale in progress. They have some cool designs for $14.95. I ordered these.

OVER THE WALL II - WEEK 9

The Blockheads entered the night in a three-way tie for second place behind One Time. We started in a funk with all four of us missing our average in the first game. As expected, that led to a defeat. We came alive in the second and third games and claimed three of the four points.

The night's highlights included The Coach converting the 4-7-10 splite TWICE in the same game, Sharon and I converting the 2-10 split plus Sharon also converting the much tougher 2-4-8-10 split. After bowling a strikeless 146 in the first game, I started the second game with six strikes and finished with a score of 243.

WEEK 9  01  02  03  SER AVG
Sharon 137 171 162  470 157
Olivia 102 127 134  363 121
Mark   146 243 204  593 198
Gary   152 136 155  443 148
Total  537 677 655 1869 156

SEASON  HG   HS  AVG
Sharon 191  517  157
Olivia 175  469  138
Mark   243  607  182
Gary   209  528  157
Total  692 2007  160

Next week we face Team 7 on lanes 29-30. We played them to open the season. I think we will be spotting them about 12 pins per game.

Pinboy's Guide To Better Bowling

I have a link to Pinboy's Guide To Better Bowling over in the right column. If you haven't bothered to check it out, please take a few minutes to do so. There's a lot of profound bowling wisdom to be found on that page.

Over The Wall II - Week 8

For the second consecutive week we bowled our high series for the season (2007), topping our previous high (1980) by 27 pins. This time it was good for 3 points and we were just a few pins away from a 4-point sweep. It's a much better outcome than last week when we bowled our high series yet lost 3 of 4. The Coach and Olivia scored their high series individually which was a big reason for our high team score.

        01  02  03  SER AVG

Sharon 152 155 143  450 150

Olivia 149 145 175  469 156

Mark   170 228 162  560 186

Gary   209 143 176  528 176

Total  680 671 656 2007 167

And our stats for the season:

       GMS  PINS AVG

Sharon  21  3309 157

Olivia  17  2386 140
Mark    24  4343 180

Gary    24  3794 158

Total   86 13832 160

Time To Fire Up The Blog Again




The Coach wrings the neck of Jeff Falk

I haven't done anything with our old blog for awhile because it seemed like nobody was reading it. Last night, after taking a photo of The Coach strangling Jeff Falk, I thought about starting it up again. So after about 14 months of dormancy, we're up and running.

Why does The Coach have his hands around Jeff's neck? Because last week we bowled our high series for the season but lost 3 out of 4 thanks to Jeff's hot hand. Jeff didn't even break 400 in the two previous weeks but when he bowled against us, he pulled off his high game (196) and high series (467). Therefore, it's only right that The Coach went after the sandbagger.