Everything Candlepin

Well, here’s to hoping that I start writing more as my life calms down slightly, and I am actually feeling much better than I had been over the last month.  I apologize for everything, and I truly hope you’ll start coming back more regularly.

Here is the first of many sights and sounds you’ll see from Bangor-Brewer lanes in Brewer, Maine, site of the 2012 Candlepin Worlds Championships.

I had the pleasure of throwing a handful of games Friday night after the first round of the playoffs were through.  The wife and I caught a pretty good dinner at Massimo’s Cucina Italiana and then we went to burn those calories off.

Unfortunately, we didn’t arrive in Maine until late Wednesday night amidst a fairly good wintery storm and I had to teach my math course and couldn’t cancel TWO classes for bowling (though I wanted to).  I missed two days of bowling.  By the time I had thrown my first ball in Bangor, I heard a lot of complaining about the alley.  The action wasn’t good.  The ball returns were slow. It was slippery.  I heard anything and everything imaginable when it came to the lane conditions.  I will fully admit I wasn’t bowling in the tournament, so those things wouldn’t necessarily be an issue for me bowling for fun.  The main complaint seemed to be “slop” on the lanes.

It’s easy to see here – the lanes were filthy.  I can clearly see how this could be a complaint.  Since we were alone in the alley, time wasn’t an issue,  so waiting for the balls was a minor inconvenience.  I opened with a solid 126, hitting some great shots, so I didn’t think the action was bad.  Again, I wasn’t in the tournament.  So hitting a single with wood bowling alone is a HELL of a lot easier than with an entire team rooting for you, and maybe another team jeering you to miss.  But as you can see here, I was six boxes into my second 126, and my hands looked like hell.  I was only 16 boxes in and I had trouble holding onto the ball.  I can’t imagine being someone who bowls nearly all of the 33 games throughout the week.  It’s an issue.  It can’t be denied.  Good luck.  You need a lot of hand washing, or a super wet towel that can potentially minimize the lane conditions.
It’s easy to see after opening with two 126’s that dropping to a 96 with two marks is possible from the filth.  I can see how this is an issue and it should be addressed regardless of being in the tournament or your average customer.

I’m  not saying the pins should fly.  I’m not saying the ball returns should be super fast.  I bowl slowly anyway.  But things should be clean, or somewhat clean.  Bowling is difficult enough and these lane conditions just add to the game that is already maddening enough at times.

I liked the alley for the most part.  I don’t like how the more I bowled the more difficult it was to hold onto the ball.  I don’t generally slam the ball of the lane (save for Woburn – still confuses me) but I was a regular bouncer in the third string.

Overall it wasn’t the worst experience I’ve had in a bowling alley.  The bowlers were right however, the lanes were messy.  The action was okay, but again, I had no pressure.  Hopefully next year, if I am at Halifax, it will be a different story and I can complain about pressure.

Its always great to receive email from readers! As many of you may know, I handle the official Twitter account for the Candlepin Pro Series. One of the most important qualities of Twitter and other social media networking sites is the ability to to connect with others who share the same interests as you. A fine example of this is the following story.

I did a quick search one day for people who were tweeting about Candlepin bowling and came across user @TriciaCawley who tweeted: “Strongly considering a roadtrip to go candlepin bowling. I miss it so freaking much. I wish there was an alley it VT“.  With my self-proclaimed Candlepin expertise, I tweeted her back with a list of the only four Candlepin lanes in Vermont. Thus, I’ve received photos and a brief report of Upper Valley Lanes and Games in White River Junction, VT from Tricia!

Upper Valley Lanes and Games is a facility that features both Candlepin (8 lanes) and ten-pin bowling. We won’t speak of ten-pin, but when it comes to the Candlepin lanes, Tricia had quite a bit to say:

“The lanes themselves were rather dead, no good action,
but I had a blast.”

This had me thinking that Tricia must be a seasoned Candlepin bowler. I fired an email back to her with some pretty heavy questions to which she offered this information:

“I grew up at 21st Century lanes in West Roxbury, then bowled out of Ficco’s Bowladrome in Franklin. My state tournaments were out of Alley Kat in Kingston. My sisters and I had the MA state championship title in our names for about 8 years, and my mother is Cyndi Cawley – who is still very active on the Pro Tour.”

Tricia Cawley, an everythingcandlepin.com reader!

Very exciting! It turns out that Tricia moved up to the Burlington, VT area to work for an automotive group. Burlington, unfortunately, does not feature a Candlepin selection. Luckily, Tricia’s organization has an affiliate in White River Junction and she was able to this a 90 mile business trip…but more importantly, a Candlepin bowling trip. After speaking with the proprietor of the establishment, Tricia learned that Upper Valley Lanes and Games will soon be sanctioned to be able to host a Candlepin league (perhaps ICBA?).

From the looks of the photos that Tricia so graciously submitted, it appears as though the Candlepin lanes feature all wood approaches and lanes with converted ten-pin ball return racks. Scoring is presumed to be semi-automatic, but we can’t say that for sure. Rates are charged per-string (not hourly), and they charge $2.50/string, $3 for shoes. I pass through White River Junction about once a year myself, so I will certainly make it a point to make a stop at Upper Valley next time I’m in the area! Does it get any better than Green Mountains AND Candlepin Bowling? I don’t think so.

I’ll finish by stressing the importance of social media and the impact that his has on Candlepin Bowling. With sites like Twitter, I’m able to tweet to local news figures like Maria Stephanos of Fox25, she always gives us a shout out! Her followers see this, their followers see it, and so-on and so-on. Facebook enables me to spread the word of Pro Series events. And most importantly, YouTube, Candlepin’s greatest social media friend, is an archive for the old Channel 5 shows and Candlepin For Kids.

Be sure to follow the Candlepin Pro Series Twitter account by clicking the button below. If you visit any of the many not-so-common bowling alleys in New England or the Maritime Provinces, let us know and we’ll do our best to feature it!

Follow @candlepinseries

Follow @candlepinfrank

I’d like to start off by saying that I have a cousin who has part ownership share of this country club.  A few years back this country club was going to close.  My mother’s cousin, and a bunch of partners, raised the money and “bought” it so it wouldn’t close.  I will provide you with some shots of the course I took from the balcony of the restaurant we ate lunch at.  It’s interesting to note that one of the club members is former Boston Bruin Raymond Bourque, and the head of membership sales is another former Bruin, Reggie Lemelin.

What you many not know about this interesting little country club lies behind the door in the photo below.

In a room off the massive hallway lies a smaller room with this doorway.  You’d think that it was a closet, but after swiping a security card, pressing in a code, the door unlocks.

Behind the door is an old creaky set of stairs that turn left and then go straight downward to a room below.  You have to be careful because they are “ship stairs”.  Ship stairs being really vertical and not very wide.

Finishing my walk downstairs, I came to the pool table but beyond the pool table were two ancient bowling lanes!  It turns out that the Turner Hill country club has bowling lanes that are nearly 100 years old!  They have the same wooden lanes from when they were installed.  I was able throw three games on lanes and it was an interesting experience to say the least.

The approaches were really, really short.  If you’re a tall bowler, forget it, the approaches are probably two feet too short you.  I was able to manage by starting on the floor behind the approach, but I may have fouled once.  Good thing the Pro Series wasn’t there watching.

I should have taken a shot of the approach as it actually ended before the end of the ball return.  Almost the same action as Viking Recreation, this little alley had it’s share of interesting leaves.  Here are two, of them:

I guess the 2-4-5 isn’t that rare, but it’s just a surprise not to take out any of the pins behind the 2 or the 5 for that matter.  The other, I’ve never witness a pin resting on top of another like that – the bottom pin almost always rolls out from under the other.  I’ve had a couple of fellow bowlers say they witnessed a shot like mine at Metro bowl in Peabody, to which I responded “you left pins standing?” Side note – I picked up the spare.

There are bowling alleys all over New England and I think this was one of the coolest ones.  They even had rails for the kids installed.  It’s quite a hidden gem in New England.  Now if only the Pro Series could have an event there…