Right Up Your Alley
BY PAUL BODNAR
Josh Sweet hit the jackpot this past weekend in the In-House Tournament by rolling a perfect 300 game on lanes 1-2. It is Josh's second 300 of the season. His first was bowled on lanes 5-6 in January. Congratulations Josh on a great effort.
The Troy Association held its annual youth prestige tournament at Hometown Lanes this past Saturday. 24 boys and three girls participated in the tournament with bowlers bowling three games over three pairs. The leader for the boys was standout bowler Jacob Tirado with a 693 while the girls were led by Lily Robinson with a 581. Low to secure a spot in the roll-off for the boys was 633. The top eight boys made the head-to-head roll-offs, and all three girls made the roll-offs. Jacob rolled a 223 to defeat Raffaele Lombardi who bowled a 183. Jonathan Carbonneau defeated Aaron Mantello 258-242. Charles Hauser defeated David Bub 279-245. Andrew Gillick defeated Jeremy Shaffer 215-208. In the semi-final matches, Jacob Tirado bowled a 258 to Jonathan Carbonneau's 190. Charles Hauser defeated Andrew Gillick 258-192. This set up the title match with Jacob Tirado rolling to a 279 to 214 victory over Charles Hauser. In the girl's division, Taylor Moran defeated Emma Martin in the first match 223-126. Lily Robinson received a bye as there were only three girls entered. This pitted Taylor against Lily for the title match with Taylor rolling a 211 to Lily's 168. It was nice to watch many young bowlers competing to receive scholarships. Each one was giving it their all but sorry to say, a disregard for lane courtesy by one of the bowlers disrupted a bowler who was on the verge of doubling in the 10th frame to make the roll-offs. I just talked about lane courtesy last week and the norm is to give a one lane courtesy to both your right and left. If two bowlers step up to the approach at the same time, the bowler on the right is given the right of way. In this particular situation, the bowler on the right was on the approach and began his approach when all of a sudden, the bowler to his left grabbed his ball and ran right alongside of the bowler who had the right of way. This obviously disrupted the bowler, and he failed to strike on his second shot in the 10th frame resulting in him missing the roll-offs by nine pins. The bowler was devasted by the outcome. I could not tell if this was just a total disregard of lane courtesy or was deliberate on the part of that bowler. Whatever it was, it ruined the tournament for this young bowler who had bowled good the entire day. It is hard for youth to accept disappointment or defeat when it is either their own poor execution or their opponent's good execution. But to lose out on a possibility to move on due to another's actions, is very difficult to swallow. There are only two times I can recall a similar issue to this. The one was years ago when pro bowler Randy Pedersen was trying to maintain his status on the tour. He needed to execute at a high level in the 10th frame in the last game when a fan from the audience hollered out something just as Randy was ready to release his ball and caused Randy to not strike. Randy's career was essentially over. The other was when a bowler was going for a perfect 300 game in a tournament which would have been his first one. I was bowling that day and had observed no lane/machine issues whatsoever until this particular bowler was in his 10th frame. He rolled his 10th & 11th strikes. He was the last bowler as he was bowling anchor on the team. His ball did not come back! You could see it spinning as there were pins jammed up preventing the ball from being returned. The lane man had to be called and by the time the ball came back, the pressure had mounted on this young bowler. He rolled a good ball but ended up leaving the 4 pin for a 299 game. To this date he has never rolled a 300, I am not sure if he is still bowling anywhere. I certainly hope this bizarre happening at this youth tournament does not have a lost lasting effect on this bowler. Only time will tell.
The Troy City Tournament entry forms are out now. Please get them in soon to make sure you do not get shut out of the particular squad you want to bowl. Team event is at Hometown Lanes in Mechanicville with the Doubles & Singles event at Hilltop Bowl in Spiegletown. Remember, Hilltop has the only wood lanes in the region so adjust your equipment accordingly. Many young bowlers might not have ever bowled on wood lanes as the Barbecue changed too synthetic a few years back. Typically, wood lanes will hook a little more than the synthetic lanes do based on the way the lanes are conditioned. So, you might want to bring one less aggressive ball to the competition. Team event begins on Monday, April 28th with squads running all week at 6:30. Saturday, May 3rd which is the last day of the team event has squads at noon and 5pm. Doubles & Singles begin on Monday, May 5th through Saturday May 10th.
The bowling season is almost over with some leagues having only three or four weeks left. Do you want to bowl in the summer? Barbecue has summer leagues as do other establishments around the region. My grandson has already signed up for a summer league. He is eager to learn more about the game and become a little more versatile so he can adjust when the lanes are not working best for him.
Some leagues are not having banquets this year while some are not breaking with tradition and still have them. I can recall leagues from the old Roe's Bowl which had banquets and also conducted a full organizational meeting at the banquet. I went to one where there was a bowler being brought up on charges about not paying his dues as well as discussing changes to handicaps and whether or not continue to give out both scratch and handicap awards as well as election of officers for next season. The meeting lasted over 45 minutes which was prior to the banquet itself. There were many upset/irate bowlers at that banquet as they wanted to eat and receive their awards. One of the leagues I bowled in only had election of officers after all awards were handed out. The other league had an organizational meeting three weeks before the end of the season to elect officers and to finalize the prize list as well as asking the teams if they were all returning next season. So that banquet was a fun one with no business being conducted. With leagues not having banquets, it is probably best to go over these things a week or two before the end of the season to make sure things are in place for the next season.
ADDENDUM:
Tom Mongeon rolled his second perfect game and second 800 series this past Sunday with a 300, 237, 278 for a huge 815 series on lanes 1-2. His first 300 & 800 were on lanes 9-10. The end pairs again are top scoring! Congratulations Tom.