Joined a new league last night.

r3nu4l

Well having not bowled in a league for a long time due to other commitments I finally joined a league again last night.

I need to work out my average so I can get a handicap but I reckon it's a safe bet that it'll be far lower than my old 208 average

Looking forward to posting my scores over the coming weeks. It's one of those leagues where I won't be bowling every week, maybe every second week at most. It'll do for a start to get me back into the game, I'm just glad to be back

Anyone else considering going back to league play or are any of you already in a league?

r3nu4l

Week 1:

Game 1: 140
Game 2: 141
Game 3: 109

Total 390
Ave 130

Well first night bowling in a league last night in a long, long time (years). I bowled with a 14 lb house ball

I expect that next week I won't fall below 140. The centre has wooden lanes but the first 5 feet of each lane are badly damaged. The place is retro, looks like they haven't had a lot of money put into it in a long time. Pity because it's a nice centre, other than that. No troublemakers and no rowdiness.

So realistically, I expect that by the end of the league I'll be at a 150-160 average, it would be nice to be higher but we'll set the sights lower at first. I've promised myself that if I manage to get that average with a house ball then I'll buy myself my own ball (once again ). Then we should see the pinfall rocket

r3nu4l

Week 2:

Game 1: 168
Game 2: 128
Game 3: 138

Total 434
Ave 145

So that's an average of 145, meaning I'm closer to my goal.
I used the same house ball as last week (noted the serial number).

Interestingly, although the 168 was my highest score, it was only the second best technically. The third game was my technical best as I sorted a lot of issues with my 4-step approach.

I wasn't bending low enough on the slide in game one, fixed this in game two but noticed that I kept rising out of the bend just as I released the ball causing a slightly longer ball loft than I wanted.
In game three, I kept low straight to the end of the follow-through.

In game three I also began swinging my right leg behind my left leg in the classic style and it definitely improved my game as I didn't have to worry about the ball swinging past my knees.

Finally, I also began doing something I thought I wouldn't try for a couple of weeks. In the second game I started turning my wrist on the release, the classic 'hook' move. Of course, this is a polyester house ball we're talking about so hook will be minimal. This is why the game 2 score was so low, I experimented with the release and missed a couple of simple spares (e.g. a 5-pin!!). I nailed this release in game three so I'm delighted with that.

Next week I want to continue my approach work and focus on my lane position. The lanes were nicely oiled but it's a light oil, I could bowl out between the second and third arrow and end up hitting the Brooklyn side of the headpin! I adjusted my position on the boards to compensate for this.

I'm enjoying this league in a 'training' mode as opposed to a competitive mode, it's a long time since I bowled in competition and I'm nowhere near the standards I used to be at so can't even begin thinking about my bowling as a competition.

r3nu4l

Week 3:

Game 1: 149
Game 2: 158
Game 3: 134

Total 441
Ave 147

Okay so last night was the first night with my new ball, the Brunswick Great Inferno. Nice ball but it's going to take me a while to get used to it, the hook is very aggressive so shooting some spares is difficult but I used it to great effect to convert a 4-6 split by aiming the hook to come back and clip the 6 pin so that it fell sideways to knock the 4 pin

So my league average is now 140, nothing special at all but to be honest I'm only back 3 weeks after a long, long absence and it's my first new ball in over 10 years so I'm happy, practice, practice, practice

r3nu4l

Week 4:

Game 1: 120
Game 2: 153
Game 3: 100 :mad:

Total 373
Ave 124 :eek:

Okay, you can see that last night was disastrous! I don't really know what happened to be honest. First game was dreadful, second game was fine (for my current status). The third game was bizarre, I was all over the lane, selecting the right boards on the approach but not hitting the right board on the lane for the most part. When I did hit the right board, only two of the shots actually went where I wanted them. I suspect that I was subconsciously using my index finger to help in the ball release and rev generation on the ball because a lot of my shots were going Brooklyn compared with the second game.

Of course, the lanes could have been drying up but a bad workman always blames his tools and not his technique

! cveks

nice win

r3nu4l

So I've been away for a few weeks and haven't bowled; last night was my first night back and it looks like I should take a break more often :pac:

Week 5:

Game 1: 176
Game 2: 185
Game 3: 146

Total: 507
Ave: 169

The third game was significantly lower thanks to getting two splits at a crucial time in my game. Very happy overall.

r3nu4l

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

Week 6:

Game 1: 186
Game 2: 146
Game 3: 106 :mad: :mad: WTF?

Series: 438
Ave: 146

Not happy with game 3 at all. The lanes had dried significantly at that stage and I couldn't deal with it at all. Need to practice more on dry lanes...