I wanted to reply to this situation of Eastwest's again but didn't want to make my last post any longer. Until January I've never bowled in a 5 person league before. My fall/winter leagues have always been 4 person, and the summer leagues have been at least 3 person. Next season both of the leagues I plan on doing will be 5 person. The league we are all jumping to on Saturdays is 5 person mixed, and as long as we can get on the mens league we are looking at on Tuesdays, it is 5 man with our current one being 4 man. It wasn't until I did the Doubles tour last year that I did 2 person format. I definitely like the pace of the 4 or 5 person leagues better. I find most of the time the 5 person leagues normally take maybe 45 minutes longer than the 4, so time isn't that big of a deal. The 2 person teams just is a bit quick, and a bowler is almost constantly up to bowl. This leads to certain body parts being sore, since there is little time to rest between shots and then to more bad shots.

Cal, this is pretty much my opinion. You can work off the trauma of the day, while still challenging yourself in an enjoyable way. A 2-person league, for me, doesn't let this happen. I need the time between shots to plan and reflect. How do I move, what happened on the last shot? Is there oil movement, do I change balls?

The rushed pace of only 2 people is just too quick.

I agree. I did the weekend doubles tournaments last summer and sometimes just didn't do well, until I got used to the pace half way through the summer. I like having the time to do a little reflection, decide if I want to try a ball change and adjust any tape, have some small talk with teammates/opponents and sometimes just bang my head against the wall.

thanks guys, it sure felt good to end the season on a team high, and a personal high.

just hope i can keep doing what i'm doing, last three outings have produced a 490, 524, and 526 series, after hovering around the low 400's for sooooooo long, it feels like i'm actually bowling now.

just have to find a summer league after the short spring leagues end so i can stay on top of improving my game.

Game 1: 127

4 splits, 4 spares, and no strike.

The 1st game, I hook way too turn. I got no strike at all. It

lame. I only made spare. I got 4 ugly splits. x_x

Game 2: 175

4 strikes, 2 splits, and 3 spares.

I bowl good than 1st game. I got strike in 2nd frame. I should

made to 200 but not.

Game 3: 135

3 strikes, 3 opens, and 2 splits.

I bowl okay but hook way too much.

Total: 437

One week left in my league before roll-off this Saturday night.

::Repeats to himself over and over:: "Just four more weeks, just four more weeks."

Tonight wasn't a good night. The first game was ok, a 193, having only two opens, a 1-2-10 washout that I got the count on and 3 pin that I line up completely wrong on and got my body turned too much at the line missing right, would have been great for a 10 pin. I was stringing strikes prior to a lane malfunction when one lane wanted to double set pins and then black out just as I was stepping up on the approach. In the tenth I picked up the 5-10 split to allow me a fill ball.

The second game things went horribly wrong to the tune of a 125. There was a lot of tugged shots and terrible spare shooting. Most of this was me, either bad armswing, bad approach or incorrect alignment, but I was having some issues with the [censored] tape I bought for my ring finger. I would have preferred to get the tape I had ran out of last Monday, but the Pro Shop at my Tuesday house didn't have it so I had to go with this stuff. It stretches but starts to contract even before I start bowling and eventually starts to come off. I tried a ball change from my Groove to my Ogre but it just couldn't get the ball out, it was something I was doing wrong.

The third game I decided to try my plastic ball, took the tape of my finger and try to not use the middle finger in the ball as the insert is too large. That didn't go over too well, to the tune of four straight opens to start the last game. I then started to string marks, actually strikes at first. The first one was a back door as I hit the 3-6 pocket high and eventually toppled everything. The next two were solid in the pocket coming off the corner. I then made a short pushaway that caused me to pull the ball leaving a single pin spare that I converted. After that the strikes were gone. The last two frames were 6-10 leaves, I was just off driving high. I converted the first one and just chopped the second missing the 10 by less than a board finishing the game with a 156 for a 474 series. We took 3 of 7, taking the handicap point from the first two games and total. We were sitting in sixth, even if we swept tonight we wouldn't have moved up as fifth was 7.5 games ahead of us. We could have been passed by someone below us.

I'll be glad to just get the season over so I can work on my game some more, get my main equipment redrilled to fit better and hopefully be able to get a coach to help work out some problems.

OK so it wasnt league BUT we had our Tuesday night scratch league pay out where we took 2nd and each got $900 a man. I took 2nd high series with 768 for $50 then bowled in pots and took home another $100 with a 716 series. Not a bad night, I wish I had more like them lol

Hey Mike, remind me never to bowl pot games with you.

Good take home.

I don't know why I do this, but I do. Again, I fought lanes that were too dry with my aggressive balls. It is just stupid, but I really want these balls to succeed in conditions where they just can't.

I had 2, 150 games tonight. Averaging 3 strikes and 4, ugly, ugly opens. Chop a 6 off a 10. Leave a 5 on a bucket. Pick the 3 off a 3-10, twice. A couple of splits and a missed 10 pin. It was just horrible.

I finally switched to my Shift in game 3 and moved way inside. 9/XXXX9/XX9/X9/.
That is 7 strikes and 4 10 pin spares for 238. Weaker conditions require a weaker ball. When will I learn? Don't fight the lanes. Take what they give you.

My team's anchor (215 average) is the same way. He bought a new ball that hooks like crazy, and he's doing a great job with it in his scratch league at another house, but he uses it in our league, too, and there's not enough room for it. He's been at 600 or below the last two weeks.

I think part of the temptation is, when you throw a solid strike with a strong ball in weak conditions, it looks really, really good.


Those spare misses look more like me than my anchor, though. I used to hit the 3-10 most of the time, but this year I can't hit it at all--it's gotten to the point where my confidence is starting to flag. And the 2-5 is another adventure, especially in dry conditions.