DID YOU KNOW?

The U.S. Coast Guard Training Center in Petaluma has a six-lane bowling center. It's called Two Rock Bowling Center. Here is an interesting story from the Santa Rosa Press Democrat about the facilities at Two Rock Base available to retirees and reservists of any branch of the U.S. armed services. Besides the bowling center, they have a swim center, fitness center (including basketball, tennis and raquetball courts), and movie theater. I had no idea this place existed.

The bowling center at Two Rock Base in Petaluma



BOWLING BALL GIVEAWAY

Bowling.com has a drawing for a free Storm Lucid. (It's a ball for heavy oil.) To be eligible, you must enter by midnight tonight. Click here to visit Bowl.com's drawing entry page.

OVER THE WALL STATS NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE THROUGH LEAGUESECRETARY.COM

It will no longer be necessary for me to scan our stat sheets each week because all of our stat sheets (with greater detail) are now available through LeagueSecretary.com. I will soon put a link in the right column to access our league stats. For now, you can click here.

Upon reaching our league's page, scroll down to the bottom and you'll find a place where you can register your name and email address. Once that's done, they will send you an email to alert you whenever our league's stats are updated.

You'll notice there are more stats online than you'll find on our printed stat sheets. It shows you what you have to bowl next week to increase or decrease your average by one pin and your individual handicap.

WEEK 8 RESULTS



Sweep!

We started off slowly but turned it on near the end of the first game to win it by four pins. From there we cruised to a sweep. Olivia broke the 200 barrier for the first time in league play with a score of 207 in the second game. The four-point sweep improved our record to 25.5 wins and 6.5 losses.

WEEK 8 01   02  03  SER   AVG  G  PINS   AVG  HG   HS
Sharon 151 142 199  492 164.0 24  3944 164.3 234  540
Olivia 163 207 107  477 159.0 21  3127 148.9 207  492
Mark   173 177 210  560 186.7 24  4554 189.8 248  610
Gary   174 167 139  480 160.0 24  3792 158.0 206  526
TEAM   661 693 655 2009 167.4 93 15417 165.8 805 2120


Olivia's 207 game



BOWLING BALL COVERSTOCKS

A good essay about bowling ball coverstocks can be found at bowlingball.com. Have you wondered what the differences are between polyester (sometimes called plastic), urethane, reactive resin, and particle coverstocks? For the reactive resin coverstocks, what are the sub-groups solid, pearl, and hybrid? This essay explains it pretty well. A more thorough essay on the reactive resin sub-groups can be found here.

MONTE CARLO

We have Monte Carlo bowling tonight at Danville Bowl. The starting time is 7:00. I enjoyed it enough last week to give it another try.

There's also Monte Carlo at Paddock Bowl and Dublin Bowl (Pot 'O' Gold) on Saturday night. While bowling in the Showcase league last night, I heard that Delta Bowl has a game of some sort with a strike pot at $16,000.00! I don't know if it's Monte Carlo or something else. Their website doesn't say anything about it.

WEEK 7 STATS POSTED



 I was wrong about the scoring of Monday night's games. We were credited with three wins and one loss so our record is now 21.5-6.5. We're in first place, 4.5 games ahead of One Pin Standing. You needn't wait until next Monday night to see the stat sheet. It's on our STAT SHEETS page now.

WEEK 7 RESULTS

3 wins, 1 loss

It was primarily a night of inconsistency with wild swings between high scores and low. I'm not certain how the league handles our scoring when bowling against the vacant team. I thought it might be handled the same as a forfeit in which we have to bowl within 40 pins of our team average in a game to earn a win. After looking more closely at the scoresheet, I think we were bowling against a team of four phantom bowlers, each with an average of 130.

If it's the latter, we had a split of 2-2 with The Phantoms. They had 520 scratch (130 X 4) plus a handicap of 128 for a score of 648 each game. Their total handicap series score is 1944. They beat us by 76 pins in the first game while we barely got by them by 21 in the second game and 4 in the third. The wide margin in the first game kept us from getting the point for total pinfall.

Our record now stands at 20.5-7.5. The other teams were still bowling when we left so I don't know the outcome of their games. Even if One Pin Standing earned a sweep, their record would be 19-9 and we would still possess first place.

WEEK 7  01  02  03  SER   AVG  G  PINS   AVG  HG   HS
Sharon 118 157 174  449 149.7 21  3452 164.4 234  540
Olivia 144 149 133  426 142.0 18  2650 147.2 199  492
Mark   132 248 139  519 173.0 21  3994 190.2 248  610
Gary   178 115 206  499 166.3 21  3312 157.7 206  526
TEAM   572 669 652 1893 157.8 81 13408 165.5 805 2120

THE ELM TRIO

ELM Trio: WEEK #7 RESULTS: I'm bowling Friday nights at Castro Village Bowl with my Dad.

SHARON BREAKS 600 IN A BIG WAY!

Sharon has been working so hard to get her first 600 series and tonight it happened at Stars in Vacaville. Sharon didn't just barely clear the hurdle for that 600. She went big with scores of 201-285-186 for an incredible 672 series! Well done, Sharon!

WEEK 6 STATS POSTED

I picked up an advance copy of the league stat sheet for next week. You can view it on the STAT SHEETS page. This is a good one with Blockheads all over the listings of league leaders for the week and the season. It's also nice to see us maintaining our position in first place.

EVENTS AT DANVILLE BOWL

Check the TOURNAMENTS page for a flier about the Bowling For Veterans tournament at Danville Bowl on November 10th. It's a no-tap tournament and while I generally have no use for no-tap bowling, this is a very good cause. If we're not working overtime that day or bowling somewhere else, I think I might enter.

Also, Danville Bowl will be holding a weekly Monte Carlo game on Thursday nights at 7:00. I don't have any details or a money shot chart yet but I will pick up a flier on my way home Wednesday night.

PENNY PINCHERS LEAGUE

I saw this flier on the counter as I left Diablo Valley Bowl last night. It seems they're trying to get people bowling on Monday nights. If they get a bunch of teams to sign up for this new league, maybe we should consider cutting our league short and joining up with them. I know Jeff and Bill are unhappy about the current state of the Over The Wall league.

In my opinion, five teams isn't enough to make a league worthwhile. There's only three bowlers per team in this new league. If we were to join it, we could rotate one of us out each week. I'd rather do that than bowl an entire season in a five team league.

WEEK 6 RESULTS

It took us awhile to get a feel for the lanes but once we did, we turned it on with a vengeance. The first game was a tie at 627-627. Then we turned it up to 688 to win the second and floored it to 805 to win the third. Also in the third, Sharon, Olivia, and I had clean games (no open frames). We came away with 3.5 of the 4 points for the night and maintained our position in first place.

Sharon scored the women's high game with a 234 in the third game (which also tied the men's high game). Olivia scored a 199 and came ever so close to nailing her first sanctioned 200 game. The Coach and I bowled our high series for the season while as a team, our 805 was the high game for the entire league. Our 2120 series was our team's high series but a bit short of the league's high. (We'll work on that next week.)

WEEK 6   01  02  03  SER   AVG  G  PINS   AVG  HG   HS
Sharon  152 148 234  534 178.0 18  3003 166.8 234  540
Olivia  127 124 199  450 150.0 15  2224 148.3 199  492
Mark    161 232 217  610 203.3 18  3475 193.1 233  610
Gary    187 184 155  526 175.3 18  2813 156.3 199  526
TEAM    627 688 805 2120 176.7 69 11515 166.9 805 2120

WEEK 5 STAT SHEET POSTED

While I was at Diablo Valley Bowl last night for the Showcase league, I picked up a copy of our current stat sheet. You can click on the STAT SHEETS tab above to see the stat sheets for each week of the season. You will find Sharon's name all over the new one.

WEEK 5 RESULTS

It's a sweep for The Blockheads!

Olivia was absent but it was still a solid night for The Blockheads. Sharon, The Coach, and the team registered their high series for the season to pull off a four-point sweep over Team 5 and maintain first place. Team Five started the night in second place, only half a game behind us. The sweep put them 4.5 games back in third place. One Pin Standing entered the night in third place but they took 3 of 4 from Jeff & Co. to move into second place, two games off our pace.


WEEK 5  01  02  03  SER   AVG  G PINS   AVG  HG   HS
Sharon 184 189 167  540 180.0 15 2469 164.6 198  540
Olivia 147 147 147  441       12 1774 147.8 170  492
Mark   196 216 191  603 201.0 15 2865 191.0 233  609
Gary   199 141 147  487 162.3 15 9836 152.5 199  487
TEAM   726 693 652 2071 172.6 57 9395 164.8 742 2071

WEEK 4 RESULTS

It was confirmed Monday that we did indeed win 3 out of 4 points in week #2. We thought we were 1-3 but there was an error in the handicapping. Once the handicap was corrected, the game we thought we lost by five pins was a win and we earned the point for total pinfall.

We were off our game this week.

As for this week's bowling, we did indeed lose three out of four this time. We won the second game but that was it. That's How We Roll won the first and third games plus the point for total pinfall. We didn't bowl poorly but we weren't sharp except for Sharon who scored her high game and tied her high series for the season. Our record is now 11-5. We held onto first place by a half point over Team 5 and one point over Team 3 (One Pin Standing). Team 5 is our opponent next week (on Coach's favorite pair of lanes) so we'll soon have a chance to put some distance between us.

I picked up an advance copy of next week's stat sheet which you can view by clicking on the OVER THE WALL tab just below the page header.  Here are our scores from Monday night:

WEEK 4  01  02  03  SER   AVG  G PINS   AVG  HG   HS
Sharon 127 178 198  503 167.7 12 1929 160.8 198  503
Olivia 166 126 136  428 142.7 12 1774 147.8 170  492
Mark   165 182 189  536 178.7 12 2262 188.5 233  609
Gary   146 145 168  459 153.0 12 1800 150.0 197  460
TEAM   604 631 691 1926 160.5 48 7765 161.8 742 2002