onefrombills
03-24-2009, 03:56 AM
George Williams needed an outlet, a way to think about something other than his work with New York City's Department of Homeless Services.
"I had just started working for the Department of Homeless Services," Williams says of his decision to join a bowling league, "and I needed something to take my mind off of picking homeless people up off the street."
He quickly found what he was looking for, shooting 10 games at a time up to five days a week with discount coupons from Brunswick. And when the United States Bowling Congress brought the Storm Mixed Team Challenge to JIB Lanes in Flushing, N.Y. on Saturday - the house where his mother had been bowling since 1973 - Williams found something else: a $1,400 check for first place.
Williams's Pin Hitters team charged all the way from ninth place in team qualifying to claim the lead after the 10 baker games that followed, posting a total pinfall of 5,089 and a 235 average in baker-format competition that was capped by a high score of 283.
With a team that consisted of three bowlers who had never participated in a bowling tournament in their lives - two of whom came to the bowling center straight after working the night shift - Williams's expectations were not exactly high.
"You don't know how surprised I was," he said. "I really thought we were in fifth or sixth place. I was with people who were bowling in their first tournament, so I thought fifth or sixth would be very nice."
And just before the lanes at Bradley Bowl flickered on for practice as the next Mixed Team Challenge event got under way in Windsor Locks, Conn., the following day, Paul Adamczyk's prospects of winning the tournament seemed as remote to him as they had to Williams in Flushing. In fact, the possibility seemed more like a joke.
"We joked about it right before it started," Adamczyk said. "'Wouldn't it be funny if we won it?'"
His family, who has been bowling the Mixed Team Challenge since Adamczyk was 14 years old, joined him in laughter. Adamczyk was captaining the youngest team in the house - "our youngest was 18, the oldest was 21," he explained - and this was his team's first time bowling the Mixed Team Challenge.
"It is a lot of bowling," Adamczyk said of the event. "But you have to stick to your goal of winning and keep that in the front of your mind. You can't let the pressure get to you."
If practicing under pressure was one of his team's motivations for entering the tournament, they came to the right place. By the time Mike Kluth struck out in the 10th frame of the final baker game to earn the Her Bodyguards team the narrowest of victories and a $1,300 check, the pressure of waiting for the results proved even more unbearable than any pressure they felt on the lanes. The team's total pinfall of 5,188 was only five pins better than the second-place Diamonds in the Ruff, who finished with 5,183 and posted consecutive handicap baker scores of 305 and 295.
"It was intense," Adamczyk said. "We knew it would be very close. We were thinking maybe we will lose by a couple of pins. When we found out we won by five pins, it was unbelievable - that five pins could have been a missed spare in the very first game. It could have been anything."
The Mixed Team Challenge moves on to Stardust Bowl in Addision, Ill., on April 4 and concludes the weekend's events at Milwaukee's AMF West Lanes on April 5.
"I had just started working for the Department of Homeless Services," Williams says of his decision to join a bowling league, "and I needed something to take my mind off of picking homeless people up off the street."
He quickly found what he was looking for, shooting 10 games at a time up to five days a week with discount coupons from Brunswick. And when the United States Bowling Congress brought the Storm Mixed Team Challenge to JIB Lanes in Flushing, N.Y. on Saturday - the house where his mother had been bowling since 1973 - Williams found something else: a $1,400 check for first place.
Williams's Pin Hitters team charged all the way from ninth place in team qualifying to claim the lead after the 10 baker games that followed, posting a total pinfall of 5,089 and a 235 average in baker-format competition that was capped by a high score of 283.
With a team that consisted of three bowlers who had never participated in a bowling tournament in their lives - two of whom came to the bowling center straight after working the night shift - Williams's expectations were not exactly high.
"You don't know how surprised I was," he said. "I really thought we were in fifth or sixth place. I was with people who were bowling in their first tournament, so I thought fifth or sixth would be very nice."
And just before the lanes at Bradley Bowl flickered on for practice as the next Mixed Team Challenge event got under way in Windsor Locks, Conn., the following day, Paul Adamczyk's prospects of winning the tournament seemed as remote to him as they had to Williams in Flushing. In fact, the possibility seemed more like a joke.
"We joked about it right before it started," Adamczyk said. "'Wouldn't it be funny if we won it?'"
His family, who has been bowling the Mixed Team Challenge since Adamczyk was 14 years old, joined him in laughter. Adamczyk was captaining the youngest team in the house - "our youngest was 18, the oldest was 21," he explained - and this was his team's first time bowling the Mixed Team Challenge.
"It is a lot of bowling," Adamczyk said of the event. "But you have to stick to your goal of winning and keep that in the front of your mind. You can't let the pressure get to you."
If practicing under pressure was one of his team's motivations for entering the tournament, they came to the right place. By the time Mike Kluth struck out in the 10th frame of the final baker game to earn the Her Bodyguards team the narrowest of victories and a $1,300 check, the pressure of waiting for the results proved even more unbearable than any pressure they felt on the lanes. The team's total pinfall of 5,188 was only five pins better than the second-place Diamonds in the Ruff, who finished with 5,183 and posted consecutive handicap baker scores of 305 and 295.
"It was intense," Adamczyk said. "We knew it would be very close. We were thinking maybe we will lose by a couple of pins. When we found out we won by five pins, it was unbelievable - that five pins could have been a missed spare in the very first game. It could have been anything."
The Mixed Team Challenge moves on to Stardust Bowl in Addision, Ill., on April 4 and concludes the weekend's events at Milwaukee's AMF West Lanes on April 5.