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One Weekend To Go In City Championships

With one weekend to go in the MBA Association Championships, there are still plenty of cash positions available - and plenty of squad openings for you to get them.

Leading the way in honor scores is Leann Butts and Marc McDowell, pictured above. They each threw perfect games in the team event at Rude's Lanes.

The new Singles Division 1 leader, Rob Hamilton from Schwoegler Entertainment Center, rolled a 299 game this past weekend. Other near misses in the tournament to date included Gail Myers Jr. with a 298 and Heath Haug with a 290. Myers Jr. is also the top individual series bowler with an astounding 840 set in the team event. His series and McDowell's 300 were both part of Turbo 2-N-1 Grips record setting 3713 team performance.

Gregg Goldstein moves into the top spot in Division 1 All Events with a 2280 set, 2010 scratch. He also had an outside shot at Division 1 Singles where he posted 714 scratch score for an 804 total. The effort was three pins short of Rob Hamilton whose 807 (759) was posted the previous shift. Both bowlers bumped Eric Pederson from the top spots, though the 1930 Mineralite throwing lefty still dominates the scratch leader board.

Call the bowling office at 221.0300 or tournament director Bill Dennis at 770.4328 to secure a spot this weekend. There are team openings available on all shifts.

Current Standings

League Challenge Still Up For Grabs

The top spot in the first League Challenge is still held by the crew from Sauk Lanes at 255 pins over average, led by team captain Jack Haselwander.

This past weekend, two more teams from Ten Pin Alley have put themselves in the top seven cash positions. A&A Mailings (captain: Tom Humphrey) and Mark It Zero (captain: Dan Keppy) - both from the Wednesday night Hump league - moved into the top seven with efforts 79 pins and 7 pins over average, respectively. Also taking a top seven position were the Lucky Strikes (captain Mel Heiser), representing the MARBA league at Badger Bowl.

There is still time for your league to send a team to the City Tournament to compete for a share of $1000.00 for you league funds. Currently, the last cash spot is 12 pins UNDER average.

Call the bowling office at 221.0300 or tournament director Bill Dennis at 770.4328 to secure a spot this weekend. There are team openings available on all shifts.

The City Tournament team event is only $20.00 per bowler.

League Challenge Standings

Ask the Pro Shop

Dear Pro Shop,
I am headed to a few tournaments soon. Do I really need more than one ball?

Pro Shop Answer,
Bowling balls are like golf clubs without the numbers on them, they are designed for more or less hook. The ball you choose to use will be determined by the conditions at the tournament.

Since we often encounter a different oil pattern when we go to tournaments, having an additional ball (or two) to match up better with the tournament oil pattern would be very helpful.

Not to mention that the use of a plastic ball for single pin spares can greatly help overcome differences in lane patterns.

Consult with your local pro shop on this one. Many balls made today have a very similar hook shape to balls even made 10 years ago. Just bring your equipment in and we will have get a better picture of how to help you out.

Have a Question? Ask the Pro Shop

Village Lanes Fills Tourneys

Village Lanes is hosting the 1st annual Pat Reithmeyer Hospice Care Benefit on Saturday, February 28. Although all of the shifts are already full, a waiting list is set up. There will be a silent auction and raffles if you are interested in helping with this worthwhile cause. The tournament shifts are 1:00, 3:00, and 5:00. The teams for this 8-pin tap tournaments are three person and the cost is $30.00.

On Saturday, February 14 (Valentine's Day if you haven't bought flowers yet) Village Lanes is having their annual Scottish Doubles tournament. Shifts for this event are ALMOST full, call Village Lanes at 222.7361 to get yours. Universal Sound is playing from 9:30 to 1:30.

Starting February 15, and running Sundays through March 8 is the Village Lanes Baker Tournament. This tournament is also three person teams. Shift times are 12:30 and 3:30. First place is $500.00, cost is $54.00 per team.

Brother Witnesses Supernational

Michael Haack, President, Co-Ed Naked Bowling League

If you bowl long enough, sometimes you get to see some pretty cool things. Maybe you get to see someone who's just thrown a new personal best score. Maybe that score qualifies for an award. Maybe that score is one that is seldom thrown or seen. And sometimes all of those things happen to the same person, on the same night.

That's exactly what happened to Pat Haack on Saturday 1/31/09, in the Co-Ed Naked League, at Prairie Lanes. Pat has been bowling in leagues for over 20 odd years. His average has risen steadily over those years, and has been 190 to 205 over the past 10 years, with quite a few 700's. But this year, he is really rolling well. He has already had three 700's, including a 749. These were all at Rude's Lanes in DeForest.

Saturday night couples leagues are usually casual outings. Last Saturday saw some real excitement. Pat started out firing a 267 game, with only two 9 counts. He came back with a 278 game, again with two 9 counts. This gave him 545, going in the last game. He started with a nine spare, then five strikes in a row. His seventh ball left a 7 pin, when disaster struck. He slid just past it, for his first open. This gave him 167 in the seventh. He knew he had his 700 series, but wanted to really add to it. He struck the 8th and the 9th. The entire league was now watching him bowl in the tenth. There were few open bowlers. So he had 20+ lanes all to himself, and it became very quiet, as he approached the line.

It's not enough to have that personal pressure you put on yourself, but on top of that now everybody's watching too. He hit a solid 1st ball strike, and it got pretty loud, until he got ready again. He hit the second one just perfect as well. He got up for his final shot, had some nerves, but let it go right into the pocket too, for 257. The place erupted because his total was 802.

Congratulations Pat, on a new personal best, a Super National Score, and one that you just don't see every day.

Badger League Firsts (and seconds)

Phil Dowling, Secretary, Badger League

Last week on 01/22/09, Kris Snow shot his first ever 600 series with 222-199-210 for 631. Kris's average going in was 174.

Just when he thought he had a great shot at the bowler of the week he heard that the same night Denny Vondrum shot his first ever 700 series with 234-253-217 for 704. Denny's average going in was 182 and he did win the bowler of the week.

The following week, Vondrum was at it again - shooting back-to-back 700's and this time with 224-206-275 for 705.

Building A Better League

Bill Dennis, Association Manager, Madison USBC BA

I get asked a ton of questions about what is the right way and wrong way to do things. Often these questions are rules related, sometimes league related, but most often there really is no "answer" as much as there is a "preferred method".

So, I'm going to take some space in the E-News to offer suggestions and advice for leagues. The subjects will range from roles of the officers and board of directors to league formats to awards. Hopefully, your league can benefit from some of these suggestions. Or, you can submit ideas that your league uses to pass on to others.

Bear in mind, these are my personal opinions - but they are gleaned from more than 20 years experience in league bowling of all types.

Point Systems

Whether your league is a casual weekend mixed league or a top flight scratch league, the whole point of bowling is, well, points. Believe it or not, bowling is always a competition. How much it matters is up to you, but you still need some points. League bowling is a weird thing because you don't really get to take anything home when you are done. With a good point system - you could take home a win, develop a rivalry, and enjoy the competitive aspect of the game even more.

The point systems used in leagues today range from the "old 4" (one point per game, one for total pins) to 30 or more (individual points combined with team points). It is the latter system that is growing in popularity and the system that I prefer.

Individual point systems are a hard thing to adopt - especially when you have been using the "old 4" for a long time.

"In my day, we didn't have safety standards for toys. We got rusty nails and big bags of broken glass! That's the way it was, and we liked it! We LOVED it!" - Dana Carvey

Consider a more sophisticated point system for your league - especially one that incorporates individual points. In the Wisconsin Telephone League at Badger Bowl (5 player teams), we use a 30 point system.

In our system, there are 15 team points and 15 individual points. Each game is worth nine points - one point per bowler and four for the team game. Team series is worth three. It's really pretty easy.

Our league is individually handicapped to 225, so practically everyone gets some pins.

We enjoy this system for a number of reasons. First, ties are possible. This was especially interesting a couple of seasons when the championship roll-off resulted in a 15-15 tie - requiring a fourth game roll-off.

Second, and most importantly, each bowler has something to play for each game. Even if the other team runs up the first 15 strikes against you (like Arick Ecker's team did against us this week), the "game" is not lost. In this instance, a couple of our guys were able to get us points even though we lost the team game. They bowled well that game and were rewarded as they should have been.

Best of all, though, is eventually some healthy rivalries will develop in the league. Most of our teams consistently use a standard line-up, so one will bowl against a certain individual a couple of times a year. There's nothing better than raising your glass at the end of the night to a guy that just can't beat you. Of course, there's nothing worse than getting the glass raised TO you - but there's always next time.

I think you will like individual points in your league, I know we do - and we're never going back to rusty nails and broken glass.

Next Issue: Formats and Playoffs

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