RENO INVITATIONAL AT ALBANY BOWL

We're 6-2 after the first two weeks.

After a few seasons in Over The Wall at Diablo Valley Bowl, we made a move to Albany Bowl for the 2013-2014 season. Over The Wall had fewer than ten teams the past two seasons and we were looking for a greater variety of competition. So far, the experience has been fun.

We got through the chaos of our first week with a 3-1 record. Since Laverne or Shirley (as The Coach dubbed them) ran off with the scoresheet before I could get our copy, I didn't have any stats until I picked up the league's stat sheet this week. As one might guess by looking at our scores, we lost the second game. Olivia wasn't able to bowl because she suffered a wrist injury the previous week.

WEEK 1  01  02  03  SER   AVG
VACANT 140 140 140  420
Sharon 160 134 183  477 159.0
Mark   207 175 213  595 198.3
Gary   160 180 115  455 151.7
Total  667 629 651 1947 169.7

Olivia rejoined us this week and played through her wrist pain. Though we received 38 pins in handicap, we struggled and fell behind early in the first game. We turned it on late but our comeback fell 11 pins short, 652-663. In the second game, we mounted another late comeback but this time we came through. With the aid of The Coach's sniper-like spare shooting, we narrowly pulled out the second game by a score of 694-691. We started out hot in the third game while our opponents faltered and the result was a 753-611 thrashing. The huge margin of victory in the third game earned us the point for total pins, 2099-1965, and gave us a 3-1 record for the second consecutive week. Our record of 6-2 after two weeks should place us somewhere near the top of the standings.

WEEK 2  01  02  03  SER  G PINS   AVG  HG   HS 200 500 600
Olivia 115 122 176  413  3  413 137.7 176  413   0   0   0
Sharon 160 140 189  489  6  966 161.0 189  489   0   0   0
Mark   180 215 185  580  6 1175 195.8 215  595   3   2   0
Gary   159 179 165  503  6  958 159.7 180  503   0   1   0
Total  614 656 715 1985 21 3512 167.2 715 1985   3   3   0

WEEK 14 RESULTS

The Blockheads
Over The Wall II
2013 Champions

This was the final week of the regular season and one without much meaning to us since we clinched first place last week. It was a position round so we were paired up with Rock On again. They won the first and third games plus the point for total pinfall. With the 1-3 series score, our record for the season was 35-21. Rock On finished second with a record of 32-24.

LEAGUE STAT SHEET (FINAL)

Next week is our sweeper. We will be on lanes 11-12 again but this time paired up with The Newbies. Remember, the sweeper is not a team event. We will be bowling individually for cash prizes. After we bowl, the league awards and prize money will be distributed in addition to the sweeper prize money.

WEEK 14 01  02  03  SER   G  PINS   AVG  HG   HS 200 500 600 700

Sharon 143 153 180  476  42  7005 166.8 259  603   4   7   1   0

Olivia 127 170 141  438  36  5579 155.0 224  509   3   4   0   0

Mark   243 188 195  626  42  8304 197.7 256  706  17   8   5   1

Gary   115 185 184  484  41  6466 157.7 221  555   2   4   0   0

Total  628 696 700 2024 161 27354 169.9 846 2186  26  23   6   1

WEEK 7 RESULTS

Won 4, Lost 0

We entered the night in a first place tie with Team 5 (Jeff & Co.) as we were matched up with the Newbies (Team 8) for the first time. James (163 average) pre-bowled for the Newbies and his series of 208-143-144 (495) was already on the books. That 208 in the first game looked rather ominous so we knew a high score might be needed to win the first game. The 143 and 144 appeared to give us an edge in the second and third games.

Perhaps that ominous 208 game James had on the board in advance got us fired up because we came out of the gate hot. We won the first game by 44 pins despite James's 208 and Steve's outstanding 264. The score was 784-740. Olivia fired a 198 and The Coach added a 211 to offset the Newbies' high scores. Our score of 784 was just short of the league's high game of 794 we established the previous week.  It was a relief to have a solid win in the game we figured would be the most trouble.

The second and third games were nail-biters that came down to the final shots in the last frame. Thankfully, we had just enough to hold them off by scores of 698-666 and 688-665 to earn a four-point sweep.

Our team series score of 2170 topped the league's previous high of 2165 (held by Team 5) while the sweep gave us sole possession of first place with a three-point lead. (Irene, Phil, and Peter took 3 of 4 from Jeff's crew.)

We now have the league trifecta with first place, high game, and high series in our possession. A lot of the credit goes to The Coach who worked extensively on his spare shooting Sunday morning and came up with several clutch shots when we needed them most. It was a good night for us all around -- it was the first time ever that all four of us bowled over 500 on the same night.

WEEK 7  01  02  03  SER  G  PINS   AVG  HG   HS 200 500 600 700
Sharon 155 183 177  515 21  3383 161.1 215  526   2   3   0   0
Olivia 198 146 165  509 18  2933 162.9 224  509   3   4   0   0
Mark   220 195 201  616 21  4117 196.0 247  706  10   4   2   1
Gary   211 174 145  530 20  3113 155.7 211  530   1   1   0   0
Total  784 698 688 2170 80 13546 169.3 794 2170  16  12   2   1

LVT UPDATE

Sharon and I bowled the singles and doubles events in the Livermore Valley Tournament (LVT) at Granada Bowl this afternoon.  One important thing we learned today is that the lanes are not resurfaced between squads for the singles-doubles events as they are for the team events. Since we were bowling in the third squad of the day, the lanes were bone dry by the time it was our turn. Luckily, we brought balls for light oil so we weren't completely crushed by the conditions.

We started with the singles event on lanes 11-12. We bowled with Désirée and John, two friendly bowlers from Cloverleaf Bowl in Fremont.  Like us, Désirée and John found the lane conditions dramatically unlike those at their regular house. It was certainly a struggle for all of us to adapt to the dry lanes. Ultimately, it was Sharon who adapted best. I'll have more on that later.

OVER THE WALL II - WEEK 1 RESULTS

3 Wins - 1 Loss

We opened the second half of the season with three additional teams which brings us to a total of eight. It's certainly better than the five we had in first half but I was hoping we'd have at least ten. We have a few folks back who dropped out before and some we have yet to meet. The league meeting forced us into a late start and as a result, everyone looked tired. Let's hope there's more energy surging through the league in week #2.

As for last night's bowling, this was the tightest series we have ever bowled. Our opponents were Team 1 (not yet named). On the whole, both teams had an off night except for Olivia.

We barely won the first game 580-576. Little did we know that would be the largest margin of victory this evening. We pulled out the second game 635-632. After two games, we had outscored our opponents by a mere seven pins yet we won both of them.

Olivia nearly carried us to a sweep with her best ever score of 224 in the third game but we came up one pin short, 678-679. We earned the point for total pinfall by a score of 1893-1887. Though separated by a total of only six pins, we managed to win three of four. Our record of 3-1 puts us in a tie for second place.

WEEK 1  01  02  03  SER   AVG  HG   HS 200 500 600
Sharon 144 154 144  442 147.3 154  442   0   0   0
Olivia 120 156 224  500 166.7 224  500   1   1   0
Mark   167 197 178  542 180.7 197  542   0   1   0
Gary   149 128 132  409 136.3 149  409   0   0   0
TEAM   580 635 678 1893 157.8 678 1893   1   2   0

LEAGUE STAT SHEET

WEEK 14 (FINAL) RESULTS

1 win was enough to grab the title

We entered the final week of the season with a four game lead over IFRANCENE VANDERHOPPER (Team 5) so they needed to sweep us to earn a tie for first place. This would have forced a best-of-three bowl off to decide the title.

In the course of our three-game series, IFRANCENE VANDERHOPPER gave us just about all we could handle. They crushed us in the first game, which caused us to squirm a bit. The second game went to the tenth frame dead even. By that time, we were in a full sweat. A strong tenth frame propelled us to the win we needed but just barely. They went on to hammer us again in the third game and earn the point for total pinfall. In the end, our 1-3 record for the night gave us a record of 39.5-16.5. It was just enough to stay ahead of IFRANCENE VANDERHOPPER whose 3-1 evening left them two games behind us with a record of 37.5-18.5.

We were fortunate to escape with the win in the second game. It was the only game of the night in which we reached our average (670) and it was exceeded by only 21 pins. In the other two games, we fell well short. So we should consider ourselves fortunate and tip our caps to our opponents who gave us one heck of a battle down the stretch.

WEEK 14 01  02  03  SER   AVG   G  PINS   AVG  HG   HS
Sharon 189 163 137  489 163.0  42  6996 166.6 234  551
Olivia 115 136 140  391 130.3  39  5660 145.1 207  512
Mark   198 213 204  615 205.0  42  8190 195.0 248  632
Gary   113 179 154  446 148.7  42  6725 160.1 206  540
TEAM   615 691 635 1941 161.8 165 27571 167.1 805 2138


LEAGUE STAT SHEET

WEEK 13 RESULTS

3 wins, 1 loss

It was one of our better nights as we scored our second highest series of the season. It was good enough to win three out of four points and hold a four point lead in the standings. Our nearly customary slow start allowed One Pin Standing to slip by us by five pins in the first game. That was our low point of the evening as we rallied to win the second game by 59 and the third by 171.

While we were winning three of four, Team 5 earned a four-game sweep against The Phantoms. Thus, we match up with Team 5 next week holding a lead of four games. All we have to do is win one game next week and the league title is ours. If they sweep us to earn a tie, I believe we'll have to bowl a fourth game to decide the championship. I'll look that up in the USBC rules we will decide the championship with a best of three series per league rule #10.

The highlights of the evening were Olivia's first ever 500 series and our team score of 781 in the third game (an average of 195.25 per bowler). The game score of 781 and the series score of 2124 were just short of our team highs for the season (805 - 2138).

WEEK 13 01  02  03  SER   AVG   G  PINS   AVG  HG   HS
Sharon 152 174 184  510 170.0  39  6507 166.8 234  551
Olivia 161 167 184  512 170.7  36  5269 146.4 207  512
Mark   204 195 233  632 210.7  39  7575 194.2 248  632
Gary   141 149 180  470 156.7  39  6279 161.0 206  540
TEAM   658 685 781 2124 177.0 153 25630 167.5 805 2138

The current league stat sheet including last night's games can be seen here.

HOLDING ONTO OUR LEAD

We enter tonight's games with a lead of 5 points over Team 5 and 6.5 points over One Pin Standing. One Pin Standing is our opponent tonight. December 10th is the position round followed by the sweeper on December 17th.

If we can maintain our five-point lead tonight, we will be out of reach for the rest of the league and we can coast through the position round without a worry. Team 5 is playing Team 2 (The Phantoms) tonight so they're most likely going to earn a sweep or three points. We will have to match them to maintin our five-point lead. If they gain a point on us tonight, they would be able to tie us by sweeping us in the postion round next week. If they gain two points on us tonight and sweep us in the postion round, they would take first place.

Let's be focused and ready to bowl so we can wrap this thing up tonight.