New high score(s)

It had been a while since I broke 200 in a bowling game. So it wasn't likely to happen today when Margie and I went to the lanes.

The first three games were not looking good, as I couldn't seem to find any consistency with my strike ball, and I've struggling with picking up spares lately. I thought I found a solution by letting the ball go late and letting it sail a bit before hitting the lane, but the good results didn't last long. My third game was a 126 and was more miserable than that. But I didn't want to end on such a thud, so I asked Margie if she could bowl two more games and she happily accepted.

With the first ball, I let my follow-through go all the way, and I liked the way it felt and thought that it probably looked good to lookers-on, of which there weren't any, but still. And it seemed to really helped. So I kept it up for my final two games.

That fourth game was a 225, six pins over my previous high score. I had seven strikes in my first nine frames, leaving an open frame that I swore would be converted with what I thought was a perfect shot. (Still no open-frame-free game to my name.) Going into the tenth, I knew that I had a shot at a new high score, but I had to mark, and I completely missed the pocket on the first ball, only knocking down three pins to the right. My second shot was aimed for the 1-3 but slid a little to the 1-2, which is where it should have gone anyway. A spare. I finished with a strike, my eighth of the game, and a new high score.

The next game, I opened with six consecutive strikes. The first half of a perfect score! (Just like my ACT long, long ago.) So I bowled seven strikes in a row. My prior record was five. Each of the shots felt perfect; they all nailed the pocket, and if an occasional ball went Brooklyn, the pin action was superb. My first-non-strike looked as good as any of them, but I left a standing ten-pin, the conversion of which I just missed. I should just start aiming for the six pin for such shots, as I'm tending to throw it in the gutter on ten-pin attempts.

There was only one more strike in the game, but I made the spare in the ninth, and man, what I wouldn't give to have another crack at the standing seven-pin in the tenth. If I had made it, I likely would have broken Digger's high score of 233. I didn't even know what my final score was until I looked, and wouldn't you know it, I bowled another 225. Consistency, eh? There were only seven strikes in the last game, but I never left more than one pin standing. Once I learn to convert those one-pin spares with regularity, I could be a pretty damn good bowler.

Things to remember Dave: ease your stutter-step, as it doesn't need to be so extreme, and continue your follow-through, ending with your hand and arm pointing almost upward, rather than in front of you. I noticed that I'd hold my thumb a little out of the hole, instead of having it all the way in. Don't know if that's a good idea or not.

Margie and I found a nice place close by that supposedly has great open mikes twice a month. We're going to it tonight, and I hope it's the kind of open mike I've yet to find in the Chicago suburbs. If not, maybe I'll start my own. Better meet some fellow musicians first. I don't think Digger singing "Best of My Love" will be enough.