SPORT DOUBLES 23 - SWEEPER

Our summer season is officially over. Olivia and I bowled in the sweeper for Sport Doubles 23 tonight but neither of us finished in the money. The Highway To Hell pattern was pretty tough on us.

We have two weeks to go before the Over The Wall league begins on September 10th. I suggest we get together for some practice before then.

MONTE CARLO AT PADDOCK BOWL

We were supposed to meet early at Paddock Bowl tonight to discuss the possibility of entering some tournaments but Olivia didn't show up. Maybe we can get together to practice one night this week and discuss it then. If not, there's a Monte Carlo night at Clayton Valley Bowl next Saturday night. The tournaments we need to discuss can be found in the tournament listing over in the right column.

Kate hosted the Monte Carlo game which was good but the money shots were few and far between. Kate added some extra contests to compensate for the lack of money-winning opportunities. Still, none of us won much money tonight. I shot 258 in the second game but won only $3.00 because the colored pins weren't coming up. The Coach's ticket was drawn for the dollar pot which was worth over $280.00 but he didn't hit the strike. At least the bowling was good.

MY LANE PLAY

Screen shot from My Lane
Play's frame-by-frame mode

Yesterday I mentioned My Lane Play (for Android), a bowling application that helps bowlers track everything imaginable about their games. It catalogs the balls in one's arsenal, the places one bowls, and the outcome of every frame of league, tournament, or open play that one cares to record.. It keeps statistics and notes for any part of the game a bowler desires.

My Lane Play allows one to enter the frame-by-frame results of each game. After each shot in frame-by-frame mode, one selects each pin left standing. At the end of the game, it will display the single-pin and multi-pin spare percentages, the strike percentage, the pocket hit percentage, the crossover percentage, etc. It will collect this information for all of the games one saves. It can be broken down by league, tournament or practice, by oil pattern, and by bowling center.

ONLINE USBC MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL

It's now possible to  renew our USBC memberships through the USBC's website BOWL.com. Whether it's a renewal of an existing membership or joining for the first time, it can be handled online by clicking here.

SPORT CHALLENGE DOUBLES 23 - WEEK 14 RESULTS

This was the final week of the season before our sweeper next week. It was a double position round so we bowled both sets against the same team. We were in 15th place so that matched us with the 16th place team of Kadi Whiteside and Curtis Elmore.

SUMMER BOWLING SEASON IS WINDING DOWN

We have only two weeks to go for the sport doubles league. It's a position round for both sets on Monday, August 20th. Then we have our sweeper on August 27th and the summer season is done. There will be one Monday off (September 3rd) before the Over The Wall season gets started on September 10th.

I was checking the calendar and found that Columbus Day will be observed on Monday, October 8th. If you've looked at the tournament listings over in the right margin, you may have noticed the 10th Annual Storm National Mixed Championships being held at the National Bowling Stadium in Reno. There are team, doubles, and singles events. Since we have Monday off for Columbus Day, we could make it a three night stay in Reno. We head to Reno on Friday, bowl that weekend, roll out of Reno Monday morning and get back in plenty of time for our regular league bowling on Monday night. We will have college and pro football plus the baseball playoffs to wager on while we're in Reno. What do you think?

SPORT CHALLENGE DOUBLES 23 - WEEK 13 RESULTS

Our first set tonight was with Kevin and Lisa Burney. There wasn't a lot of handicapping involved as Lisa had to spot Olivia only 8 pins while Kevin and I were even. We lost the first game but rebounded to win the second with Team Burney edging us in total pinfall. On the head-to-head side, Olivia and Lisa split while I outscored Kevin in both games. Overall, the score was 5-5.

POT 'O' GOLD

Sharon, The Coach, and Olivia
at Hooters restaurant in Dublin

We started our bowling night at the Hooters restaurant near Dublin Bowl. The service was a little slow but the food was good and they had the A's vs. White Sox game on the big screen. (A's 9, White Sox 7!) Each of us had hopes of winning one of the strike jackpots in Dublin Bowl's Saturday night Pot 'O' Gold game. Pot 'O' Gold is Dublin Bowl's version of Monte Carlo bowling.

HIGHWAY TO HELL

Monday night was our last on the Carmen Salvino pattern. Next week we move on to Highway To Hell. This is what Bowlingdigital.com has to say about it:


WARNING!


"With an increased amount of conditioner outside, the Highway To Hell is a low latitude ratio pattern with very little left to right shape to help guide the bowling ball towards the pocket. Each player will have to decide and make sense of their ball reaction to decide what’s best for them to find their way down the HIGHWAY TO HELL!"

MR. 300 HAS HIS RING

As it was reported here a few weeks ago, Sasha Gray bowled a 300 game in June. Yesterday he received his ring from the USBC which he wore proudly around Diablo Valley Bowl.

In The Bowler's Advantage Pro Shop, Ray and Ron noticed that Sasha experienced a sudden and substantial increase to his hat size once he slipped on the ring. The friendly needling went right over Sasha's head as he was too delighted by the attention he was receiving for his accomplishment. As the only person in the shop who has never bowled a 300 game, I could appreciate why Sasha was so pleased with his prize.

TIME FOR SOME PRACTICE

While we've been bowling in a sport league this summer, we haven't done a lot of bowling on the regular house shot. Our Monday night league bowling and Sunday night practices have been on sport oil.

Over The Wall resumes on September 10th (five Mondays away). We have Pot 'O' Gold in Dublin this Saturday night. One of the Pot 'O' Gold strike jackpots is over $1,000.00 and the lowest of the three is over $400.00. (For details about the Pot 'O' Gold game at Earl Anthony's Dublin Bowl, click on the Monte Carlo tab above.)

Do we want to go into the new season cold? Or have one's number called for a $1,000 shot and have no feel for THS? Sharon and I have been practicing on Wednesday nights at 6:30. Unfortunately, it's just the two of us most of the time. We get three free games every day until the end of August. Let's use them!

SPORT CHALLENGE DOUBLES 23 - WEEK 12 RESULTS

Our first set was against The Bowler's Advantage which on this night was Ray minus Gaylah Spackman. All three of us started off cold then picked it up in the second game. Ray gave me a pretty good drubbing in both games to claim two head-to-head points. Coach's two games were far enough over his average (with a boost from the handicap) to claim the two head-to-head points against Gaylah's average. Those were the only two points we earned as Ray's scores put the two points for total pinfall out of our reach. We were 2-8 for the set.

SPORT CHALLENGE DOUBLES 23 - RESULTS FOR WEEKS 7 - 11

I'm nearly caught up after my being away for a month. Thank you, Sharon & Gary for saving the scoresheets in my absence. I now have the stats for weeks #7 through #11.

I wasn't confident about my bowling after playing nothing but "small ball" bowling back east. Thankfully, my feel for the game started coming back to me quickly. Olivia and I both bowled over our averages and scored 15-5 for the night. The past two weeks, Sharon bowled solo and went 22-18 so we've been a very respectable 37-23 the past three weeks.