The FOFC Bowling Thread

[MCK]

Rough night for me too.

Wednesday Pro Duckpin League 117-131-185 = 433
Lost all 7 points and I had a chance in the last frame of both the 2nd and 3rd games and blew it. Even though I hit my average for set, I felt like I bowled like crap. Sitting at 143 in this league.

[Grover]

Rough night last night. 109+104+100 for a 313 and my worst night of the season. Team took six points and I did manage to win $40 in the bracket.

Unfortunately, someone hit Spare Cash for $3,775, so that jackpot is done.

[MCK]

Monday Night Mixed League

4 weeks in using 159 average - bowled 135-121-158= 414, average goes down to 154, we won 3 out of 4 points.

We started 0-4, but now have won the last 10 out of 12.

[Grover]

Another rough night, or maybe I'm coming back down to earth.

108+88+112 = 308

We took six and should be 24-8 after 4 weeks.

[Grover]

Huge night in the four string league. Bowling with a vacant, picking up points is tough, but I got 8/10 tonight.

127+114+126+112 = 479.

Series high in the league thus far.

[MCK]

Nice bowling!

Wed Pro League

179-154-134 = 467 We only got 2 out of 7 points. The other team bowled really well.

18 games - 145.72 average

[JediKooter]

Alright. Thursday night is our league night here. We are in 2nd place, just 1 game behind the 1st place team.

Last week I bowled: 122+161+136 = 419
My average so far this season is 126

I have a real hard time picking up spares. I don't get too many splits, so it's not that. I seem to way over compensate when trying to pick up a spare and completely miss. Most of my first rolls are 8s and 9s with an occasional 7 or 6 thrown in.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Finally busted out of a big slump this past Friday. Didn't throw any practice shots, left my first frame open (a damn 4-7 leave which I make 95% of the time), proceeded to close out the final 29 frames to finish with a 693 for the night. Still looking for my first clean series. This is my second time doing 29 out of 30. Still, the team won all three games, so I have absolutely nothing to complain about.

[Grover]

Monday was pretty awful. 92+94+102 = 288. By far my lowest total of the year. We took 5 points (split grand total).

Sort of got it back tonight. 104+115+107 = 326. We took 7 points (tied the first game) and I threw the high series of the week for the Tuesday league.

[MCK]

Monday League:
We had a Sunday match to make up for the holidays this year, I missed the first game, then we had our normal Monday night match
S 153-139= 292
M 139-164-175= 478 (I am the last bowler, had a 4 bagger in the last game to pull out the win by 2)
Entering average 141
Average after 17 games: 154.12

Wednesday Pro Travel League:
We also had a Sunday match for this one plus last night's match
S 138-132-152= 422
W 157-153-134= 444 (last bowler again, 2nd game spare and 8in the 10th to win by 3, 3rd game, double in the 10th, won by 6)
Entering Average 143
Average after 24 games: 145.38

[Grover]

Wednesday was an up and down struggle.

94 (with no marks), 124, 110, 96 = 423.

After 43 strings, I'm sitting at 108.9.

[Pumpy Tudors]

We shot video of one of my teammates bowling last season. Every time new bowlers join the league, I ask the new bowlers to count how many steps my teammate takes. Everyone always comes up with different answers. FOFC, I respectfully ask: How many steps is she taking here?

[JPhillips]

6

[Grover]

I'm gonna go with 7 or 8.

I feel as if it's 7, because she starts with her right and finishes with her left, which would make it an odd number.

[Pumpy Tudors]

See what I mean?

[MCK]

Originally Posted by Grover

I'm gonna go with 7 or 8.

I feel as if it's 7, because she starts with her right and finishes with her left, which would make it an odd number.

How would that make it an odd number?

R,L,R,L,R,L

I say 6 and it doesn't even look like she slides at all. I'd trip over my own feet if I did that little toe tap.

[TCY Junkie]

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

TCY Junkie gonna kill himself on the lanes. Calling it now.

I totally should be more focused, like I am when I play racquetball. I drove from a relatives house in Dallas Monday morning so I loosened up my belt for the long drive home. Got to bowling and forget about it...... my jeans covered my heel in the third frame, as my feet flew out from under me my back felt the effects of gravity. I tapped my head a little, didn't think much of it but an hour later I could tell I hit the back of my head decent as I had a headache in the front. Crazy.

[MCK]

Monday League
140-162-121= 423 Had 16 spares, 3 strikes, way too many bad counts, we were missing a bowler but were able to steal 1 point out of 4

Ent Avg: 141 Cur Avg: 152.15 (20gms)
3rd Place - 2 games out

Wednesday Pro League
164-141-178= 483 Had 8 spares, 11 strikes, 3 double, won 5 points out of 7

Ent Avg: 143 Cur Avg: 147.11 (27gms)
4th Place - 3.5 games out

Great start to the season, tournament next week so hopefully I continue this good bowling.

[Grover]

Rough night. 402. 99, 117, 94, 93.

Couldn't find the headpin. Tournament on Saturday, need to get with it.

[mtolson]

I would say 8. There is a 4 step shuffle in the middle. 2 step start and 2 step finish.

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

We shot video of one of my teammates bowling last season. Every time new bowlers join the league, I ask the new bowlers to count how many steps my teammate takes. Everyone always comes up with different answers. FOFC, I respectfully ask: How many steps is she taking here?

[Grover]

First tournament of the Maine State Candlepin Bowling Association is complete.

It was a singles tournament

1,103 + 350 = 1,463 with handicap.

I finished 9th out of 75 men. This means I get paid. I'm very happy, especially since it's my first tournament since I was 17. I wanted to finish top 15 and did.

Next up is the doubles tournament on Nov 17, 18.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Congrats, Grover!

[Pumpy Tudors]

By the way, I don't know the correct answer to the number of steps my teammate takes. She doesn't even know how many steps she takes.

[Grover]

Thanks, Pumpy!

I had two games under my average for the tournament (110.3). I opened with an 85 and in the 6th game hump I bowled a 94. That's 41 pins off my average right there. Would have had me in the top 5.

Practice makes near-perfect.

[PackerFanatic]

That video is great - I would totally do a faceplant if I did that, haha.

Starting to maybe find my groove in my league. Led the team with a 467 series, which should bump up my average a bit (currently at a 141, down from the end of last year). I badly need new equipment, but I am working with what I got for now

[Grover]

Threw a 484 tonight.

152 + 115 + 104 + 113.

My average is right around a 107 overall. Averaging a 121 tonight was great.

In news of the doubles tournament, I am now bowling on the 24th at 9am. The house only has 8 lanes (seriously), so they're doing it over two weekends with three shifts a day.

[Grover]

New set of balls!

[Grover]

Well, this thread has been dead for awhile, I may as well add a post.

Back in April, I made it to the State Eliminations All Events finals after qualifying through the eight tournaments held every year.

I was the 9 seed going in and beat the 8 seed, 1 seed, 4 seed and 7 seed on my way to becoming the Maine State Candlepin Champion!

I bowled a 1224 scratch on the day for 10 strings to beat my good friend in the final.

The $500 check was nice too.

[SirFozzie]

Congrats, I rolled a high triple for me in my candlepin league of 226 (yeah, not great, but considering this is my first league), I was doing really well in the first two games, but the fact that I was the only one bowling for my team (the other two active members of the team pre-bowled) meant that I felt like I was rushing, and my deliveries started drifting (both ways).. so I was all over the place in the third string.

[Grover]

I know that feeling well, especially if you don't have someone bowling against you on your paired lane.

Always slow down, take your time. Rushing yourself only hurts you in the end. This is what I tell the kids I teach anyway.

Are you using the prototypical three-step approach? Or just kind of winging it as far as form goes?

And honestly, if you can hold around a 75-80 in your first league, you're doing pretty well. Especially in summer, pins don't fall nearly as well with the humidity. Generally speaking a candlepin league average is right around 85 and 90% of league bowlers are under 100.

[SirFozzie]

Kinda winging it, either a three or five step.

For the two leagues (Wed and Fri), I'm doing about a 65-70.. Wed's first two games were the most consistent I'd been, and I think that was because I was getting in a rythym, and managing to throw "one good ball" later in the frame..

[PackerFanatic]

I finally got myself a new (used) ball toward the end of last season, and holy crap did it help immensely. A friend on another team was getting rid of a ball he had and offered it to me. Still in great shape, he just had no use for it. It has a finger-tip grip (which I've wanted to go to) and quite a bit more spin potential than I am used to. I got it re-drilled for myself (which is also something I didn't do with the last hand-me-down ball I got...big mistake) and I saw immediate effects. It's amazing when the ball actually does what you want it to do! I also threw a 222 in my second-to-last week of the season, which was a season-high for me. Very excited to start a new season with this ball - the sky is the limit!

[OldGiants]

Last year was my all-time personal best with a team-high average of 145, which was 155 for the second half of the season--after I turned 63.

I finally got my ball movement controlled after using it since 1975, so I'm a bit hesitant to get a new, modern one. But my wife wants to replace her old 16-pounder with a 12 or 13 pound modern ball, so I suppose I'll join her and get a 15-pounder.

What weight do you fellows throw? Two very good bowlers my age told me they dropped from 16 to 15 and 14 respectively and said I should not need a 16-pounder any more.

My problem with the old ball is that I can put it in the pocket all night long, but I don't often get strikes. So I need modern pin action if I'm going to improve my score. Or play No-tap all season long where I'm good for 250-300 every game.

[Ron Mexico]

I can tell you from experience going to a 15 helped me quite a bit.

Switched 2-3 years ago after having a bit of elbow trouble that wouldn't really flare up until the 3rd game.

What I found, especially as the oil patterns broke down a bit, was that I wasn't maintaining a consistent ball speed which would lead to plenty of nights of 220-220-160 (I average in the 195-210 range depending on the house).

The 1lb difference isn't as noticeable from shot to shot, but especially late and even more so in tournaments, it was a huge huge gain for me and even at 33, I'm not going back to a 16.

Also, for your wife, see if she'd feel comfortable at 14 lbs. Could just be anecdotal, but dropping lower than that seems to affect the pin action afaic.

[OldGiants]

Originally Posted by Ron Mexico

I can tell you from experience going to a 15 helped me quite a bit.

Switched 2-3 years ago after having a bit of elbow trouble that wouldn't really flare up until the 3rd game.

What I found, especially as the oil patterns broke down a bit, was that I wasn't maintaining a consistent ball speed which would lead to plenty of nights of 220-220-160 (I average in the 195-210 range depending on the house).

The 1lb difference isn't as noticeable from shot to shot, but especially late and even more so in tournaments, it was a huge huge gain for me and even at 33, I'm not going back to a 16.

Also, for your wife, see if she'd feel comfortable at 14 lbs. Could just be anecdotal, but dropping lower than that seems to affect the pin action afaic.

Thanks for the reply. I'll add it to my 'no more 16' data.

Yes, I'm trying hard to get my wife to stick at 14. She dropped her ancient 16 and changed to a lane ball that I think was 13 and felt good about it. She's picked up more arthur-itis (as Fred Sanford used to say) than me even though she's a year younger, and that's in the decision.

[PackerFanatic]

I was using a 14 for the longest time and found a major difference when I moved to the 15. I think my newest is a 16 and it has been helping quite a bit, as noted above

[TCY Junkie]

They ended the league early at one bowling alley, new ownership and remodeling. Won't have leagues at all there ever they say. The other other one breaks down often. Wednesday the machines couldn't keep score. Most surprisingly the vote to bowl or not bowl keeping score by hand was overwhelmingly no bowl. Shocked the hell out of me. People were making a big deal about keeping score and most didn't seem to know how. I could have kept score for 6 of the 20 teams myself. Just shocking.

[williammartin30]

I started to bowl in age 12 with best bowling ball for straight bowlers and i have no idea how to throw it and after 2 to 3 weeks I just cross 150+ score. it was amazing time when i was thinking i will not score even 100 and after that time even i score 200+.

[LastWhiteSoxFanStanding]

jb? is that you?