well, we had our banquet this past monday night. as a team, we won 'league champs' for '07-'08 [even though total points wise, we were fourth overall out of 12], we all pocketed $224 a man, plus $10 each for first 1/2 win, and $10 each for 'champ', i also won $30 for the hi/low, and got $62 out of our $.25 a miss spare/turkey/make a split kitty.

we also each got a patch for league champs for the season, and i upped my average 7.75 pins from last season. i went from a 139 to just under a 147. my goal was to improve my average by 10 pins for the season, and i was close, so i was happy with how i did for the season.

Way to go mike

I wish I could slump like you do.

Another night of Monday in the record books. I had a 568 series with book end 167 games sandwiching a 234 game. I think I only had two opens the first frame, a gutter 9, and then an 8-10 split, every league night isn't complete without one. I was out of the pocket twice that game, the gutter and when I ran in high leaving the 3-6.

The second game was 9 or strike through the first 10 strike attempts. One leaving a 4, luckily not the 4-9 that was almost left, and the other a 7 when I tried to make a small adjustment to not run in high. Obviously that didn't work well so I did a finger adjustment and started putting the ball square in the pocket running off 5 in a row before I screwed something up in the swing crossing over and leaving the 5-9 of which I only got the 5 for my second open of the game.

Third game I had 4 opens I believe, with three being splits. One was a 4-9, the second a 2-4-10, and another 8-10 split. I missed a 7 pin which I knew before I released the ball I was going to, I felt something just not being right at the top of the backswing and I think I pulled the ball down. That was my only single pin open, and I think I only had one none split open.

We lost all 7 points, having forfeited the first game due to a lack of a league line up as there was only 2 out of 5 bowlers there. Two bowlers showed up in time to get into the second and third game, but their scores weren't all that good that game and only one of them did well in the third game.

Cal,
Sounds like my team we lost all 7 pts three straight week making it 21 pts lost. We have slipped from 1st place to 8th place, but we still have chnce of being in the top 3 since there only 3 pts seprating us from 1st place. This thursday and next will be very important weeks for us to win if we want to place high.

Since I started bowling on that team as a permanent sub in January they have pretty much sat at the bottom of the standings. Taking a game which is 2 points over a few week period is hard to do. No one is bowling well on it, its the lowest average team in the league I believe and rarely has a full team there.

Two more weeks, thats all I have left for winter leagues, especially for the Tuesday house. Now my scoring tonight wasn't so much the lanes as it was me. I had 5 opens the first game, and five strikes for a 168 game. I had tried to just use my strike ball as a spare ball. I just never got it released cleanly. I couldn't seem to find a nice line for my Groove so I went to the Purple Ogre playing about 12 at the arrows out to 5 around 35 feet and arcing into the pocket.

My second game was much better, a 199 that was almost clean. The only open was the Greek Church around the fourth frame. Somehow my foot kept sliding and I ended up sitting on the approach but never crossing the foul line. I think there was a piece of a plastic from a straw ended up on the lane or at least on my heel. I quickly rebounded and starting throwing strikes though. I made a 1-2-10 washout from the first ball in the tenth to give us both points that game.

The last game was a 160, I had too many spares that I missed that I shouldn't have.

Other than some of the miserable spare shooting, my biggest issue was swinging the ball out some. I'm not used to doing that and have struggled with it some. I had to keep the speed down or it would hit light or miss completely right of the head pin. I also had a few times I crossed over from not lining up correctly.

We won 3 of 7 points, hopefully keeping us at sixth place for another week.

Well, a fitting end to a poor season. It started really badly. But, the past 3+ months, I have been averaging over 210. Not enough to pull my overall average above my 200 target. But, at least it was on the upswing.

So tonight I start with a 213. While talking with a couple of teammates in the rear, I didn't notice that one of my teammates was switching balls, and left her ball bag right in the middle of the walking area. I turned around to walk to the side, and tripped over the ball bag.

As I was falling, I can tell you what I thought. In a split second, I said to myself, protect your bowling arm. I thought of Nationals this weekend. And, then I stuck out my left hand to absorb the fall. Bang, I hurt my left wrist. I iced it but still bowled. I didn't realize how much my left hand affected my bowling. couldn't support the ball. It hurt when I extended my balance arm. I couldn't lift the ball out of the reck with 2 hands. I really shouldn't have bowled. The left hand has so much to do with balance. And, everytime I lifted it, it hurt. Balance, speed, timing
everything was off. I finished with 133, (6 splits) and 156, (4 splits). I even had a 5-7. First one I think all year.

Went to the hospital ER afterwards. Fractured trapezium, at the carpometacarpel Joint.

So, my left hand is in some kind of contraption, like a left handed bowling wrist support, that I have to wear for a few weeks.

What a lousy way to end the season.

PS: I am typing with 1 hand, and it takes forever. Sorry for any typos.

Dennis,
OUCH sorry to hear about your accident. Hope it gets better real soon. Hope your able to bowl nationals. On Thursday night there a scratch league after us and we had a lady pick up her bowling ball and it slip and droped on her foot and broke it.

Dennis:

Are you going to still be able to bowl National this weekend?