Where to start, this summer is going to be a learning experience for sure.  Seem to have struggled on week 2 more so than week 1.  Week 1, Shark Pattern, finished with a 204 game to shoot 547, I felt comfortable with that one.  Week 2 was another story, same Pattern, struggled with keeping my ball speed consistant and I really wasn't coming out of the ball clean.  At times it seemed like I had the right revs on the ball, but it didn't finish as it had in earlier shots.  Ended up moving deeper in, was still sending it out to where I was earlier and it was finishing, but at times it wanted to hook up on the lanes a little sooner.  I fundamentally was having a tough time.  I shot 498.  Heartbreaking from the previous week.  No excuses, I just bowled poorly.  I am bowling in this league to improve myself, find my weaknesses and improve on them.  I keep a record of every night I bowl in league as well as tournaments to look back later on them.  I have learned from the 1st two weeks to work on shooting straighter at spares, to work on ball speed control.  I really don't throw the ball fast to begin with, but sometimes nerves tend to get you to throw a little faster at times, or get faster with your feet.  I am putting a lot of pressure on myself to bowl well in this league because I do want to bowl in a few regional tournaments next season.  I also would like to bowl in the USBC Masters.

Monday April 14th was our last night for our league.  I wanted to go out with another 700 for the season, and to say the least, I gave 800 a run.  I started out with a 259 1st game, I wasn't thinking much other than keep throwing the ball well.  Then I shot a 278 2nd game, I threw an 8 count in the 5th frame. Now I had thrown 2 really good games, all I wanted to do was to throw a good game, I had been struggling a bit since our county tournament so I really wanted to turn things around.  I was still throwning well, but didn't carry as much as the lanes had finally broke down. I ended with a solid 237 game for a 774, beating my previous High Series of 772.  My better half keeps track of my book for me and tells me, you got 29 strikes tonight.  Finishing with League High Average at 212, High Game Scratch at 295, and High Series Scratch at 774.  I am hoping things carry over to tonight and on into the weekend for the State tournament.

 

Well 2 weeks ago, I had strung the 1st 11, then for some reason I got fast with my feet, ball slid too long, hit way too light left the bucket plus the 7 pin on the left side.  Only got a 5 count.  As a team we beat our high scratch game which has stood since game 3 of the 1st week 883, reset high game scratch at 913. 

We also locked up the league title this season.  Have heard there is talk that some of the other teams want to change the league from a open league to a mixed league cause we won the league this year and yes we do have 4 men on the team.  When this leage started the season before, there were not that many women interested on bowling on Monday nights so it was very difficult to find one so we ended up making it an open league.  We have 2 weeks to come up with a defense of the open league.  We are not the only 4 man men team in the league.  Also there is a team that has 3 women and 1 man that went 7-5 against us this year. Our first meeting they beat us 4-0, then beat us 3-1, the last meeting we beat them 4-0.  At our awards banquet is when we will vote on the rules for next season, so we will have to wait and see if anyone brings it up. 

Just recently competed in our local association tournament.  I knew it was going to be touch to compete for handicap events due to the lack of handicap on my part only 8 pins a set.  So I set out to bowl well scratch, for my scratch all events I shot a 2042 finishing 1st, on the 1st weekend of the tournament.  Ended up 6th for All-Events Hdcp.  On the 2nd weekend shot a 751 scratch in Singles to finish 1st, and ended 4th in Hdcp Singles.  I ended up averaging over 224 for the 18 games I bowled over the two weekends.  I was coming into the tournament with a low series of 641 and high series of 738 over the previous 3 weeks, bowling 2 nights a week.  Currently averaging 209 on Monday and 211 on Thursday.

After the way I felt Sunday I was wondering if I would even be able to bowl on Monday night.  I was not able to use my right arm at all Sunday, still hurt on Monday.  I went bowling anyways, we were bowling a very strong team that night and we needed to win.  We are currently 2nd in the league trying to make our way back to the top.  I was hurting and didn't get a chance to warm up enough in practice, we had lane troubles on one of the lanes... I started out slow, but got on track early, shot 224 the 1st game.... 2nd game started with a strike, then two 8 spares, then it was all strikes for the last 9, shot 268... Last game struggled a bit, couldn't get anything to string, the other team got hot the last game, I ended with a 197, still raised my average from 204 to 206, all in all it was a good night.  We won 3 and lost 1, the 1st place team won 1 and lost 3 so we gained on them, now only 1.5 games behind them now.  They have been our weakness all season, we have bowled them twice so far and they have won every game..... So we are trying to step it up against everyone else hoping it will carry over to when we bowl them. So far we have closed the 7 game lead they had.