APRIL COULD BE A BUSY MONTH

We have several tournament and Monte Carlo options in April and there's a fair amount of overlapping. Sharon and I will be bowling in the senior doubles tournament at Paddock Bowl but we haven't decided on the date and time. The rest of the schedule should become clearer once we make that decision.

April 6th (Saturday)
11:00 AM - Paddock Bowl - Senior Doubles
 3:00 PM - Paddock Bowl - Senior Doubles
 6:00 PM - Bel Mateo Bowl - Monte Carlo
 6:30 PM - Dublin Bowl - Pot 'O' Gold
 7:00 PM - Paddock Bowl - Monte Carlo
 7:30 PM - Clayton Valley Bowl - Monte Carlo

April 7th (Sunday)
11:00 AM - Paddock Bowl - Senior Doubles
12:00 PM - Pinole Valley Lanes - County USBC Mixed Teams of 4
 3:00 PM - Paddock Bowl - Senior Doubles
 7:00 PM - Danville Bowl - Monte Carlo


April 13th (Saturday)
11:00 AM - Paddock Bowl - Senior Doubles
 3:00 PM - Paddock Bowl - Senior Doubles
 6:30 PM - Dublin Bowl - Pot 'O' Gold
 7:00 PM - Paddock Bowl - Monte Carlo

April 14th (Sunday)
11:00 AM - Paddock Bowl - Senior Doubles
 3:00 PM - Paddock Bowl - Senior Doubles
 7:00 PM - Danville Bowl - Monte Carlo


April 20th (Saturday)
 6:30 PM - Dublin Bowl - Pot 'O' Gold
 7:00 PM - Paddock Bowl - Monte Carlo

April 21st (Sunday)
 7:00 PM - Danville Bowl - Monte Carlo


April 27th (Saturday)
10:00 AM - Granada Bowl - Doubles, 4-Gamer
10:00 AM - Dublin Bowl - USBC Warm-up (Team)
 6:30 PM - Dublin Bowl - Pot 'O' Gold
 7:00 PM - Paddock Bowl - Monte Carlo

April 28th (Sunday)
10:00 AM - Dublin Bowl - USBC Warm-up - Singles & Doubles
 7:00 PM - Danville Bowl - Monte Carlo

MONTE CARLO AT BEL MATEO THIS WEEKEND

There's Monte Carlo bowling in San Mateo this Saturday night. Count me in.

POT 'O' GOLD IN DUBLIN COMPLETES AN OUTSTANDING DAY OF BOWLING

Earl Anthony's Dublin Bowl

We had a scintillating day of bowling on Saturday. It started with the Livermore Valley Tournament (LVT) at Granada Bowl. After we wrapped up the LVT, we drove westward for some dinner at the Outback Steakhouse in Dublin. The Outback Steakhouse is a minute away from Earl Anthony's Dublin Bowl which would be our next stop for their Pot 'O' Gold (Monte Carlo) game. My salad and grilled chicken with vegetables were quite good and the meal energized me for a few more hours of bowling.

Outback Steakhouse near Dublin Bowl

The highlight of the night was when Peter's ticket was drawn for the strike pot in the second game. The pot was worth $708.00 if Peter could bowl three strikes. A single strike would win 10% of the pot ($71.00) while a second strike would earn 40% of the post ($283.00). Peter was able to shoot two strikes for $283.00 but his third shot hung up on his thumb and he came up light, leaving the 4 and 5 pins. Still, $283.00 is a nice prize.

In a contest requiring the participants to turn their backs to the pins and bowl the ball through their legs (like a center in football snapping the ball back to the punter), The Coach won a prize that I believe included a free entry in a future Pot 'O' Gold night. Olivia finished second in that one for a prize of $5.00. All of us hit multiple money shots for prizes ranging from 50 cents to $4.00.  This video will show you some of the highlights.



By the time we reached the third game, I think we were pretty tired. It was a long day starting in Livermore at 1:00 and finishing in Dublin around 10:00. I was certainly ready to go home and get some sleep. Even though I was tired and feeling worn out, I must say the past few days with the Holiday Cash Doubles Tournament at Bel Mateo Bowl followed by LVT and Pot 'O' Gold on Saturday were the most fun I've had in quite awhile.

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?

BOWLING FOR DOLLARS IN DANVILLE & DUBLIN

Monte Carlo pins at Danville Bowl

The Coach and I participated in Danville Bowl's Monte Carlo event Thursday night with moderate success. The price to play is only $12.00 there so you needn't hit too many money shots to earn it back.

Pot 'O' Gold pins at Dublin Bowl

Earl Anthony's Dublin Bowl is hosting their Pot 'O' Gold game tonight. A couple of the jackpots are getting pretty high. Peter and I bowled in it last Saturday and we'll be back for more. When I asked a few days ago, nobody responded so I assume there won't be anybody else will be joining us.

MONTE CARLO

Pot 'O' Gold at Dublin Bowl

Last Saturday night's Monte Carlo event at Clayton Valley Bowl was a lot of fun. I'd like to do it again but Clayton Valley hosts it only on the first Saturday of each month (except for their special New Year's Eve Monte Carlo).

Monte Carlo at Paddock Bowl

Our choices for this weekend are Paddock Bowl and Earl Anthony's Dublin Bowl. Both places have their strong and weak points. Paddock Bowl is a shorter trip for most of us and Kate livens things up with extra contests and prizes. But on some nights the game has almost been called off for lack of bowlers.

Dublin is a longer trip (for everyone but me) but there are lots of bowlers and lots of action with higher prize money. But with a lot of extra contests, it takes longer to play. If one doesn't want to be out too late, Paddock's game is probably the better option. If one seeks a bigger prize potential and doesn't mind a longer ride, Dublin is probably the better choice.

Monte Carlo at Danville Bowl

Peter, Brett, and I have decided to try Pot 'O' Gold in Dublin Saturday night. Who else is in?

HOLIDAY CASH DOUBLES TOURNAMENT

Check the Tournaments page for a larger image

Bel Mateo Bowl is hosting another tournament that combines elements of a Monte Carlo bowling with a regular handicap tournament. This one is called Holiday Cash Doubles. It will be held on Thursday, December 27th at 7:00. Ordinarily, a Thursday night tournament in San Mateo would be out of the question but this is a week when a lot of people are off work. I can bowl in this one and Olivia is checking into it. Is anyone else interested?

SATURDAY'S PRACTICE + MONTE CARLO

I met Sharon and The Coach at Diablo Valley Bowl for some practice Saturday morning. It was a typical practice session except for some notable split conversions.

9-10 Split

Sharon left a 9-10 split which is rare enough in itself. The remarkable thing was that she didn't convert it by bisecting the gap between the 9 and 10 pins. Instead, Sharon's shot barely skimmed the left side of the 9 pin which tipped it toward the 10 pin. The top of the 9 pin tapped the 10 pin ever so lightly but enough to knock it off balance.

SATURDAY BOWLING

Olivia at Delta Bowl

I met Olivia and The Coach at Delta Bowl in Antioch for some practice at 9:00 AM. Sharon wasn't able to join us. We couldn't practice at Diablo Valley Bowl because they were hosting a tournament. We chose Delta as an alternate because it was only $2.00 per game. Most of the other places around the East Bay charge $4.50-$5.00 per game for non-league bowlers and we were planning to bowl four or five games.

The Coach endures the party lights

Everything started off fine at Delta Bowl. The place was nearly empty and we had a peaceful environment for our practice. Then just as we were getting warmed up, the place went dark. Soon after, the disco lights and loud music videos came on. It was time for us to go. We didn't have anywhere else to bowl that morning so we called it quits. Though Sharon couldn't bowl with us in the morning, she planned to bowl in the Monte Carlo game at Paddock Bowl in the evening so we decided to go with that.

Olivia finished with five strikes

As it turned out, Sharon and The Coach backed out but Olivia and I made it out to Paddock Bowl. So did Peter and Brett from our league. It was a light turnout but Kate made the bowling interesting with some extra contests and prizes. Olivia had a real good night including a 210 game.

MONTE CARLO AT DANVILLE BOWL

$2 shots on lanes 9 & 10

Despite horrible traffic on rain slicked I-680 that nearly made us miss it, Olivia and I traveled down to Danville Bowl for their Thursday night Monte Carlo game. Olivia had Dexter with her and Kris made the trip from Martinez or there may not have been enough bowlers for the event. Thankfully, there were a few other late arrivals and the game was on.

The lanes were on the dry side but we had the equipment to adapt. The money shots were plentiful and we were striking often to take advantage of them. I won more money back than I paid in and I'm pretty sure Olivia did, too. It was a fun night and I look forward to bowling in the next one. Next Thursday is Thanksgiving so we'll have a week off.

MONTE CARLO AT DANVILLE BOWL TONIGHT

Danville Bowl

I'll be there. I'm stopping by The Bowler's Advantage for a minute on my way there to get.....another bowling ball! Am I becoming one of those obsessive kooks we see on the TV shows about hoarders? Instead of having rooms full of cats or old newspapers or bicycle parts, I'll have hundreds of bowling balls. But I digress.

It's $12.00 for three games staring at 7:00. Here is the money shot chart.

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.

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.

MONTE CARLO AT CLAYTON VALLEY BOWL

The Coach had to back out and Olivia didn't turn up so it was just Sharon and I bowling tonight.
It was a light turnout with only four lanes of Monte Carlo bowlers. The strike pots were only $25 for each game because of the low attendance.  There were still other opportunities to score some cash with some well-times strikes and spares but we didn't hit many of them.

Sharon and I bowled pretty well but we won only about $10.00 each. We weren't drawn for any of the strike pots. Sharon hit a $7.00 strike during the regular part of the game. I made my money almost entirely on $1.00 shots.

Since Sharon and I were the only ones from the team bowling, we still weren't able to discuss any of the tournaments coming up soon.

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.

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.

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!

POT 'O' GOLD AT EARL ANTHONY'S DUBLIN BOWL

I stopped by Earl Anthony's Dublin Bowl this afternoon to pick up a ball for my Dad. I thought about sticking around for their Monte Carlo-style game, Pot 'O' Gold but decided against it. It was about 3:00 when I finished in the pro shop and Pot 'O' Gold didn't start until 6:30. I didn't want to sit around the bowling center for three hours. Roaming around Dublin was out of the question because the weather was brutally hot. I didn't feel like going home and coming back later, again because of the hot weather. Eventually, I figured I'd head home to watch the last couple innings of the A's game and stay out of the heat.

While I didn't stay to bowl, I did pick up a flier for Pot 'O' Gold. It looks like it would be fun for us to try someday. It's $18.00 to play with an optional jackpot for $3.00 and an optional $3.00 side pot for high scratch game. You can't buy as many tickets as you want for the jackpot as you can for the Monte Carlo games at Paddock Bowl and Clayton Valley Bowl. You can buy only a $3.00 set of three tickets (one for each game). The side pot for high scratch game is the same. You can enter for $3.00 ($1.00 per game).

The Monte Carlo-style game is a bit different than the others we have played. There's a chart for the various money shots as we have seen elsewhere but there are some twists to it. First, the different colored pins have different values. A red headpin is worth $0.50, a yellow headpin is worth $0.75, a green headpin is worth $1.00, and a blue headpin entitles one to a spin of the wheel to determine the shot's value. Many of the other money shots don't require a colored headpin. They also pay for converting splits and washouts (such as the 1-2-10 and 1-2-4-10).

The jackpot drawing takes place once in each of the games. The bowling is stopped and the bowler whose ticket is drawn moves to a separate lane for the jackpot shots. If the first shot is a strike, the bowler wins $10.00 or 10% of the jackpot, whichever is greater and continues. (If the shot isn't a strike, the bowler can still earn some by money by making another shot of the spotter's choice.) If the second shot is a strike, the bowler wins 40% of the jackpot and earns a third shot. If the third shot is a strike, the bowler wins the entire jackpot.

The sidepot is pretty straight forward. The highest scratch score for each game wins the pot. I don't see that they have separate pots for men and women. I assume only elite bowlers enter this one. Unless I felt like donating $3.00 to a guy who regularly shoots over 250, I think I'd stay away from this one.

MONTE CARLO AT BEL MATEO BOWL

The Coach outside Bel Mateo Bowl

The Blockheads crossed the Bay to Bel Mateo Bowl in San Mateo for the Monte Carlo tournament I wrote about a few days ago. Sharon and I arrived early and bowled a practice game to get a feel for the lanes. The conditions were good and we scored well which made us feel good about our chances in the tournament.

Olivia and Gary arrived just as we finished our practice game. We still had about ninety minutes before the tournament was to start so we drove a few blocks to a place called Jack's Prime Burgers & Shakes for a pregame meal. As tempting as the burgers looked, we didn't want to weigh ourselves down before bowling so each of us ordered a salad. The food and service were excellent.

Olivia shows off her new ball

We returned to Bel Mateo Bowl with time to spare and settled in to bowl. They had game seven of the NBA Eastern Conference playoff finals on the TV above our lanes so we were able to watch the game as we bowled. Bel Mateo must mix in more colored pins than the other places we bowl in Monte Carlo events because the money shots came up with greater frequency. I had money shots in my first four frames and six in the first game alone. Each of us shot several strikes on money shots. I know Gary hit one worth $8.00 and Olivia had at least one $5.00 strike. We nailed several $1.00 and $2.00 shots. The spotters alternately encouraged and needled us (in good fun) as they called out our money shots. The game scores went well, too. Olivia finished in third place and I finished in second for the tournament.

The interior of Bel Mateo Bowl.

The managers at Bel Mateo Bowl, Lou Himenes and Mike Pallandino, made us feel most welcome and they encouraged us to return for their next Monte Carlo tournament. All of the staff were friendly and helpful. The only negative thing about the day was the temperature. It was a warm spring day and Bel Mateo Bowl's air conditioner was kaput. It got uncomfortably warm and a bit stuffy as we bowled. Beyond that trifle, it was a splendid day.

Tomorrow is a California Bowers Tour handicap doubles tournament at Diablo Valley Bowl in Concord. The Blockheads will be there!

MONTE CARLO AT BEL MATEO BOWL

The front entrance to Bel Mateo Bowl

I stopped at Bel Mateo Bowl on my way home from Palo Alto on Saturday night and found they have a Monte Carlo tournament next Saturday night (June 9th) at 6:30. It's a different kind of Monte Carlo event than I've seen elsewhere. It's a regular three-game singles handicap tournament (90% of 220) but with the colored pin money shots mixed into tournament play. Here's the tournament flier with the money shots on the second page.

24 brand new lanes and monitors

I think this looks like fun and it would put an intriguing twist on Monte Carlo bowling. There are some potential hangups, though. First, for everyone but me, it's a pretty long ride to the southern end of San Mateo. Bel Mateo bowl is near the Belmont-San Mateo border. (Bel Mateo - get it?) Second, there's the Cal Bowlers Tour handicap doubles tournament at Diablo Valley Bowl next weekend. We could do both -- bowl Monte Carlo in San Mateo on Saturday and bowl doubles in Concord on Sunday.

What do you think about it?