Monday - April 19, 2010

A Minor Miracle

For the first time in a long time - maybe 15 weeks - my team took all 7 points at bowling league tonight. And, toot toot toot, I have to say it was mostly my doing. Instead of some lackluster 140-160 game, I just kept my head clear and let the ball do the work, and threw really well the first two games. 69 over for a 238 in the the first, even with one open frame, and we won that one by 100. 64 over for a 233 in the second, and we won that one by 108. Both games I had 6 strikes in a row in the mid game, but didn’t pick up the 7th. Mental pressure I guess. I’ve never made more than 6 in a row, even in practice. But I converted the spare, then went back to throwing strikes. 9 of them the first game! Come the third game, we all were tired, and we all screwed up. Both teams. I was going into the third with a 471, and knew if I could roll a 239 I’d have my first 700 series ever. Ever! Duh. I let my head get in the way, and the next thing you know I’m coming around the ball, I’m pushing the ball, I’m slanging my arm around. Geex. But everybody else was sucking too, so it was a low scoring shootout until the end. I recovered a tiny bit with a mark in the 9th and XX9 in the 10th, but I screwed the pooch so badly I finished with only a 150. Still, that gave me a 621, my second highest league series ever, and only my second 600 series ever. But game 3 was very close. It was right down to the wire, last game, 10th frame. Last bowler on each side. We’re down by about 8, and our anchor Mike is on a spare. He rolled a great strike. There guy rolled a strike, but on an open in the 9th. Mike rolled another strike. Their guy hit for 8, then missed the spare and got 1. With no pressure on him, as the game was now won, Mike rolled his last ball. And it hit like a one-winged duck. 5 pins down clean, 2 wobblers, and the 4 pin spinning ... spinning ... knocked over both of the wobblers as it went off the back of the deck, but one of those pins fell into the 9 which teetered, teetered, and fell against the 10. The 10 pin didn’t fall. No, it got gently pushed off the side, and dropped just as the bar was coming down. So it was the world’s slowest domino strike; Mike finished XXX and we won that game by a small handful of pins. It was a minor miracle.

This is the next to last week of the season, so it was the first position round. We’ve had a terrible season, going from a high of 3rd to our current 12th place. Out of 16 teams. But tonight’s win of all 7 was enough to push us up and over, so if we do well next week we could wind up finishing in tenth. Which isn’t grand by any stretch, but it’s back in the middle of the pack again.

I really have to learn to make my hand behave and my brain shut up. I screw up because I try too hard; I try to force things to happen. You can’t. Let the ball do the work, and just relax. At least my approach speed has evened out, and I’m throwing my line very consistently. If I can get my release in order, I can be back in the game and get 200s all the time. Well, if I can get some better percentages on those damn 10 pin leaves. Like almost everyone else, I hate that spare. I try to throw the angle, but once again my hand gets in the way and turns the ball in. And while that might be better than dumping it in the gutter 20 feet out, a miss is still a miss. The 10 ought to be a gimme. Gotta work on that.

Summer league starts in mid May I think.

Seein as I’ll be away for awhile Drew, I just couldn’t resist this when I found it. And I wasn’t even looking but when I met her she said she was looking for you.
LOL ...
Cheers from The Prisoner

Posted by Drew458     on 04/19/2010 at 08:34 PM   
Filed Under: • Bowling Blogging •  
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