Lousy (adj.)

This headlouse is prettier
than my bowling right now.

From Webster's Online Dictionary:

 

Lousy (adj.):

1: infested with lice

2a: totally repulsive; contemptible

 b: miserably poor or inferior

 

It's been almost a month since my last post, and my bowling has been trending heavily towards definition #2 over that span. Now, I try to stay pretty even-keeled when I bowl, and I have good reason for maintaining a stoic demeanor when I'm on the lanes. As an owner and employee of the center, I feel it's my duty to keep my emotions in check no matter how badly things might be going. Furthermore, most of the experienced bowlers I come across around here stress the importance of relaxation to successful bowling. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, I'm not trying to be the guy that takes things way too seriously - I generally want to be liked, and no one likes *that* guy.

All of this being said, when I began last week's bowling with two missed 5-pins in a row, my self-disciplined approach was put to a serious test. I managed to (mostly) maintain my composure en route to shooting a season-low 440 series. I think my team's performance probably kept me from careening over the edge of sanity - despite my godawful production, the team managed a 3-1 victory over top-5 opponents W-Square.

Clearly someone picked up the slack for my personally forgettable evening - that someone was Patrick "Human Resources" Rodgers, who had recently overtaken Chris Burke and me as our team's high average bowler. This season, Patrick's bowling has mirrored my own slide into mediocrity, and so it seemed appropriate that he shoot a career-best 655 set on my night of ignominy. Last week's bowling represents the latest in a series of quality performances for Patrick, and for anyone just picking up the sport his experience should be nothing short of inspirational.

To put it bluntly, when we started bowling in this league 2 years ago, Patrick was a liability. He had just started bowling & used a house ball and shoes. He rolled a straight ball, rarely hit the pocket, and often failed to clear 400 on League nights. He now jokes that we were about to drop him from the roster, which isn't a complete distortion of the facts, though I personally always kept the faith on his behalf :)

 

I'm sure that Patrick got discouraged at times & may have wondered whether things would ever improve. What he never did was give up. For the past 2 years Mr. Rodgers has been a staple on the practice lanes, oftentimes spending entire days here at Northside trying to improve his game. I don't mean to belabor the point, but I think it's pretty cool, and a testament to the power of hard work, that his efforts have now translated into genuine success. I would certainly take a 655 set if it fell in my lap right now!

 

Well done, Human Resources, and sleep easy knowing your spot on the team is safe :)

 

For the current standings in our league, click here.

 

Until next time!

 

Cheers,

Billy G.

 

 

 

 

The Prodigal Son Moves To Thursday Nights!

3:03 PM

Blog? What blog?!

Ah yes, I remember now...

While I never truly forgot about you guys, I can see why you might think otherwise given my sporadic-at-best posting history. To catch up, let's do a very quick Sport League debriefing followed by a Thursday Night Men's Roundup. The inaugural Midas Sport League came to a rousing crescendo on August 13, with Andrew Gordon bringing his best bowling of the summer en route to victory in the single-elimination roll-off tournament. The bowler who writes this blog didn't fare quite as well. I wound up finishing 8th in the regular season through several strokes of sheer luck - my average ended up at 166. This may have marked a 13-pin improvement from last season's sport league, but was way down from earlier in the season. I ended up losing my first match to BJ Harvey, who's really a pretty good guy even if he does root for the LA Angels. Organizationally, there seems to be plenty for us to improve upon, but for the most part I'm pleased with how things turned out. Looking forward to next year already...

On to more current events. Fall/Winter leagues have begun here at Northside, and my Thursday Night Mens team is back for a third year. Our first two seasons in the league were largely forgettable, with finishes of 24/26 in year 1 and 20/24 in year 2.

This year, I keep telling myself, will surely be different. Certainly our standing through 5 weeks has improved dramatically - my team (appropriately named  "Max Handicap") sits in a 4-way tie for 8th place. There is room for improvement, as well, with Chris "Ringer" Burke sitting a full 20 pins below last season's average. Nor have we seen the best from Al "Quiet Riot" Bailey or Rick "Ricardo Bruno" Brown. Combining all of these factors, I've set my goal as a Top-10 finish for the year. Time will tell if this is a reasonable expectation or not.... You can check up on our progress here.

 

Well, there it is. It always feels good to get a long-overdue task out of the way, and posting on this blog has proven no different. I'd promise to post again soon if I thought anyone out there would believe me ;-) No, really. If I don't post again soon someone please hound my **s.

For now, I'm off to complete the installation and configuration of our new wireless access point - we got a high-gain antenna to (hopefully) cover the entire center with broadband goodness. Wish me luck!

 

Cheers,

Billy G.

Blech.

What a rotten night last night!  I managed to snake 2 points, including one from the legendary Jeremy Merriner, despite barely breaking 600 over 4 games.  Missed 5 consecutive one-pin spares - it takes some effort to stink that bad!  My apologies to any innocents who may have been exposed to this shockingly poor display. I would say it won't happen again, but I don't want to lie to you. . .  We move to the Scorpion pattern next week, I'll keep you updated on how it goes!

Cheers,

Billy

Hey everyone,

Long time no blog! My apologies for the extended absence and thanks to Cliff Boyer for
getting me back in the game. Tonight is week 7 of the Midas League, and the first 6 have lived up to all expectations... instead of going through a boring week-by-week rundown,
you can check out the current standings by clicking here. I sit in 9th place, having split the 4 points for the last 4 weeks in a row. We bowl on the Shark pattern tonight, though, which should play to my strengths better than the uber-short Cheetah. At the very least I figure I'll be using my new Track 916at instead of the less-aggressive Storm Victory Road Solid. The Hammer
Epidemic also looks to get some use... I'll let you know how things turn out!

Until next time,
Billy

So when I said "later tonight," what I really meant was "next week." Those who know me best have come to expect this sort of procrastination... In any case, it's Monday afternoon, which means we're getting set for Week 2 of the Midas Sport Shot League. I'll get you caught up on the action from Week 1, and then give a little preview of what to expect in Week 2.

26 bowlers showed up to accept the challenge last week, a decent if not spectacular turnout. The proceedings began with several moments of confusion as we tried to figure out the initial lane assignments- I definitely need to have a more concrete plan in place for next year! Once everyone knew where they were going and got situated on their lanes, it was time to start bowling. My opponent in games 1 & 2 was Allen "Spitfire" Hester, a multi-year veteran of Sport Leagues past. Allen throws a fairly straight, down-and-in type ball that suits the requirements of Sport Bowling to a "T." On the normal house shot, Allen probably carries a 170-180 average, and in those conditions I may have considered myself the favorite. As I said last week, however, the PBA Experience oil patterns generally seem to level the playing field, and I knew I had my hands full in this one. I bowled badly in game 1, and Allen took advantage of a double in the tenth frame to beat me by a single pin, 150-149. I improved slightly in game 2, as I managed to convert several testy one-pin spares. This improvement wasn't enough to get me the win, however, as Allen's 187 easily bested my 163. Two games, two losses, and a 157 average. Not exactly the flying start I had hoped for.

I then switched over to Lanes 27-28 for games 3 and 4. I'd be facing Denny Anderson, a solid bowler and another cagey Sport League veteran. I made one or two adjustments going into game 3, and they seemed to pay off as I came up with my best game of the night, a 189. I would've had 200 if I hadn't chopped the eminently makable 6-10 spare in the tenth. It didn't come back to haunt me, though, as Denny didn't bowl his best, and I managed to pull out the victory. I bowled OK in game 4, but found myself tiring a bit towards the end. I'm sure this was due to a combination of the extra game vs. normal league play, the rapid pace of our bowling, and my own suspect physical conditioning. Regardless, my 173 wasn't quite enough, and Denny took game 4.

In terms of results, then, I enter Week 2 with a 169 average and a 1-3 record. Not disastrous, but not where I wanted to be, either. My only real disappointment is in not taking game 1 from Allen. If I can't shoot 150 when I need to, I'm going to have real problems in this league. Oh well, onward & upward, Week 2 is on the Viper again tonight so we'll see if I learned anything from the experience. My first opponent is Mike Mason, who rolled last week's high game at 241. Could be trouble in paradise.

I'll let you know how it goes before next Monday!

Cheers,
Billy G.

My Background & Some Midas League Info

Hi everybody & welcome to the blog! For those who don't know me, my name is Billy Gilpin, I'm 31 years old, married, no kids, blah blah blah. I’ve really been looking forward to spending the summer writing about the Midas Sport Shot Singles League here at Northside Lanes. Bowling begins tonight at 7, and I think it’s safe to call excitement about this year’s version of the PBA Experience® “unprecedented.” As President of the League, bowler, employee, and owner’s son, I think I’ll be able to offer a unique perspective on what should prove to be quite an interesting 14 weeks.

A couple more notes about myself before we get down to business: first off, I’m no PBA bowler. In fact, despite my lifelong connection to Northside, I’m relatively new to competitive bowling. As a kid I would come and bowl for fun, but was never all that serious about getting good at it. I really picked up the game around the year 2000. In terms of skill, I’d call myself an advanced intermediate bowler, if that makes any sense. In my best league season to date, I carried a 186 average on Thursday nights last year, and there’s no question that my game has improved tremendously since I came back to work at the center two years ago. Given the quality of my opposition and the increased challenge of the oil patterns this year, I’m sure my confidence won’t last long…

This year’s league will be a singles format, with two bowlers on each lane bowling individually against one of the bowlers from the opposite lane. After two games, bowlers will switch to bowl on a different lane pair and against a different opponent for two more games. Each 2-game “match” will be worth 3 points, with a point to the winner of each game and a point to the overall winner. What’s new and different about our setup this year is that the point standings over the course of the summer will not determine the actual winner of the league – this will be decided in a final-week roll-off (I love this term, btw). The season standings will merely determine the seeding for this final-week extravaganza. 

This is huge for a semi-mediocre bowler like me. Even if I go the whole season without breaking 150, a quality performance on the last day could win me first-place money. Obviously, the Jeremy Merriners of the world will have a far easier path to victory than mine would be in that example, but something tells me I’ll need sources of hope after bowling on the Viper pattern tonight. 

Well, it’s time to wrap up this first installment of my Midas Sport League coverage. I’ll be headed over to the Lanes shortly to make sure everything is in place for this evening. I know Don Spiggle and his crew need to run a few tape readings to ensure the oil pattern we’re bowling on meets USBC regulations for Sport Bowling. I’ll also be seeing how well Northside’s BLS software will be able to automate the scheduling/standings for our particular league format. I’ve been told it’s capable of doing it all for me, but until you’ve tried, you never know! Anyway, before I go, another quick plug for the league – there’s still time for you to get in, just show up around 6:45 tonight – and for the generous folks at Midas Auto Care of Winchester, who are giving $1000 to our prize fund for the second year in a row! We appreciate it!

Until later this evening…