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.

HOW DID IT GO WITH CARMEN SALVINO?

My internet connections have been spotty in Canada and I have zero connectivity with Sprint. How did we do Monday night? I'm curious about the new oil pattern. How did it play? I hope I won't be totally lost with a 15-pound ball after 26 days of bowling with 3-1/2 pound bowling balls. (I tried Canadian five-pin bowling yesterday -- it was great!) I plan to start practicing as soon as I get home.

I will be back in the USA tomorrow night so my cell phone should be functional again.

DUCKPIN & CANDLEPIN BOWLING

I have some photos and video from the other types of bowling I've tried on my trip through the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada.


Duckpin bowling in Maryland

Duckpin bowling is popular in the Baltimore-Washington area and candlepin bowling is popular in New England. Both games are played in parts of Canada, also.

We bowled duckpin at College Park Lanes in College Park, Maryland on July 7th. If it looks familiar, it's because College Park Lanes is owned by AMF so it has the same interior design as Pinole Valley Lanes and Southshore Lanes (Mel's Bowl) in Alameda. (They have the same corporate-style website, too.) You can click on the pictures to enlarge them. More duckpin photos and some video can be found here.

Candlepin bowling in Maine

Ten days later, we bowled candlepin at Big 20 Bowling Center in Scarborough, Maine. Click here for some additional photos and video.

I enjoyed both variations of bowling I've tried so far and I wish we had them at home. Still, I miss my "big ball bowling" (as some folks in the east call our game) and I miss bowling with The Blockheads. I think you'll be switching from the Earl Anthony oil pattern to Carmen Salvino on Monday. Is anyone going to practice on it Sunday night?

I'm in Montreal now where they play a different style of duckpin bowling some people call rubber band duckpin. The scoring is higher so it's played the same way as our bowling -- only two shots per frame. I'm hoping to try that one tonight or tomorrow. I'll be in Toronto a few days from now. That's where they have five-pin bowling. In that game, the five pins form a "V" and the pins have different values. Click on the link above for more info on how that game is scored. I'm anxious to try it.

HEY, BLOCKHEADS!

How did it go last night?

TOUGH TIMES

OLIVIA AND I HAD A TOUGH NIGHT LAST NIGHT. WE DIDN'T DO SO WELL.

A LOT OF THE OTHER BOWLERS STRUGGLED IN THEIR LAST TWO GAMES.

THE OIL PATTERN WAS VERY DIFFICULT. NOT VERY MUCH PIN ACTION. BOTH SIDES OF THE LANES FOR THE 7 PINS AND THE 10 PINS JUST SKIDDED OFF.

FRED WAS NOT THERE LAST NIGHT SO THINGS DIDN'T GO TOO SMOOTHLY.  ONE TEAM  DROPPED OUT. SO NOW ITS 16 TEAMS.

I  DON'T THINK OLIVIA AND I ARE CUT OUT FOR THIS SPORT LEAGUE. ITS TOO TOUGH.

I HAVE THE STAT SHEETS. I HOPE ALL IS WELL ON THE TRIP.

PRACTICE ON EARL ANTHONY

Olivia with her Storm Frantic

We gave the new pattern a try at Diablo Valley Bowl last night. For all tbe doom & gloom we've heard about the Earl Anthony pattern, it didn't seem so tough. I shot mostly in the 170s with one game over 200. The Coach and Olivia didn't seem have any troubles with it either.

It played much easier than Cheetah, IMO. I suppose the true test will be tonight when the games count.

WHAT IS THIS GUY DOING?

He's in a bowling center. He's on the approach to a bowling lane. But I don't know if we can call this bowling. Good grief, why would he try to make the game so complicated and difficult?

I shot this at Earl Anthony's Dublin Bowl during the Pot 'O' Gold game. If figured if I didn't have video, nobody would believe it.

ONCE UPON A TIME IN BOWLING

I was looking at some old YouTube video of the 1981 PBA National Championship at Toledo, Ohio and I was amused by how much the styles have changed over the years. Earl Anthony battled Ernie Schlegel in the finals and you couldn't find a greater contrast in styles.

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.

PBA OIL PATTERN: EARL ANTHONY

Sport Doubles 23 changes oil patterns from Cheetah to Earl Anthony beginning Monday night. Diablo Valley Bowl will have the Earl Anthony pattern on several lanes Sunday at 6:00 for practice. I will be there.

I wish I had some useful tips for the Earl Anthony pattern but my searches have thus far come up empty. The link on the sidebar leads us to this info on the PBA's website:

"The Earl Anthony Pattern places a premium on execution and repetition, qualities which Earl Anthony exemplified. This 40 foot pattern has a unique design in which the oil widens, as opposed to narrows, down the lane. The unusual placement of widening oil down the lane will force players to make premium shots from a variety of angles. As the pattern breaks down, look for players to make unique moves and precision shots, ala Earl Anthony."

Oh, really? We'll need to execute our shots well to be successful in a target shooting game? Gee, thanks for the tip, PBA. All I can say with any certainty is the oil for Earl Anthony (40') is shorter than we experienced with Paris (47') and longer than we experienced with Cheetah (35'). Perhaps Fred Kaczmarczyk will be there to share some insights and show us how he plays it. Not that any of us will be able to duplicate Fred's technique...

ANOTHER NEW BOWLING BALL

My trusty Black Widow Pearl has reached the point where its serial number and logo are no longer visible after three years of wear and resurfacing. This makes it an illegal ball for USBC league and tournament play.

I need a replacement ball for medium oil and after doing some research, I decided on the Sigma Tour by Motiv. Part of my decision was based on ball reviews I read, part was based on knowledge shared by Ray Spackman at The Bowler's Advantage, and part was based on this article which tells how Motiv got started in 2009 and put people back to work after Brunswick's move to Mexico in 2006 cost them their jobs.

I will pick up my new Sigma Tour at The Bowler's Advantage after work today. I'm sure Ray will have it drilled to perfection for me, as usual. 

SPORT CHALLENGE DOUBLES 23 - WEEK 6 RESULTS



Kevin Burney or Rob Halford?

The Coach stood in for Olivia for our last night on Cheetah and we did okay with a record of 10-10 for the night.

In our first set we battled Lisa and Kevin Burney. Kevin is the lefty who stands about 6'6" and looks quite a bit like Rob Halford of Judas Priest. Kevin and Lisa beat us individually and as a team in the first game but we turned the tables on them in the second. They edged us in total pins with a score of 611-603 so they beat us 6-4.

Team Burney

In the second set we drew Ray and Gaylah Spackman. In a near repeat of the first set, we were beaten in the first game and rebounded to win the second. But this time, we caught fire in the final game just as Ray and Gaylah hit an uncharacteristic rough patch. The combination was enough to earn us the two points for total pinfall in the set and a 6-4 victory.

Week 6   01  02 SET1  03  04 SET2  SER G  AVG  TG TPINS  SAVG
Sharon                                          4   506 126.5
Olivia                                         16  2251 140.7
Mark    185 168  353 125 203  328  681 4 170.3 24  3897 162.4
Gary    121 113  234 141 165  306  540 4 135.0  4   540 135.0
TOTAL   306 281  587 266 368  634 1221 8 152.6 48  7194 149.9 

Next week we switch to the Earl Anthony pattern. Diablo Valley Bowl will have it on the lanes for practice at 6:00 PM this Sunday.

SOME HELP WITH CHEETAH

Cheetah kicked my butt for a second consecutive week. Obviously, I'm going about it the wrong way. I found some videos on YouTube with some suggestions for bowling on this oil pattern. I think it's time to stop beating my head against the wall and follow the experts' recommendations.