There was no shortage of 700 serieses shot this week. Let's take a look at some scores. Dave Jumper fired a 764 to top the Wednesday Morning League. Kyle Peck shot 638, Tyson Shope 622, Harry Smith 605, Jeff Tiell 583 and Mark Huffman 581. The ageless Ron Yentzer rolled games of 216-247-276 to shoot 739 in the Sportsman League. Chris Johnson also broke the 700 plateau with a 705, while Roger Gannon shot 661, Rich Yates Jr. 636, John Tyree 633, Greg Anspach 632, Dick Gabel 629, Tony Selhorst 629, Jack Kramer 619, Nick Kent 612, Mike Kimmet 612 and Rich Yates Sr. 611.
Aaron Sherman was another bowler to hit 700, as he rolled a 738 in the Twilight League. T.J. Morrow had 690, Kevin Fitch 650, Keith Slosser 635, Eric Smith 634, and Tom Tiell 624. For the ladies Rhonda Fitch shot 462, Robin Brownell 455 and Kristin Fitch 425. In the Ladies Classic League, Cindy Conger shot 504, Pam Smith 474, Brenda Rosier 444, Tessa Shope 433 and Kathy Young 432. Tyson Shope paced the Rocket League with 638. Tim Sturgill shot 608, Joe Brickner 593, Mick Thallman 591, Eric Vanover 578 and Virginia Vanover 452.
Action from the K of C Lanes found Bennett Paulus shooting 532, Jamie Kuhn 528, Bret Flechtner 517, Joe Zirger 508 and Ryan Nusbaum 507 in the Senior League. Carol Burmeister shot 483, Marilyn Gangluff 441, Madonna Gase 412, Julie Fortner 411 and Tammy Schalk 407 in the Lady Knights League. Scores from the 55 Plus league included Jim Ruess 581, Rick Hanna 550, Bob Reinhart 536, Paul Gosche 511, Dick Gabel 482 and John Ferstler 476.
Robin Dickman led the Alley Cats League with 584. Cindy Bowman shot 521, Jan Houk 500, Bobbie Tidswell 477, Angie Puesey 477, Deb Althaus 476, Carol Fry 461, Heather Butler 455, Pat Cook 453, Carla Siebenaller 449 and Lorrie Williams 448. Steve Steinmetz Jr. shot 650, Kevin Young 587, Rob Ochier 547 and Brian Jakupca 546 to lead the men in the Imperial-Majorette League. For the ladies Rhonda Fitch had 561, Dawn Davis 540, Dianne Smith 532 and Deb Nominee 529. In the Sunday Night Rock N Roll League, Tim Sturgill shot 683, Steve Barnes 665, Gary Golden 647, Brett Babcock 645, Dirk Nimocks 625, Mark Phillips 613, Bob Steele 606, Beth Jones 514 and Chelsea Rosenbalm 481.
Sometimes my mind works in mysterious ways. I tend to think about the opposite effect. What, I wonder, would happen if we did this backwards? Let me show you what I'm talking about, then you can decide if your brain is on the same drugs as mine.
Have you ever eaten at a Cracker Barrel restaurant? Have you tried to play that game they place on every table? You know the one I'm talking about. It's the wooden triangle with plastic pegs in all but one hole. You have to jump the pegs, removing all those that you jump until you have ? hopefully ? only one left.
The silly little board will even rate your performance. Leave one and you are a genius. Leave two pegs and you're "purdy smart." Leave three and you are considered an "ig no ra moose." If you have been to one of the restaurants, you know I'm not making this stuff up.
I have played a number of times, and while I have occasionally left just one peg, usually I leave several. So I decided to play the game in reverse. Why not see just how many pegs you can leave? I was "good" enough to leave seven or even eight frequently. It never ceases to amaze how little it takes to amuse me.
While playing the game backwards one time, I left around seven pegs. At a table nearby a little urchin pointed his finger at me and not so silently said to his mother, "I don't think they have a word for how stupid that guy is." You gotta love kids. I think.
The other night at bowling one of my teammates left the Greek Church. That means three pins on one side (4-7-8) and two pins on the other (6-10). Naturally, we urged him to go for the three pins, thinking that since the spare is almost impossible to convert, he should just go for the count. Well, he proceeded to try for the three but only knocked over the 4 and 8 pins. Since he only picked up two pins we let him have it, suggesting that he might as well have shot at the 6-10 instead. Hey, what are teammates for?
When something like this happens, invariably someone will holler that two more balls would be needed to knock down the remaining pins. Bingo! My mind started working overtime and I came up with a new game. Instead of the highest score winning a game I reasoned, how about the lowest. Before the low average bowlers get too excited here, let me explain how this new game of bowling would work:
A bowler would get one point if he/she throws a strike. A spare would get you two points because it took two shots to convert the spare. Here though is the kicker. A bowler must continue to bowl each frame until they knock down all the pins. Five tries and you get five points. Six, seven shots? That's how many points you get. The bowler with the lowest total score is the victor.
Now admittedly, there are a few kinks that would have to be worked out to enjoy this type of bowling. All right, all right ? a lot of kinks! The first problem is to get the machines to leave the standing pins alone until the bowler can knock them down. I don't even know if that is possible. The 10th frame would be scored like all the others. Therefore, a perfect game, 10 consecutive strikes, would be a score of 10.
This would be a fun two-man game. Can you imagine bowling against your best friend? You leave three straight difficult spares, but convert each one. After three frames your score is 6. Your buddy buries three shots leaving the solid 10-pin each time. It takes him six shots to finally convert the little devil and after three frames you lead him, 6-9. You're chuckling while he is fuming. Sounds like fun, doesn't it? Well, as long as you're not the one missing the 10-pin over and over!
It's not easy thinking backwards, but I do my best. I'd even walk backwards if I could find a beeper. For now let me quote Jim Rome by saying, "I'm tuo!"
Al Stephenson is The A-T's bowling columnist.
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