Boomer's Winter Season

[Timmyb]

Well done!

[Aslan]

Man O Man. I need to "channel my inner Boomer."

[boomer]

So - back to earth.

wow - can two pairs be SO different. I was on 35-36, just a couple of pairs from last week and able to watch 39-40 which, I REALLY want to see how many honor scores hit there. . . They were hitting . . . we were 9 here, 9 there . . .

Practice - started with Mr. Teal because he's so talkative. He just wasn't giving it to me. . . let's go Zen. Better but . . .

Game 1 - good game. Left a 3-9 which was STUPID but otherwise good. We lost the point by about 80 but I tried HARD to not focus on my teammates, only ME. I also brought my own Smarties, which was good.
Game 2 - Zen stopped responding so moved to the Trouble-Maker which has a massive core and TONS of flare and it really picked up. 204, left one 4-7-10 which is what triggered me to jump from the Zen. It just felt like work, but Trouble was good. I just haven't used it really ever so . . . have to figure him out. 204 and my teammates stepped up and we took the point and the total lead.
Game 3 - big 4 in the first which was a bummer and whiffed a 7 and a TON of 9's. 185, but we took the point and total.

Takeaways - Trouble is a good option, it's big and strong and when I have him polished, he hits HARD. I need less surface on Teal, just a bit. I think that was his problem; he seems to react strongly to surface. And when I work on having fun, I bowl better. Amazing, that.

Anyway - 612 for 204 average, exactly my average. A bit wide in deviation which I don't really like, but it was a good night bowling, overall.

[boomer]

Back from break

Started with the team in first place. we bowled a team that's REALLY coming up. One old guy, one guy my age, and two two-hander kids that are really learning how to do this thing. . . when they get keyed in, they're just murderous. Their high SCRATCH game is in the 900s. :O Missing my wife and son-in-law who were both under the weather.

Game 1 - started practice with Mr. Teal but I need a new insert and he was just coming in weak. Easy to control the pocket but no power once I got there. Moved to the Zen Master and same control of the pocket but POWER . . . GREAT game 1 (except a flat pocket 7-10 in the 10th to spoil it) - 225. We won the first point comfortably. Not a blowout, but fairly comfortable.

Game 2 - 279 with an open. Left a 4-9 in the first frame but went sheet after that. Funny thing - I was NOT high on my pair. Other team had one guy (old guy) shot 280! One of the kids shot 268. While my other bowler shot over her average, we still got beat by almost exactly the same score as we won the first . . . so lose the point and we're close to even for total.

Game 3 - I fell apart. I'd had to move a bit, but continuing that move didn't work, and trying another move didn't work. Whiffed a 10, pocket 7-10 and went wide on a 6. 164. We got beat by about 35 - so if I'd hit 200, we would have won. My other bowler did bowl GREAT (even 200 for her is really good) but I let us down. We lost.

So. . . not sure where we're going to be. We took 1, but the team we were tied with took at least 3 (I wasn't there when they finished their third game) and it's crowded up at the top so I don't think we'll fall too far.

[Timmyb]

I see an A.V. 300 game there!

[boomer]

Yep.

I didn't realize there's an award for 11-in-a-row but our new secretary came up to me and told me that I wasn't getting one for this time because she'd submitted for my previous one (in December) and I can only get one per league season (or something) . . . gotta say, I really enjoy our new secretary. She is ON the ball.

She doesn't know what the award is - probably local and probably a patch or pin - but the fact that she came to me.

[boomer]

two weeks in a row to get hit by a bus . . . I mean, c'mon man!

Last week was last week - but this week we went up against a mid-range team. Nice guys, fun to bowl with, bowled with one of them on Sunday's little tournament.

But when a 160 bowler rolls 3 pins lower than me scratch? When their 180 bowler bowls 10 pins lower than me scratch? Ain't nothin we can really do! We gave it a shot. . .

But I didn't think i was bowling well at all. Just never felt like I was getting rolling, but 629 is actually pretty good so. . .

Game 1 - Teal worked great in practice, but I didn't get his hint and didn't move left. Whiffed a 3-6-10 and rolled into a 3-4-6-7 split (almost converted) before moving to the Trouble Maker . . . who made some trouble! Rolled one split, but was making constant half-board moves to stay ahead. Pulled out a 191, but we got our clocks cleaned.

Game 2 - MUCH bettter, but still having to move a half-board almost every frame. Was running out of room quickly. Split in the 7th, and then whiffed my only missed-10 pin in the 10th. COULD have picked up the point if I'd punched out. Meh. 211.

Game 3 - clean game. Just . . . IDK . . . didn't feel like I was bowling good. THEY bowled well, though, and cleaned our clocks. 227.

No idea where we will end up. Lost 7 of 8 in the past two weeks. Shouldn't continue. My wife's foot is better and my son-in-law is improving pretty significantly so . . . we'll see. Down from first to third and . . .

[Aslan]

Opens in the 10th are just killers!!

[boomer]

both score-wise and mental-wise

[boomer]

Didn't bowl well - but bowled well enough

Bowled a fun team. They're all pretty good bowlers. One is a REALLY good bowler, and I joke with him that he's boring. . . he just does the same smooth, balanced thing OVER and OVER and OVER . . . he's very good. When they get on a run, it's over. They're low on the standings right now, and we can't really figure why. . .

And it's been rainy. REALLY rainy (and that's coming from someone from Seattle) - not windy/rainy, just steady wet. . . and I think that's affecting things. Approaches were sticky, really had to rub in the shoes; lanes were really tricky. It was challenging. I think most of the scores were down. But - let's get on it!

Game 1 - let's start with a pocket 8-10. Seriously - there were FIVE pocket back-row-splits (2 8-10, 2 7-9 and 1 7-10) in this game alone. So weird. OK - fine, move on. 3-6-7 in the 6th - convert. Left a 2-4-10 and finished 177. Not good and we lost the point. Sigh.

Game 2 - started better, clean through 6. Lanes are tight - if I hit my mark, it's pocket but leaving corners. Miss and it's penalizing either way. Chop a 3-6 and out for 199, we took the point.

Game 3 - a bit more consistent - I switched to the Trouble Maker. It seemed to hold its line better and then flip and hit. Had a REALLY big conversion - almost a big 4, but the 7 fell. OK, so 4-6-10. Hold ball higher, slow feet down and HARD at the 10 hoping for a bounce. . . clipped the 6 and it skidded over to hit the 4. I didn't think you could DO that. . . LOL Didn't work when I only had the 4-6 but . . . finished 198. Needed a strike in the 10th to give us a shot, needed a strike in the 11th to get us there, needed 4 in the 12th to win. Strike, strike, big-4. Felt good to deliver what we needed.

We took 3 points - which was good after losing 7 of the last 8.

I was off balance all night. Couldn't get my slide to feel good and wasn't comfortable at all. Swing was off and balance was off . . . but it was what it was. Supposed to dry out a bit this weekend so hopefully we'll have things back to more normal. We'll see.

But hey - I didn't miss a single 10. That's good!