March Schedule

Here's the schedule for March. Let me know if you have issues.

Good luck and good bowling!

Practice, practice, practice

Gus and I went to practice on Monday and we split it up where I threw the first ball for his and mine for 5 frames and he picked up the spare, then we switched. It was good practice for me to concentrate on getting some consistency with my new ball without having to worry about the spare-I was aiming for the same pins every time and thus could try to work on my form. Then, I got to try out what Gus was saying with picking up my spare and throwing it the same way. (for the record, really, he does know what he's talking about-my spare ball has significantly improved) Of course, its not even close to perfect, and I need to work on my strike ball, which just isn't happening, even if I hit the "pocket". (the pocket is in between the headpin and the 3, the pin just to the right of it) But, I guess I need to practice more and hopefully it will all fall into place. Last night I bowled a 129, 130, and 130. Hey, at least I'm consistent?!?

Bad news...we lost all 3 games last night. Luckily for us, a guy on the other team bowled the "best series he has in a really long time" against us. I told him how happy we were to be a part of it (HA!) Well, we are officially in last place. I was talking with the other team who we know, and they were saying our problem (aside from the fact we've just bowled some good/lucky teams and the fact our averages are too high) could be that we aren't bowling enough - they say to get really good and be consistent, you need to be bowling 3-4 times a month. As with any sport, practice is key. So, if you have a chance, go use those blue coupon things to bowl some free games and break in your ball, or use it to try to work out the kinks. (if you don't have any, let me know, we have a couple extra) Or, a lot of time during the weekend mornings, some lanes will have a game for a buck or so.

The good news is the amount of money won isn't that different between last place and 15th, so who cares where we end up! Yes, it sucks to lose all 3 games (really!) but we're there to have fun. So, lets do what we can to improve our game and have a good time!!

I'll post the March schedule in the next 2 days...waiting to see which of you can bowl an extra time!

No place to go but up

Good news- I bowled my highest game last night- a 182! Bad news I poo'd the bed in the next 2 games. None of us did great at the same time, and they did, so we lost all 3 games and are probably right around last place at this point.
I decided this whole split season thing sucks because it required us all to establish new averages. (usually in a fall season you bowl from Sept-April, you still get a week off, but your average just carries over) And, honestly, that's really hurting us. Most of us had a really good (too good) first night and our averages are above what they should be. Ideally, our average should be not what we are capable of some of the time, but what we consistently bowl nearly every time. Sure, we'll all the occasional off-game where we don't bowl very good but our "average game" should be reflected in our average.... so if normally you barely break 100, your average shouldn't be 120, it should be 101-103.
I know, myself included, we didn't want to "throw" off our good games that first night. It seemed like even when we were trying something new, the pins just went down. It was great then, but is disenheartening now, because in order to win, we all need to beat our average nearly every game by 10% in order to capitalize on our handicap. (which is what the other teams are doing)

But, the great news is that there isn't anyplace to go but up, and our winnings aren't that different if we end up in 25th place or in 15th place. I will say though that next year, I'll probably be looking for a different venue for the following reasons:

• few of the teams are actually "lousy"
• many are actually very good (close to 200 averages, and often bowl well over that)
• the league allows all men teams, which are really just guys who aren't good enough to bowl on an all-mens team so they are "slumming it" and ruining it for everyone else
• the split season is killing our averages
• beers aren't that cheap

But in the meantime, lets not care about winning anything but the card game,which you don't need to get a ton of cards in order to win that- Esme won last night with 3 cards!

Feburary Schedule

Let me know if there are any conflicts......

Where's the "lousy bowlers"???????

So, we're not doing that great so far....we're just bowling some REALLY good bowlers. I got a 163 last week and Gus got a 237 and we still didn't win a single game....one game every bowler on their team got over 200!! I'm not sure where all these "lousy bowlers" are, but hopefully we'll bowl some of them soon!!

I just sent out a note about Feb availibility and will post the schedule this week.

Good luck and good bowling!!!

First night: some high averages, some high handicaps.....

Last night was our first night of bowling. A couple of tidbits from the meeting:

• Handicap is now 90% of the diff between your average and 200 (last season it was 210)
• Pre-bowling is allowed; anytime Wed-Tuesday before the scheduled night you can go and pre-bowl. (We’ll still have to pay for you the normal night, as an FYI, so you don't pay when you pre-bowl) 
• If you can’t make it, you can either find a sub or pay for you to “absentee bowl”. This isn’t preferred, since its 10 pins below your average, pre-bowling or finding a sub is better, but worst case, its an option. 
• You have to bowl 6 nights to bowl in the playoffs and you can't pre-bowl then

I don’t know if we won last night- handicaps aren’t figured out yet and we all decided to just let the center figure out handicaps, which will determine who won and who didn’t - I’ll know next week. Scratch, we won one game. (scratch is our actual “raw” score) but that doesn't mean we won that game for sure, although its likely we won at least one game.

I played with new ball /fingertip grip and am currently either knocking down strikes or just missing picking up spares. Which, if I knock em all down is no biggie, but if I have a night I’m off it isn’t great-but I’m getting better at it and picked up a couple spares last night. Luckily my average isn’t going to be too hard to keep up with, although its higher than I really wanted: 122. Gus, on the other hand, found his game is apparently going to be our 200+ bowler, as his average is around 207!! (lets hope he keeps it up!!) Abe did well; tried some things out and what not, ended up with a nice 150-160 average and Thaddius, well…… he’s going to have a nice hefty handicap and can only go up from there. All in all, (except Thaddius) we all bowled better than we really “wanted” to, considering the first night is the night to establish averages and thus you really want to try some new stuff out, change it up, etc, so you aren’t killing yourself to beat your average for the rest of the season. We joked that the pins were lighter and the wind was blowing them down.

Anyway, next week its Ethel, Esme, Dexter, and our newest team member, Maude! (welcome!) Everyone is entered in the computer except Maude because I didn’t know your last name, sorry….but you guys can ask someone to help you enter her in, no biggie. Of course, everyone will need to establish their averages again, so you probably won’t know if you won either; depends on if you play an uber competitive team or not and if they care to figure it out.

Good luck and good bowling!!

Bowling Schedule for Jan 2010

Don't forget to practice if Santa brings you a new ball....we want to start the first night off with a so-so score to get a good handicap but not carry the "learning curve" too far into the season!

Please arrive at 6:45 on nights you are scheduled....fees are $15/night and can be paid via check or cash.