Jan

King Of The Palace – New Palace Lanes – Fitchburg, Ma./Big Game – Billy Palumbo

Dear New Palace Lanes,

You’re doing it right.

Right before I threw my first ball for the King Of The Palace tournament, you gave me a tap on the shoulder and said the handicap was based on MY AVERAGE. Correct! That’s how you’re supposed to do it. I applaud you. After registering my 118 average, it turned out I had high average for the tournament, so I get zero. I like the idea of bowling scratch. Add to that point, the number of tournaments I do on a yearly basis might actually equal all the other competitors total tournaments combined. I don’t even want to talk about Friday night. I don’t understand making an arbitrary number like 80% to 130? Why should everyone get pins, makes little to no sense to me. Top average gets zero. Done.

It just made SENSE. Again, New Palace – you’re doing it right.

So what is the King Of The Palace you say? It’s your run of the mill King of the hill (KOTH) but it comes with a twist – you’ll learn about it shortly. This tournament was the first of a series of tournaments at this house. The next one is tentatively scheduled for February 23rd. This KOTH, like others, is a three string qualifier, handicapped at 80% in this case to my 118. So if you had a 112 average walking in the door, you’d get 80% of six pins, or 4.8, rounded down to the lowest whole number – 4.

Once you bowl your three strings, the top five in total pinfall form a ladder. The 5th place bowler faces the 4th place bowler. The winner faces the 3rd place bowler, and so on until a “King” of the hill or ladder is crowned.

I can say honestly it was interesting to be what you’d call a “pro” bowler at this event. I was by no means the best bowler for 30 boxes, but I was the most seasoned. By seasoned, I mean facing competition in tournament settings and otherwise. I’m just saying, I bring a different veteran presence to the building. I think it also showed how little I got flustered when things didn’t go my way, and how I was able to make adjustments on the fly based on lane conditions. It was what it was. I’m not taking anything from the other bowlers there, just that I stick out.

Honestly, that’s neither here nor there. I finished in sixth only because I bowled poorly in the second string. I figured 360 (with handicap) to be the cut, and it ended up being 356. At one point I was the cut, at 345, but one of the bowlers handicaps wasn’t figured in, so that 326 quickly went to 356, and I was out. It was a great experience, and I’m going to be there next month to get into the ladder matches.

The interesting thing with this KOTH is that once you become king, at the next one you are automatically included in the ladder. So Billy Palumbo (who absolutely CRUSHED in the finals) will be the 5th seed and have to march up the ladder to defend. I think that’s awesome. Be different.

Again, New Palace Lanes – you’re doing it right.

Added to that, New Palace has worked out a deal with FATV in the area and the ladder matches are going to be on local TV as well as YouTube. Here we see the set up New Palace had going on before the ladder began. They had four cameras set up. One each on lane 3 and 4 over the pins, and one to the bowlers right on lane six, and a camera on lane 5 facing the bowlers. It was a great setup and looking in the camera near the ball return, it was CRISP, and it captured them throwing perfectly.

I didn’t get a chance to see the other camera in action, and I didn’t want to disrupt the action, so I sat tight and watched some great two string matches. Every now and then I grumbled about a “math error” to the owner, but I was just being a pain. Had I bowled well it wouldn’t have been an issue. I enjoyed it, and I can’t wait to go back.

Good job Billy in racing up the ladder as the 3 seed and congrats on the 180. Oh wait is that a big game? Yep.

Good job New Palace Lanes – You’re doing it right.

I was going to make it a separate post, but it didn’t really make sense. It happened at this tournament, and it’s now a high single for Billy Palumbo. His opponent stepped up and BANG, back door strike. What does Billy do? He calmly CRUSHES the 2-6 pocket and comes up the ladder from the 7 pin to the head pin for a back door strike. His next two were “Baker strikes” – no doubters. As soon as they left his hand, you didn’t need to say “double!” hoping it would happen, it just DID.

I think the thing that shocked me the most is after the three hammers, Billy threw his BEST ball of the first four boxes and left the 7-8-10 with a vertical piece of wood in front of the 7-pin with front part closest to us angled more toward the gutter than the back of the pin. What does Billy do? In a Surette-esque throw, he drilled the wood straight back into the 7- and it shot across to the 8-10, and he picked it up CLEAN. No prayer, no lean, no fist pump. Just a spare, like all in a day’s work.

It was awesome to watch, and seeing a 112 first half is just great. He got totally screwed in the 9th for a spare, and it’s a good thing it was being recorded live because I caught myself. There is a good chance you’re going to hear it on YouTube.

Good job Billy – you’re doing it right.

January 27th, 2013

Rich Limone

Big Games

0 Comment

Jan

Friday Night Pro Week 21

I was going to post all the weeks individually, then I thought in a batch, but I figured you want to just see the latest. I’ve uploaded week 21 for you, and hopefully the updates come in a faster fashion than they have been recently. The latest stats can be found here.

January 23rd, 2013

Rich Limone

Friday Night Pro

0 Comment

Jan

2012 Men’s Worlds – Bangor, Me.

Happy New Year everyone. I know I am behind on this particular post. Not only did I not feel well after returning from Maine, but I also wanted to take some time to let everything settle down and sink in with me.

I’ll be honest. I had full intentions of doing an article telling both sides of the story. I wanted my readers to know everyone’s side – honestly and as unbiased as possible. I wanted to be a reporter. I was covering the tournament. It took me a long time, literally weeks, to go over it in my mind. This site is about the game. It’s not about anything else. I completely respect the opinions of the people I was going to interview and I thank them for the honesty they have always provided me. It is what it is, and I am going to leave it at that.

I was really fired up when I walked in the door Thursday morning, and all I saw was the above. EVERYONE was there. It was the most AWESOME feeling I’ve ever been able to witness in a bowling venue. Talk about being a kid in a candy store. Who do you watch, really? Surette? Holbrook? Ricci? Lapierre? Barber? Mallahan? Whitcomb? Morgan? Baker? Everywhere you turn, greatness. Every name you type, amazing. It’s just that good, and you can’t get enough of the atmosphere. I apologize if I didn’t include your name here as I could easily type every name that was there (and a double apology to our Canadians friends up north, as the only three I really know so far are LeBlanc, Locke, and Seary).

I ended up making it down to the end of the alley where Lucky Strike was facing off against Crazy Train. Here we see Chris Boisvert lining up his next shot before trying to pick up the 2-4-6-7-10. I learned quickly from both sides that much of the week had many a bowler looking at Chris’ particular shot. The term “shoot it over” was heard many times while I was standing there.

Yep, I’m going to say it. Boisvert totally owes me a beer – and not because the shot didn’t go – it wasn’t a bet or anything like that. I owed one, Jeff Surette, a beer. I went over to get one for him and me. As I handed Jeff his, Chris looked like a kid looking at his kid brother and said “for me” with raised eyebrows. I couldn’t deny the look, and I handed him my beer. He even played the part by saying “really?”. He’s a weasel!

You can also see above that Dave Barber and Jeff were standing right near where Chris was about to throw. I learned that the Canadians forced the United States bowlers to act like that. Many years ago the Worlds used to be super, super competitive, slightly less friendly. The Canadians would stand behind the US bowlers and try to rattle their cage – especially new bowlers. I am sure Chris would have been fine in this case as he has made countless shots over the course of his career. It was just amazing to hear that even in the world of bowling, jeering (and less than friendly jeering) can take place on all stages whether it’s the Worlds or not. I hope if I am on a team next year, I have people behind me all the way. One would hope.

Craig Holbrook said it best when I said hello to him Thursday morning. He said “The worlds are like Friday nights on steroids”. Three strings, two points per string, two points for total. Three matches on Tuesday through Thursday, and two matches on Friday. The playoffs start on Friday, with top six from each side getting in, and the top seeds getting byes until the semifinals. Another unique part of this tournament is that you can be subbed for in the middle of a string. It has to be before the sixth box, and you cannot be on a mark. Sometimes a sub can be EXACTLY what a team needs to jump start a rally. It’s an interesting concept, and there is a fine line of when to pull the trigger and when not to pull the trigger. I’ve heard from a handful of captains that it’s common to wait until at least the fourth box as that gives the bowler a chance on both lanes.

I also had my first real experience with the Canadian folks. I can say it was interesting to say the least. One of the more friendly (and flirty) bowlers was one Calvin Locke. He is a great bowler – really, really smooth with his approach. The pins explode when he throws in what appears to be so little effort. He was all smiles while winning his second round playoff match. While he came over to watch the end of the Lucky Strike v. Extreme TNT match, one of the other Canadian bowlers asked Calvin what lanes they were bowling on in their next match. He responded defiantly “whichever lanes USA East juices the most”. There was a round of chuckles, and that’s when I introduced myself and said that you don’t know who’s listening when you speak. I told him I was going to quote him – and he said “by all means, you can tell them I said that”. Well, there it is in black and white.

There’s our boy in the flesh getting all friendly with the missus. It’s a good thing he behaved because even though I didn’t play ice hockey, doesn’t mean I don’t know how to hockey fight! I’m sure he knows I’m talking a good game and it’s all in good fun.

Calvin is an incredible competitor and he is the cohesiveness that keeps his team together was a site to behold. I can see why he leads them out of the gate. I watched during the second playoff match and into the early stages of the match with USA East how he works bowling first. He’s great at continuing where their anchor left off, and if they need a spark he is usually the one to ignite it.

I did hear some minor grumbling that people won’t miss Serge Babin (not him specifically – I promise). The entire week whenever Serge would get a mark, the entire left side of the tournament would hear Calvin’s distinctive roar “Sergio Valente Castillo Garcia, OLE!” Usually he would get the entire team to say “Ole” and their captain and anchor Brian Bernatchez would come in oh so late and say “Ole” on his own much to the chagrin of Calvin. I just had to mention his chant. I wasn’t going to let it go. I thought it was awesome. On a sad note, the video I caught with the iPhone is rather terrible and converting it didn’t help either.

I think the one thing to note about all of this, the venue made it very difficult to watch the finals. It just seemed like the place was set up in such a way that I could only enjoy the scores being written down instead of the bowling itself. Congratulations to Fairlanes A+ Pelham in their convincing win over USA East in the finals. I wish I could have watched a little more closely.

If I do get to bowl, I hope I hear “SERGIO VALENTE CASTILLO GARCIA, OLE!” all week, I’m sure no matter what it will be worth it. The worlds are unbelievable and if you can go and watch, please do. Make a trip of it. It’s an amazing experience and one you don’t want to miss. Either way I think I’m taking a week off of work to go to Halifax next year.

January 23rd, 2013

Rich Limone

Worlds

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Jan

Bober Blasts at Bogey

Bogey Lanes in East Brookfield, MA hosted the WNECA tour on Sunday, January 6. A total of 15 bowlers took the field this time around, and by golly, there wasn’t a single withdrawal!

Here’s a look at the top 5 qualifiers:

1. Brian Mayer – 658
2. Rich Bober – 648
3. Rich Myrick – 642
4. Korey Packard – 640
5. Scott Caddell – 618

-Notable Scores-
Jason Gauthier – 612
Steve Renaud, Sr. – 609
Dave Dupuis – 606
Steve Vadney – 602

-Whoa-
Steven Renaud, Jr. – 532

The first knockout match between Scott Caddell and Korey Packard was close the entire string. Caddell made the 3-5-6 late in the match for a spare while Packard left himself the 5-6-10 with little to no help. Packard was unable to convert the shot, allowing Caddell to seal up the match, 114-112.

After a ton of warm-up boxes, I took on Scott Caddell. There was absolutely nothing to see here for 6 boxes, as we were even at 63 apiece going into the 7th. Caddell threw back to back spread eagles in the 7th and 8th, and I put a few spares together to win 141-114.

The term ‘flat as a pancake’ gets thrown around less and less these days, and that’s probably a good thing, but I was pancake-flat against Bober. His hot start of 9-drop, spare, strike had me on the ropes from the first ball forward. Bober cruised to an easy 129-100 win and advanced to the finals against top seed Brian Mayer.

The term ‘flat as a pancake’ gets thrown around more and more these days, and while my breakfast came with syrup, Mayer’s came with a punch in the face. Bober put 4 marks together in the first half and Brian had so many splits I thought the automated scoreboard was going to run out of red marks. Bober going away, 144-103.

That’s 2 out of 3 for Rich Bober, defeating Mayer both times in the finals. He is an early favorite for bowler of the year, but there are still 3 more events. The next WNECA pro tour event is at Canal Lanes, Sunday February 3, at 12 pm. Walk-ins are welcome for $75, we hope to see you there!

January 12th, 2013

Richie Myrick

WNECA

0 Comment

Jan

WNECA French King Round-up

French King Entertainment Center in Erving, MA was the place to be December 2nd as a field of 19 rocked their bodies to the left for a shot at a WNECA title.

I led qualifying with 659. Aaron Spiller and his 641 edged Dave Dupuis by a pin for the #2 seed, and there was a 4-bowler battle going into the final game for the #4 and #5 seeds.

Glenn “Oscar” Ares ended up finishing 4th with 606, while Ed Tringale snuck by Brian Mayer for the #5 seed. Brian threw a strike in the 50th frame of qualifying, but punched through twice for 5 on the fill, missing the cut by a single pin, 601-600. Fun Time event winner Rich Bober finished with 595.

Keeping with the theme of the day, Tringale crept by Oscar in the first knockout match by (guess what) a single pin, 122-121. From there, no one was beating Eddie T.

Tringale 140-136 Dupuis
Tringale 120-105 Spiller
Tringale 120-110 Myrick

Running the ladder is rare, but Ed has now done it twice over the last two seasons. Its difficult to roll 35-40 quality boxes in just as many minutes against 4 separate opponents. Congrats to Ed on his 2nd WNECA victory!

Coverage of the much more recent WNECA tour at Bogey Lanes from Sunday will be posted soon! How soon? Well that remains to be seen.

January 11th, 2013

Richie Myrick

WNECA

0 Comment

Dec

Bangor Brewer Lanes – Brewer, Me.

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.

December 28th, 2012

Rich Limone

Bowling Alleys

0 Comment

Dec

Friday Night Pro Week 14

Hello everyone,

So we started our “2nd, 3rd” if that make sense to you all. The first home match in this third counts toward our away average that establishes our individual prizes at the end of the season.

Updated stats can be found here.

December 28th, 2012

Rich Limone

Friday Night Pro

0 Comment

Dec

Friday Night Pro Week 13

Hello,

Adding to our posting, Week 13 can be found here.

December 6th, 2012

Rich Limone

Friday Night Pro

0 Comment

Dec

Friday Night Pro Week 12

Hello everyone. I’ve been out of commission for past few weeks, and I apologize. This site is going to get crushed with posts in the near future, and I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy posting it.

For those of you that follow Friday night, week 12 is here, and I will be updating more soon!

Thanks for your understanding.

December 6th, 2012

Rich Limone

Friday Night Pro

0 Comment

Dec

Big Game – Nuge/Hammer/Zap

Last night, my Candlewood teammates and I had the honor of bowling against some of the game’s absolute finest. Not only in terms of talent, but in terms class, the guys of 20th Century Lanes’ Friday Night Pro League team are top notch. Their captain, John Zappi and I were discussing the content of the blog and he busted my chops by saying “When the hell are you gonna put the 500 up, dude?”. Of course, bowling would not be bowling without busting a little chops here and there, and John had every right to do so because I promised him a couple months back that I was going to post this. Not only that, but he was part of an absolutely amazing feat that took place on April 24, 2012.

It was position night of the third round at the Woburn Tuesday Night Triples league, meaning it was money night. Teammates John Zappi, Stu “Hammer” Bergman, and John Nugent were battling Brian Crowell’s team on Lane 30. Sadly, this was the last night of league bowling for the “Nuge” that we have all come to know and love. Nobly, Nuge decided to relocate to Florida shortly after to be with his daughter. We all know that they don’t have Candlepin bowling in Florida, which is sinful living. Needless to say, he went out with a bang. The entire house was roaring as Hammer threw five marks in a row for an impressive 180 game. Next up was Zap, who ALSO threw five marks in a row – including a triple strike – for an incredible 191 string. If I remember correctly, this was NOT his only 190 string of the year since I remember him hitting the four bagger earlier on in the year.

If you look closely, you’ll notice what kind of opportunity Nuge was facing. Hammer and Zap set him up with a chance for a 500 team triple….a VERY rare occurrence. After a 9-box and a 10-box, Nuge started to turn up the heat. He drops a hammer in the 8th box with a 6-fill. A 9-box in the ninth was JUST enough to give Nuge a chance to clinch the 500 string provided he marked in the final box and filled it with a 10. Easy, right? What does he do? He drops a HAMMER and fills it with a spare to give his team a 500 team single! Woburn bowladrome – in it’s entirety – was going nuts!! I think it’s fair to say that the majority of people who were there had never seen anything like this before, including me. Truly awesome.

Congratulations guys….Nuge/Hammer/Zap, this one’s for you!

December 2nd, 2012

Frank DeLuca

Big Games

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Nov

Big Game, Bigger Series – Brian Mayer

Awesome bowling at Fun Time Lanes last night by Brian Mayer. A 182 third game to cap off a 487 series, which ties his highest career triple! Working on a double strike with a chance at 500 in the last box, Brian ripped out the 1-5-9-10 on the first ball, and then took just the 2 pin on the second ball. Tough way to finish an otherwise incredible night!

November 24th, 2012

Richie Myrick

Big Games

0 Comment

Nov

Friday Night Pro Week 11

Fresh off a trip to the worlds, I have the latest update for the Friday night Pro League. The updated standings can be found here.

A full update of the worlds will be coming shortly.

November 13th, 2012

Rich Limone

Friday Night Pro

0 Comment

Nov

Quick Worlds Update

Most people in the bowling community use Voy, but for those that don’t.

Click here for the stats on the Worlds. The ID is 21302.

Once you put in the number, you can see each “week”. The first match is actually week 2 in the drop down.

November 7th, 2012

Rich Limone

Resources

0 Comment

Nov

Friday Night Pro Week 9 and Week 10

Hello everyone,

With the Worlds this week, the Friday night season comes to a halt, so not much to report – except a big game!

Candlewood and EverythingCandlepin’s own Frank De Luca threw a big game Thursday night November 1st, at Woburn Bowladrome. This match was our double match with Woburn I. Frank owned the first string starting with his spare in the second. He followed with a four bagger, and finished with three more spares for eight in a row! He got totally cheated on a spare in the tenth box for a 200 game, settling on an amazing 197. Last box, he had the four horseman right, along with the 7 and 9 pins. He absolutely drilled the right side and the head pin and a piece of wood missed the 7 pin, sadly.

Frank finished with a 421 for total which was Candlewood’s first 400 this season!

The thing I will remember about it were the third and fourth hammers. The third one was an absolute crusher except for the 4 and 5 pins. It took what seems like hours for the 4 to tip into the 5 for the triple! Upon hitting reset, I said to Frank “This time with a little bit more authority, so we don’t have to hold our breath waiting for the four to hit the five!” With a wave of his hand as if to say “shut the hell up right now,” he dismissed my words, and then dismissed the fresh rack with another solid hammer.

Frank took over league high single in the Friday night league and helped those pesky Candlewood kids to take six points from a really solid Woburn I team on their home turf. Our next match with them at home should be interesting.

Here are Week 9 and Week 10.

Way to go Frank! Here is Frank’s first string from that amazing night!

November 7th, 2012

Rich Limone

Big Games, Friday Night Pro

0 Comment

Nov

Big Game – Jerry Martin

As time marches on, we get more and more emails about big games. We want to hear about all of them! I am going to post the images and reach out to Jerry Martin to get more of his take of historic night on April 6th, 2012.

Seems like Fairlanes keeps seeing big game after big game! You can see here that Jerry starting out with a four-bagger and that is a great way to get you toward a 200 game. Jerry managed to finish with a great total of 202! Way to go Jerry, and good luck on your next one!

On the right we can see the scoresheet for his entire team included with their handicaps. I bet Jerry’s handicap wasn’t 9 the following week!

November 3rd, 2012

Rich Limone

Big Games

0 Comment

Oct

Candlepin Pro Series Season 4, Event #4 – Singles Knockout

Another exciting Pro Series tournament took place on Saturday October 20, 2012 up in Westbrook, ME. As Rich spotlighted in a previous post, the tournament was held at West-Port Lanes where proprietors Rose and Pam treated the Pro Series with utmost hospitality! This tournament was a five-string qualifier and required two shifts. As some readers may have realized, I’ve been adding a personal perspective to my Pro Series write-ups, and I’m going to just that.

I decided to bowl during the first shift because it gives me an opportunity to catch up with other bowlers that I haven’t seen over the last month since the prior tournament. The first shift was quite small, only 17 bowlers, and I happened to come in third for the first shift with a 576. I’m certainly not bragging because there were some pretty serious scores posted during this tournament especially considering how tough the house was (in my opinion). The reason I say that this place is tough is because the drops that people were getting after their first ball were extremely unpredictable. Pocket shots were not guaranteed to leave you with a nice spare leave. This, of course, could just sum up to the fact that this is a type of house that I’m simply not used to bowling at. I grew up at Malden Sq. Bowladrome. For those familiar with this house, you understand that it is moderately fast. Luckily, 576 was enough for me to make the cut! I placed twenty-fifth out of the top thirty-two bowlers.

Upon the conclusion of the second shift, I found out that I would be going against Nick Norcross. If you noticed Nick’s qualifying score of 634, you’ve also noticed that I had an uphill battle. I’ve known Nick for quite a while now, and he’s a great bowler so I felt a little bit of pressure. I started off fairly well, and for about three boxes or so, I had the lead. But do you remember what I said about this place being tough? This comes into place with the fills that I dropped on my spares. I remember having at least one 3-fill, which was a killer. Nick maintained his calm-natured approach and pinned very well. He picked up a couple more spares than I did to finish with a 120. My final score was a 106, and the fills on my spares made all the difference (in addition to the fact that I missed a single pin spare!).

From then on I was a spectator, and I got to watch some pretty diesel matches. I even got to keep score for Dean Sullivan and Steve Walker. I must say….Dean Sullivan is unstoppable! (Well, almost). I’ve never seen him bowl before and he charges hard. Not only were his qualifying scores high, but his elimination round scores were intimidating as well. He seemed to have run out of steam in the finals match while facing Jimbo Ayotte, who threw a sensational 155 string to crown himself the 2012 Candlepin Pro Series Singles Knockout Champion.

To wrap up, (and I said I was going to get personal here) what I’m most happy about with this tournament is that I qualified for my favorite format tournament. If you look back at Rich Limone’s Bowler Spotlight on me, I mentioned that the singles events are my favorite because you have to qualify on your own and march through the knockout/elimination rounds on your own. Though I didn’t make it much farther than the qualifying round, I came through and I can be proud about that.

With this, we look onward to the November Candlepin Pro Series Tournament which is a Doubles Knockout being held at Lucky Strike Lanes in Lynn, MA which is the home of the Barber family! Details of this tournament can be found on the Pro Series Website.

As always, remember to follow the Candlepin Pro Series Twitter account @candlepinseries. You can also follow my personal Candlepin Twitter account by following @CandlepinFrank!

Follow @candlepinseries

Follow @candlepinfrank

October 29th, 2012

Frank DeLuca

Pro Series

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Oct

Friday Night Pro Week 8

Full standing for week 8 can be found here.

We have our double match this week, besides having matches on October 26th and November 2nd we will have a match in between the two dates. My impression is that the 26th will be in Week 9, and the following match and November 2nd will be in Week 10. Again, only a guess.

Update: So when someone handsome emails you, you listen. Thanks Dennis! That was kind of messy. Got it now. October 26th is week 9, the extra match is week 10, November 2nd is week 11. I butchered it. Most likely the standings will be posted with week 9, and then week 10 and 11 in conjunction. I think that’s what I was for with that ugly little sentence, yeah.

October 23rd, 2012

Rich Limone

Friday Night Pro

0 Comment

Oct

Pro Series Event #4 – Singles Knockout

One thing I’ve come to learn while bowling is consistency. Up at West-Port Lanes in Westbrook, Maine this past weekend the Pro Series had it’s fourth event – third counting for points. This time it was the singles knockout. Everyone throws their five strings and the top thirty two faces off in the knockout. In this event there are no byes, so it’s 1 vs. 32, 2 vs, 31 and so on.

The best part of my day as you can see on the right was Pam’s “Ball Scoopah”. During the first string one of my balls came off the ball return and was off the alley. Pam had to use the ball scoopah to grab it for me before the start of the second string.

So back to consistency. In practice I was smooth as silk. Pins were FLYING compared to the week earlier when I practiced with Frank and my darling, loving WIFE Anna (see, there it is, in black and white, I said my wife!). The big thing with West-Port Lanes is that you have to take what it gives you. You have to be consistent – which I clearly wasn’t. I started out well throwing a 114 and a 111.

There were these people back in US History, they had these little carts pulled by horses to go out west toward California – yeah, that’s it, wagons! Right! My wagon could have had steel wheels soldered with titanium and they still would have fallen off with how I poorly bowled in the third and fourth. I became in one word – erratic. I started moving around, thinking I was too far back, I tried mixing speeds, or even changing the angle of my arm. I should have stayed in the SAME spot, and kept the SAME angle, and maybe the same speed depending on the shot. I was just a mess. I finished 60th in the qualifying round with a 519, and that nets me five Pro Series points which is better than getting zero points all together. I know what I did wrong, and I need to keep that in mind for future events. If you’re in a place where your hitting the 2-pin or the 3-pin instead of the head pin, learn quickly how to crush it until you find that headpin. The key is not doinking just the 2-pin or the 3-pin which I did – only once so not bad in 50 boxes. It was a tough house and I loved it. I had a lot of fun bowling, and it was great hanging out with those guys up there.

Now onto the cut.

I’m going to leave out scores and such. I am sure that Everything Candlepin’s Pro Series writer Dave Barber will cover many of those scores for you. You’ll also be able to find everything at the Pro Series site once it’s posted.

The knockout for this event is cool because of the scoring system. Since it’s the one that projects and you write the scores, the bowlers in the knockout don’t score themselves. So even though I was eliminated I was still part of it (sort of). I managed to score two first round matches – the first being Craig Holbrook vs. Jeff Surette and the second being Jonathan Bourdreau vs. Steve Walker. Two great matches out of the gate. I can write it cause it’s true. Jeff struggled most of the day, and his highlight, and mine for that matter was when I got him a beer after a particularly tough half and he said “I love you”. I think he said I love you one time more than my darling, loving wife Anna did while in the bowling alley on this day! Back to the knockout. Craig Holbrook caught the breaks, and carried the pins and bowled well. I watched as Jeff doinked the 2-pin just as I did, and I think that summed up his day pretty well. Any chance that he had to claw back West-Port lanes said “no”. Such is life.

The second match was just as entertaining as the first. Jonathan and Steve battled back and forth and the lead changed hand a few times as marks just kept happening on opposite boxes. It was close until the very end of the match as Steve pulled out two quick spares, and managed to edge Jonathan moving onward to the round of sixteen. Watching Craig, Jeff, Jon, and Steve bowl on those lanes I can’t imagine what it was like qualifying on those lanes – they just looked tough.

During the round of sixteen I watched Jay Shiner square off with Pro Series vet Chris Boisvert. Chris is simply Chris. It’s not the New England Patriots philosophy on defense of “bend don’t break” because Chris doesn’t bend – ever. He’s one of the steadiest bowlers on tour and when it comes to the knockout rounds he’s even tougher. That’s not to say his opponent didn’t have a shot. Jay Shiner stepped in fresh off a 391 the night before at Central Park Lanes in East Boston – helping an upstart Candlewood squad take eight points off of Central I, a tough team in any building. I’ve seen people throw perfect games before, but Jay threw TWO IN A ROW in the second and third string Friday night. Not only that, but he also dispatched Scott Lapierre in the first round as well, certainly no joke in the Pro Series. If there was a bowler that could come in and do something silly it could be Jay. Unfortunately for both bowlers, West-Port once again said “no!” and the game was a battle of attrition as tens and nines were going to win this match, not marks since pins were left all over the deck no matter where they both hit. Chris showed his veteran presence and capitalized when he could to advance to the next round. Jay summed up the match by saying blankly “I lost the head pin and I don’t know where it went”. Winning the first match is tough enough, carrying the momentum forward is no easy task. We’ll get ‘em at the next event Jay when we’re at Lucky Strike.

I don’t want to detail everything, so will leave some of that to Frank De Luca and Dave Barber as they will also post about this event. Since Windell Middlebrooks couldn’t make it Maine, Miller High Life hired a new delivery guy. Here is Mike MacIntosh paying for the bar bill at the event directly to Miller High Life.

Can you see how full that envelope is? I know that we can drink, and I was part of it, but did we drink that much? Okay, so really we know that this isn’t the delivery guy, but Jimbo Ayotte, one of New Hampshire’s finest. He was our eventual champion on the day defeating foe after foe in the early rounds and finishing off Dean Sullivan in the final. There will be coverage of the finals coming up shortly.

Needless to say, Windell Middlebrooks is the Miller High Life delivery guy from the TV commercials.

Way to go Jimbo!

Thank you to West-Port Lanes for a fun filled day. You made it extra special for us and we wouldn’t change it for the world. Thanks again! We hope to see you soon.

October 23rd, 2012

Rich Limone

Pro Series

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Oct

Big Game – Bent’s Contracting

Fellow Candlewood teammate Justin Scali passed along a note to me that the Bent’s Contracting string was caught on film by John “Urbie” Kafalas.

Here is the video – in the flesh!

October 21st, 2012

Rich Limone

Big Games

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Oct

Big Game – Bent’s Contracting

Big game after big game, this is great! I got another email from Kenj a few minutes ago so I will share it with you here and now. I don’t even want to ruin it by saying the total, but I will say this much, it’s the new Canadian Team world record – and 36 marks in 50 boxes will do it for you.

Submitted by Kenj, fellow fan of bowling up in Nova Scotia, Canada to everythingcandlepin.com

October 18th, 2012

Rich Limone

Big Games

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Oct

Big Game – Adam Melanson

Here at everything candlepin we love hearing about big games – even if they aren’t recent like Nick Norcross or Josh Lowell. I got an email this morning from Canadian bowler Adam Melanson. He sent along some images of his house record breaking string from January 30th, 2009.

Adam busted out with a five bagger, and followed by sparing four of the final five boxes with some great fills on the spares. The five bagger was important to the string no doubt, but the 35 pins of fills on the spares where just as important. Big games take a little luck, a lot of skill, and capitalizing whenever possible. It’s clear that Adam had it all working on this day.

Here is a clearer shot of the scoresheet from Adam’s historic day. Adam accomplished the feat at Fairlanes in Montcon, New Brunswick.

I think my favorite part is knowing that he played hooky in order to go to the bowling alley. He is an email from Adam proving the crime of skipping school!

I was sixteen when I threw the it and I left my class early that day to get to the three day tournament earlier. The tournament was a 560 team cap tournament. The previous house record [was established in 1992]. I will remember that string ball by ball for the rest of my life.

I think one thing to note on top of Adam’s huge day is the bowling by the rest of team. Not to be out done, the other four members of his team went 499. Throwing scores of 95, 149, 132, and 123 they certainly chipped in toward their total of 722. That’s a hell of a total for a five man team. Hopefully that total was enough for you to win the tournament outright.

Here are two more photos depicting Adam’s big day. I think the pin is fantastic. Congratulations Adam on your achievement and thanks for sharing – we appreciate it.

Keep those big games coming folks!

October 18th, 2012

Rich Limone

Big Games

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Oct

A History Lesson From Kenj

Being only 34, I’ve missed A LOT of candlepin bowling on TV, in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and Canada. I got an email when I first started this little adventure from Loretta and Ken up in Canada about adding a term to the glossary which we have. I know my Friday night teams gets annoyed when I scream “julian” for back door anything, but they deserve to be annoyed.

I got a little history lesson from Kenj, and I’d like to share that with you. I hope that this is something that becomes a recurring theme here at Everything Candlepin, and that’s not directed at Kenj specifically, it’s aimed at everyone that’s a fan and has something to share. If someone has a story they think the candlepin bowling world should hear about, feel free to send it along to me at rlimone@everythingcandlepin.com.

Teams For the Hall of Fame:

There may never be a Nova Scotian in the Candlepin Hall of Fame. There has been many a great roller from this farthest point east, that candlepin has reached. However we, Bluenosers have been very lax record keepers. Wilbur Martell owner of an alley in Halifax once held the Candlepin Record [high] single of 213, done on wooden pins. Back in his day there were few tournaments and the closest thing to a World’s was likely the Maritime and Eastern Maine Tournament. In 1905 The Bottle Pin Trophy was donated by the Brunswick Balke-Collender Company for this tournament and the original was replaced in 1932 with a new shiny replica, that was played for up into the mid-sixties. I can’t tell you when the US teams finally dropped out but I can tell you that Houlton, Maine won the trophy twice, and the last record for the tournament being held in Houlton that I have was in 1956; Eastport Maine Browns won three times and Calais Maine one time; these numbers dwarf for The Saint John Blacks won this award twenty-one times.

One day perhaps the Hall will honor teams and records like this which are documented will prevail.

Other Nova Scotians worthy of recognition might include Jack James and Gerry Levy; their exploits are still spoken of and in the mid sixties both travelled to Bangor for a World’s Singles event and finished second and third; Jack lost by a single pin and Gerry was six back. Jack spoke on television that he felt Gerry had been cheated of the victory being called on a lob that robbed him of an eight count on a spare; in Jack’s words; “…no one in Nova Scotia could ever say that Gerry had lobbed a ball in his life…”

When I became proficient enough to be on a Tournament team, and being a “terrible fan” of our game, I made sure to look at the records boards in every alley I went in; all of those built prior to 1969 the high singles and triples were all held by Gerry Levy. Most of those buildings have long since been torn down, made into parking lots, shopping malls and their records ?

Teams from Halifax, Nova Scotia have impressive records in the modern World’s Tournament, their individual stars have earned solid reputations in the candlepin world but unless they’ve maintained flawless scrapbooks they’ll never see their names nominated, there’s no governing body keeping any records for these chaps here. Their individual exploits are ripples on the water that fade in memory and like the water that returns to a mirror-like appearance they are gone. My advice to all local up and comers – keep your own records, score sheets, press clippings; never know someday some old geezer like me might want to nominate you – and we’ll need proof that you were that good.

I really appreciate the email and I think it’s great to get a glimpse into Canada. I hope this email is the start of something that can be a regular occurrence on Everything Candlepin. Keep them coming folks, and I hope to hear from you soon.

I received a second email shortly after with some trivia from Kenj for added information and some humor.

Bowling once became so popular in England that in 1366 King Edward III passed a law to forbid the people from playing it. He was afraid that men wouldn’t spend enough time practicing their archery skills which was so important to the military of the day.

Sir Francis Drake must have believed in pleasure before business because he insisted on finishing his game of bowling before sailing off to destroy the Spanish Armada in 1588.

There are written records that go back to the year 300 AD that show that bowling occurred in the Monasteries of Europe. People often carried clubs in those days and the Priests as a teaching aid would stand the club up a distance away and tell the peasants it stood for the evil of the devil and they were given a large stone to roll at the club. If the peasant hit the club he was praised but if he missed he was told to go and lead a better life. This took hold of the people who soon were practicing “bowling”.

Tell everyone to think of this on their next nine pin break!

Hope to hear from Kenj again as well as other writers out there!

Article submitted by Ken Jollymore, fellow fan of bowling up in Nova Scotia, Canada to everythingcandlepin.com

October 17th, 2012

Rich Limone

Guest Author, Resources

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Oct

Bober Fires up at Fun Time

The 2012-2013 WNECA Pro Tour is off and running, with Rich Bober laying claim to the opener in impressive fashion.

With many familiar faces not in attendance, a field of 15 took to Fun Time Lanes in Holyoke, MA for the 5-string qualifying round. There was not a lot of noise being made early on, with just one 400 series belonging to Steve Renaud, Sr. after the 3rd string.

After a tough 4th game from Renaud, a nice 150 string vaulted Brian Mayer and his obnoxious purple USA East shirt (sorry, I had to) to the #1 seed, which he sealed up nicely in the 5th game. The rest of the seeding came down to the final half, with most of the field in contention for the last 4 seeds. Here were the top 5 qualifying scores and notables who were just a mark away.

Brian Mayer – 645
Rich Bober – 630
Steve Renaud, Sr. – 627
Aaron Spiller – 615
Steve Vadney – 609

Gary Santora – 601
Dave Dupuis – 601
Ed Tringale – 600

The first knockout match featured #5 Vadney versus #4 Spiller. This was a clinic in candlepins by Aaron Spiller. After *just* sneaking by a single in the opening box, Aaron put together 7 straight marks, including a double strike you probably could have heard across town. Needing another pair of strikes in the 10th for a chance at 200, he chopped through and settled for a 183-101 victory over the Hall of Famer Vadney.

Spiller cooled off a bit early in the next match against the #3 seed Renaud, but managed a spare at the half. Meanwhile, Steve Renaud couldn’t buy a break. After putting a great ball on the cluster of 5 (3-5-6-9-10 pins) and leaving the 9 pin wiggling to finish off the half, it was clear that this wasn’t his match. Spiller, who will be bowling with Renaud and Extreme TNT this year at the Worlds in Bangor, had a pair of early second half marks to put this one on ice, 118-108.

The match of the day by far was the semifinal affair between Spiller and another Extreme TNT teammate, #2 seed Rich Bober. Spiller started big again and was up nearly 20 at the half. Bober was not to be denied though, as he ran off 4 consecutive spares with big fills while Spiller was held to 9s and 10s. When Spiller was unable to make a mark in the final frame, Bober pinned out to win a 135-132 come-from-behind thriller.

The final match was all Bober from the beginning as he posted early consecutive marks. The #1 seed Brian Mayer never found the rhythm until he finally spared in the 10th box, of course to a nice mock cheer from his friends and fellow bowlers. Bober took home this one 132-102 to win the opening event.

Despite having just 15 bowlers at this event, Rich Bober will receive a nice check for $400. Looks like his season is paid for! All other ladder participants will also receive checks. $25 will also be given to the bowler with the high single out of the money. All payouts are tentative based on turnout, so obviously the more people the bigger the prizes!

There will be no WNECA Pro Tour event in November. Instead, the next event will be December 2nd at French King Entertainment Center in Erving, MA. The Tour will also be bowling at Bogey Lanes, North Star Bowl, and Canal Lanes. There is the potential for an event at either Agawam or Diamond Junction to round out the schedule, details to follow. WNECA is hoping to see those familiar faces back next month at French King!

October 16th, 2012

Richie Myrick

WNECA

0 Comment

Oct

Friday Night Pro Week 7

Congrats Chris Harris on the dominant 442 at Central Lanes this week! I hope you got that out of your system…

Full standings are available for download right here.

October 16th, 2012

Rich Limone

Friday Night Pro

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Oct

Westport Lanes – Westbrook, Me

This past Sunday morning Frank De Luca, Anna and I had the pleasure of taking the trip up to Westbrook, Maine to preview the alley for the Pro Series event. The singles knockout tournament is going to take place this coming Saturday, October 20th. The shift times are 1:00 PM and 4:00 PM. The singles events are great. Go in, throw your five strings, throw your game, qualify in the top 32 and let the fun begin. I qualified for this even two years ago in Concord at Boutwell’s. It should be fun.

Let me tell you this place is great. It’s run by two firecracker women in Pam and Rose. Rose is the owner’s mother in law. She is quite the character and I wish she was at every Pro Series event or we had every event at West-port Lanes. Needless to say, our first conversation started with her making fun of me. I will leave the details out, but after I returned from the rest room her wisecrack was “still thinking of a comeback for that one?”. Yeah, she might make fun us more than we make fun of ourselves. It should be interesting to say the least. To add to that, she said she said she was out of work for a period of time, and her son in law asked her to work a couple of days at the alley, and 26 years later she is still there. She told me that she worked in with electrical equipment and services all the machines herself. Included in that skill set must be the doorbells for reset buttons which is great. We couldn’t decide if a strike should be called a “ding dong” or just “ring the bell”. I’m sure we will hear both if people read this post before the tournament.

After making fun of me for being a “professional” bowler, she told us that this house was tough, and it wasn’t fast at all. The bowling alley was built in 1966 and the new and current owners bought the place in 1967. It has all the original equipment. The most interesting thing has to be the pinsetters. If you think Lanes N’ Games in interesting you need to watch these reset. The rack comes down into place, and then the pins slide in from the top into each corresponding hole making what appears to be a perfect rack every time. There is a MASSIVE delay in waiting for the pinsetters to come back up, but when it does, the pins are never wobbling at all. You fast bowlers better learn some patience on Saturday. The pinsetters are LOUD too. It’s going to be a fun day that’s for sure. I managed to make some pins come out from the deck so Frank grabbed the pin and snapped a photo of the pinsetters as best he could. Thanks Frank!

On the right we can see the pinsetters. It’s so interesting to see them in action. I have a second photo which shows a slightly better angle of the chutes that feed the tubes albeit a little blurrier. We did the best we could on this day. It was a great day overall and it wouldn’t be natural if I wasn’t a smartass back toward Rose and Pam, so I had to ask the question. Why are you called West-Port Lanes in Westbrook, that’s just confusing. It turns out the bowling alley is called West-Port Lanes because it’s on the Westbrook-Portland line. They were both awesome and it’s kind of sad this place is so far away. If it were closer, I bet it would be a packed house.

Onto the bowling. Before we started Rose asked what lanes we wanted. I said put us on lane eight, whatever, it didn’t matter really. She responded by saying that it was the toughest lane in the house, and their top average was 111. So we were a little hesitant stepping up to the lanes. You could tell the pins were heavy. I would compare it to a combination somewhere between Wakefield and Central Lanes two of the toughest houses around. I don’t want to scare anyone but Frank completely annihilated the place, 130-110-135 for a 375 on the morning. I struggled in the first string, but bowled well overall. Here it is, in writing, Anna beat me 99-91 the first string. I bounced back mightily in the second string once I figured the lane out. I finished with five in a row to throw a 128, and the five marks included picking up the 4-7-10. After I filled my 4th and final spare with a “ding dong”, the light above the lane came on and we had to move to lane 6. I didn’t make the adjustment and bowled poorly the third string finishing with a 101, for a 320 which is kind of blah. This is truly and honest house. Nine and ten boxes are going to help you make the cut since we are going to see our share of six and sevens I’m sure, even from the best bowlers.

West-port features ice cold beer, so I know a handful of bowlers that are going to be happy even if the lanes aren’t forgiving to them. They have food there too, in case you need a pick me up. Not that I want to take anyone away from the lanes during the event but there are a McDonald’s, Burger King, and KFC/Taco Bell all within walking distance of the alley if you’re looking for something different. It should be a great competitive event. If you’re on the fence, you should come down. You never know what’s going to happen once you start bowling. Who knows, you may own the place!

Here is the other photo of the pinsetters. You can see the chutes slightly better. I truly believe this setup is amazingly unique in the way it sets the pins down for a new rack. Why more alleys don’t do it this way is beyond me. There’s never a problem and pins never tip over. We did have an occasional 2-pin or 3-pin jump the chute and end up in the gutter but that’s better than having a pin missing all together. It was just different.