Started my Fall/Winter Friday night. It's always an interesting adjustment for me since I'm going from a doubles league in the Summer to a 5-man league for the Fall/Winter. After some early problems in practice and the first frame, I found the line and ended up with a 689 for the night. Considering I thought I was in for a long night after practice, I was really happy.

Mark

I waited for 2 days, debating whether I would even post this. So, in fairness to other scores, here it is. I subbed on Fri for a lady who had surgery on her knee. I have been asked, and committed to sub for 4-5 weeks for her. She specifically requested me to be a sub. I know her and the other members of the team. So, it was not uncomfortable for any of us.

I subbed in this league last year, and have an established average to start with. The league is an Invitational league on PBA shot but not sanctioned as such. The shot for the night was the Chamelion.

Well, the shot killed me. Highest game was 160 and the lowest was 140. Series was about 450, I didn't stick around long enough to find out. I was embarrassed. The lady I replaced has a 192 average on these patterns.

The only good thing was that I picked upevery makable spare that I had, even 2 10 pins and a couple of washouts. The bad thing was that I had 12 splits, making only a 3-10. So, that's 11 opens on the night.

My average first ball pin count had to be under 7. I got 5 pin counts with 4 Greek Churches, and 6 pin counts on washouts. I dove on the head almost every ball, and if I got out a board or 2, I got a 2-8-10 or washout, missing the head completely. It was just horrible.

I used 4 different balls. Every Lane Master ball dove on the head, and My Shift never made it up. I used my Conqueror on every spare with great success, but it couldn't handle the carrydown on a first ball. I was completely baffled.

All I can do now, is change over my arsonel for next week. Another teammate was having similar trouble, but others on the lanes were not. So, if others are striking, I had better too.

I was humbled, but in fairness, I had to report the bad as well as the good. I will remember what someone once posted here, that you can't have a good night unless you have had a bad one.

I started my Fall PBAX league yesterday. From my understanding we're doing 5 weeks on each pattern. But after that there's 3 more weeks and Sweepers week, then a fun day so I don't know what pattern we're doing for those.

We start with the Shark, and I have to say my performance was pretty bad overall. I would say this is pretty close to realistic. The only ball I used was my Rival. There was some read in the early midlane but the back of the lane was moving, especially if you had hand or played straight. It was something I wasn't used to because I've never played on the real Shark before. My Summer PBAX league didn't put any of the patterns out right(unless the lane surface was screwing up most of them) in my opinion so it's like I've never bowled on a true PBA pattern before. Anyways, straight up anything went through the nose, unless I backed off the rotation which I did and moved out to 5(little angle toward the pocket) coming more up the back. A small swing didn't make it back for a good shot. The only thing I didn't try was a different ball with these lines, and moving in keeping my breakpoint inside 10. I guess I should have tried the latter but I shot my two better games on the outside line. I went 147-118-176-196 for 637 and a 159 average.

As a team we won all four games some how and I believe you also have to beat the person across from you. Not how we did against our specific opponents because I wasn't paying attention. I believe it's 5 points per game in which case I think we took at least 14 out of 20.

That 118 was the real killer though and that was the game where I was scrambling for a good line and paid for it in some splits, a gutter on the outside line, and a few easy opens anyways. Since it's only the first week I have time to make up some ground, I'm hoping to finish with 185+ since I finished 184 in the summer.

man we're having a tough time on the PBA shots!!! LOL I still think of my 4game 601 series, but I look forward to the next time I get on that shot.

On a happy note, the house which host my PBAX league was a FLOODED house, well now that they are properly stripping the lanes down for the PBAX shot, the THS is actually simular to other houses. Makes me think how often or lack of there that they really stripped down the lanes. Played 5 games this morning, and was having a bast. Talked to the owner about the PBAX league. He said the league average was 161 for the 60guys in the league. So I'm not too far off the league average with my 150 LOL Doesn't make me feel so bad!!

I'm sorry, Dennis. Hey, at least you've lowered their expectations for next week.


I have two handicap leagues this fall, as I somehow convinced my wife she'd be happier with a bit more space during her upcoming maternity leave. I came in to both expecting to stink, as I've got a laundry list of mechanical tweaks I'd put off until the end of my summer scratch league.

I started my Thursday league with a 559, which is the kind of score I was expecting for the first couple of months, but my new Friday league, I put up a 615 and then a 635. My goal for both leagues is under 212 (212 or better, I'll have to re-rate myself for the tournaments), so in that league, I might have to start experimenting with different lines or equipment. Bowling that second day in a row seems to make a big difference in my consistency.

Well, things have changed quite a lot for my league as of yesterday. I was returning from being out of town with 2 of my teammates and got a call from our other teammate who was registering us all at the initial meeting. Turns out there weren't enough teams, so our 4-person league has now merged into another Sunday night mixed league elsewhere in the area. Luckily, it's at a convenient location and a decent house. Another bonus is there are now 20+ teams instead of our projected 8.

A team of friends dropped out, but my team is still intact and ready to get down to bowling competitively again while still having fun and meeting new bowlers.

Have to post-bowl this Wednesday. Will be nice to get in a month of league before I and a teammate hit a doubles tourney in early October. Now that I've completely stopped any ball squeezing, I'm bowling much more consistently

Started my second Fall league last night. It was pretty dry out there. I shot a 540, which I suppose isn't too bad considering on this league you establish your average on the first night - but it's still unacceptable. Need to improve next week.

BowlSK link

Missed some relatively easy spares, while picking up both of my splits left last night, a 4-9 and a 6-7-10. Funny. I wish I really had a Pearl or "weaker" ball in my arsenal - I could've used it last night. One guy who always uses big hooking equipment, was throwing a Tornado, and did so all night.

Too much ball, not enough speed adjustment, and missed spares. Not a very good equation, but I look forward to my Wednesday league tomorrow. Ironically, between the two leagues, I'm right at my 190 average goal. Now it's time to keep pace.

Sherman, not a bad outing. Congrats on staying with your avg. How's the oil looking lately at your local house?

well first night of scratch league is in the bag. Overall I think I did all I could, First game was lil lost trying to find a good consistant angle into the pocket but left a few splits while searching, and ended with a greek church in the 10th for a 183. Second game I was honed in on the line but wouldn't carry for a darn thing, think I had 3 strikes and all 9 spares, either 10 pin or the solid 4. Ended with a hard effort 197. Last game I moved back 2 inches and found good carry til I threw a church in the 5th after a hambone. Took a couple frames to get back in the groove after some solid 10's, the 3 or 6 pin never kicked up high enough from the gutter to grab that 10 pin. Ended with a 223.

603 series last night, we lost all games, -28, -11, then -16. All close but oh well.

EastWest - Overall from night to night I'd classify it as medium to medium-heavy. Last Wednesday for my league it was definitely in the latter category and it allowed my Black Widow to really shine through the first and second games. Last night the lanes were really dry compared to what I had expected going in to last night's league. I knew it wasn't going to play exactly like last Wednesday but I thought it'd be something similar; not quite.

I think a little bit of polish or a weaker/longer ball might have fit the bill. I had a couple good frames where the ball punched through the pocket, but mostly it was diving pretty heavily through the nose, or at least really high-pocket.