Everything Candlepin

This must have been the busiest weekend in the world for bowlers.  Besides the NFL kicking off today, who was working, who was golfing, who couldn’t make it – I ended up making my way up to Lakeside Lanes to throw practice, preview the lane, and hopefully chat with the owner Tim Lipke for a bit.  You’re getting a solo opinion, and that’s not a complaint just stating a fact.

Let me start out by saying, comparatively speaking, these lanes were slippery.  I honestly thought they were worse than Viking – until I got used to it.  Make sure you bring more than one set of pads.  I found out that the lanes and approaches were just refinished last week, so I am sure that in itself had a lot to do with it.  Two boxes in, and it was like old hat.  It’s not bad per se, but it was worse than I was used to there considering I’ve bowled nearly fifteen tournaments there.

The action at Lakeside is great and can borderline on absurd if you’re hitting them.  It’s totally geared toward the left side of the pocket, and that’s one of the unique things about it.  My headpin hits left were crushers compared to being what seemed randomly thin on the right.  I think part of it was that my ball was slightly flat at times on the right side.

I love bowling at Lakeside, I’ve put up some numbers there. I think my favorite moment so far was last year’s Thanksgiving Eve tournament – second shift.  I managed to get a spare in the tenth, and I loaded it up with a hammer, and I stole high single money from Lakeside’s version of “Babe Ruth” – Jimbo Ayotte.  As they say, Lakeside is the house that Ayotte built.  He had some choice words for me, but I can’t post them here.

I think my other fondest memory is three years ago at the best 5-of-7 tournament.  I had to bowl the first shift on Saturday.  I left leading the event.  I called the next night.  I believe I spoke to Bob – though I know he’d want to take credit for crushing me.  “Do you want the good news, or the bad news?”  I said, give me the good news.  “The good news is, you came in second place.  The bad news you lost by a pin.”  It turns out the person that beat me had to throw a 188 with his handicap.  Tim’s tournaments are usually handicapped to 130.  So even if the bowler had a 100 average flat, he still needed a 158 to beat me.  I didn’t throw any 150’s so good for him.

I’ve managed to come in second place twice in that tournament, so it’s been a great house for me.  I know after saying all this if I make the cut, get paired with someone, and do poorly come Saturday, I’m going to get ridiculed.  Such as life for being an author that bowls too.

Another great aspect of Lakeside is that the fact it’s not automatic scoring.  We have to input the scores ourselves.  It makes things so much easier on us on them.

I’ve always been a fan of scoring like this.  Quick, easy, makes moving from one lane to another snap.  Automatic scoring is so bad in candlepin bowling, but that’s a different story for another time.

After I finished bowling, I managed to get some history of the place from Tim Lipke.  It was built in November of 1959.  Tim started working there some time in 1996, and he bought the place for himself on September 1st, 1999.  In 2002, he brought in the Compuscore system you see there today.

After a brief chat about history, we went on to talk about the state of the game.  As far as Lakeside goes, they are fairly steady.  They have about 20 leagues or so on a week to week basis.   Tim said “If centers don’t upgrade they will fail to attract to people.  What I mean by that is, you need to keep the lanes in good condition, you need to offer beer and wine.  It’s not a huge seller, but it’s nice that they know that it’s there for them.”  I went on to say that if you didn’t people would be in the parking lot pre-gaming before coming in.  Tim made me chuckle as he raised his hand said he was his leagues biggest offender!

He also said “It’s hard to get new faces in here because kids have so much to do these days. When I was a kid, there was bowling, indoor basketball, maybe a few other indoor sports.  Bowling held it’s own with those other options.  And let’s not even talk about video games.”

The last thing he added was the amazing work the Pro Series has done revitalizing the game.  Hopefully this leads to bigger and better things.  Next weekend should be a lot of fun.  Tim added that the cut should be about 575-580.  Something to shoot for everyone!  Thanks Tim for everything!