THE SINGLES CHALLENGE LEAGUE

Here's another option for us in the event Over The Wall folds up. As the name suggests, it's not team bowling. We'd bowl as individuals just like in a singles tournament. I think it looks like fun and I'd rather do this than settle for a trios league in which one of us would have to sit out each week.

With Diablo Valley Bowl bringing back Penny Pinchers while also launching a trios league, a PBA Experience doubles league, and now this singles league on Monday nights, it sure seems that the plug is being pulled on Over The Wall. If they're going to struggle to raise ten teams of four bowlers, maybe the plug should be pulled.

MAN SHOT AT AMF SOUTHSHORE LANES

The Oakland Tribune is reporting that a man was shot three times upon leaving AMF Southshore Lanes (Mel's Bowl) last Friday night. You can read the news report here.

I suggest they lower their penalty for missing single-pin spares. Something like our 25 cent contribution to the pinny bank should suffice. Shooting seems rather harsh.

PRE-BOWLING FOR WEEK 10

We bowl Saturday at 2:00 PM

As we discussed yesterday, Sharon's league at Stars on Wednesday nights had to suspend play for half of the league this week. They rescheduled the missed games for Monday, March 11th which would be fine except Sharon can't be in two places at once.

The only reasonable solution we could find to this conflict is for us to pre-bowl Monday night's games this Saturday afternoon. This will alow Sharon to make up the games her other league rescheduled for Monday night while also preventing us from bowling without her.

I made the arrangements with Gina at Diablo Valley Bowl last night. We bowl at 2:00 PM on Saturday. DVB has an afternoon cosmic bowling session beginning at 4:00 so we can't afford to be late or goofing around with other activities while we're supposed to be bowling.

NOTE: Coach won't be able to bowl with us Saturday afternoon. He will bowl Monday night on the regular schedule. Sharon, Olivia, and I will pre-bowl on Saturday.

SCORES:

WEEK 10 01  02  03  SER   G  PINS   AVG  HG   HS 200 500 600 700
Sharon 178 137 112  427  30  4871 162.4 215  559   3   5   0   0
Olivia 138 128 136  402  27  4198 155.5 224  509   3   4   0   0
Mark   176 169 196  541  30  5775 192.5 247  706  11   7   2   1
Gary   191 188 148  527  29  4454 153.6 211  530   1   2   0   0
Total  683 622 592 1897 116 19298 166.4 794 2170  18  18   2   1

BOWLER APPRECIATION WEEK

This week we some chances to win prizes and bowl for next to nothing thanks to a special promotion at Diablo Valley Bowl. Here is the flier.

UPCOMING EVENTS FOR THE BLOCKHEADS

Olivia and I are bowling tonight in the Holiday Cash Doubles Tournament at Bel Mateo Bowl in San Mateo.

Saturday we're bowling in the team event of the Livermore Valley Tournament (LVT) at Granada Bowl in Livermore. We start at 1:00 PM. I strongly suggest that everyone arrive by noon at the latest.

Peter suggested that we might play Pot 'O' Gold at Dublin Bowl after the LVT. I figure we'll finish at the LVT by 4:00. Check in for Pot 'O' Gold is 6:00. We could stop somewhere nearby for a bite to eat between events.

Our league meeting and opening night for Over The Wall II is on Monday, January 7th at Diablo Valley Bowl. The meeting will be held at 6:00 with bowling to commence after the meeting at 6:30. I hear they have found four additional teams for the league and they're still working to add more. If true, that's great news.

Finally, we have several options for bowling on New Year's Eve. I'm leaning towards the New Year's Eve Monte Carlo at Clayton Valley Bowl. Is anyone else interested? Or do you have something else you'd like to try?

PBA LEAGUE OF EIGHT TEAMS TO DEBUT IN 2012-2013 SEASON



Have you ever wondered what it would be like to see the world's top pro bowlers participate in a league bowling format like ours? We'll get our wish in the upcoming season according this article from the PBA. There will be eight teams with five bolwers per team and a draft just like in other pro team sports.

The draft will be held on Friday, November 9th and according to this article from the PBA, Norm Duke will have the first pick in the draft. I'd love to watch the draft but it will begin at 10:00 AM and I don't have the day off. The PBA League's debut match will be televised Sunday, January 27th at 9:00 AM Pacific time on ESPN. I'm excited to see how it turns out.

NEW WEBSITE FOR THE BOWLER'S ADVANTAGE

As Sharon, Coach and I were practicing Saturday morning, Ray Spackman stopped by to let us know the new website for his pro shop, The Bowler's Advantage, is up and running. The URL is www.tbadiablo.com. You can visit The Bowler's Advantage site easily by clicking on the logo in the right column.

This site could be be a huge resource for us. As we all know, Ray has a vast knowledge of bowling that he has always been willing to share. We'll no longer be limited by the business hours of his shop to access that knowledge. I urge everyone to visit the site and have a look around.

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.

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!

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.

THE NEW SEASON IS UPON US

Are The Blockheads ready for 2012-2013?

We start the new season tomorrow night. We have our league meeting at 6:00, then we bowl at 6:30. Pull your bowling shirt out of the closet and have it ready to go!

ODDS & ENDS

A few bits of news to share....

I found a handy smart phone application for the Android market. It's called Bowling Scorekeeper and it's free. Enter your league or tournament name, the dates and the scores, then Bowling ScoreKeeper does the rest.  It figures your averages for multiple leagues and tournaments. I tried a few others but they had some unacceptable limitations -- mainly working only for three-game series. So far, this one has worked fine without any bugs.

Sasha Gray bowled his first 300 game at Diablo Valley Bowl on Wednesday. He had another game with a split in the first frame followed by eleven strikes. It was a great day for the young lefty.

Kris Kiiskinen bowled her first 200+ game on Thursday with a score of 204. Unfortunately, it didn't occur during league play. She bowled it during a practice session after her league games had ended. Still, she was pleased to finally clear the 200 hurdle.

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.

Catching Up

I apologize for going over a week without any new entries. I was preparing for my fantasy baseball league draft when I wasn't bowling. Now it's out of the way, so it's time to get back to bowling.

Last week we swept all four points to improve our record to 21-11. I know it puts us ahead of the Icemen who went 1-3. I don't know the other outcomes but we should be no more than a game out of first place now.

New Bowling Balls

The Coach and I picked up new bowling balls last week. After bowling a straight ball for years, The Coach has decided to try rolling a hook with a high performance ball drilled with a fingertip grip. His choice was the Twisted Fury Destruction by Brunswick. In the practice games we bowled, The Coach caught onto the technique of rolling a hook quickly and I believe we'll see it in action during our next match.

I bought a Hammer Black Widow Nasty with which I'm quite pleased so far. I may break it out Monday night also.

Our Team Blog

I thought I'd start a blog so we'd have a forum for our bowling experiences this season. If you have any news, questions, or something you'd like to say, this is a place we can share information.