Kegler's Corner: Happy Holidays from Orchard Lanes

3,391 total pins

Bryan Mason is our bowling star of the week. He rolled the highest three game series at Orchard Lanes last week, a fine 719, which was his first 700 of this season.

That exemplary effort also earned him the No.1 slot on The Team of the Week. He also bowled more pins over his average than anyone else in league action last week.

That big 719 series was 140 pins better than his average. Bryan’s prodigious pin busting propelled his Bloom’s Auto Body team to a 23-2 point shellacking of the Get Hu’sum BBQ trio. It’s still early in the second round of the Fraternal league, but his Bloom’s Auto Body team is now in first place with a 13-point lead.

Of the remaining four stars on this Team of the Week, three of them are well-known bowlers in Hood River: Josh Worth, Levi Phelps, and Lynn Spellman.

Josh and Lynn have made The Team of the Week so often, we’ve lost count. It seems like Levi hasn’t been in the limelight lately like he was in the past, but he’s still rolling along at a solid and steady 215 average.

Face it, these guys are good. Josh is averaging 213 and Lynn, who has been putting a spell on the sticks all season long, is carrying an impressive 217 average.

And we’re 100% certain that our fourth member of this Team of the Week, young Owen Clemett, would also become a household name around here if he bowled regularly, but currently, he’s going to college and is only here for the holiday break.

In his limited stints on the lanes, Owen is logging a cool 217 average. Owen is a proponent of the new rage in ten-pin bowling, the two-hand style. It sure works if you can do it — in fact, the famous PBA bowler of the year Jason Belmonte is a two-hander. What makes the two-hand game so potent is it enables the player to put many more revs on the ball than a standard one-hand player can. More revs means more pin action, more strikes, and higher scores if you can execute it. Owen does it beautifully, so the sky is the limit for him in this great game.

The venerable Awesome 3 won the first half of the senior Colts & Fillies league last week. Kudos are in order to Awesome 3’s long time bowlers, Erma Hickman, Frani Thompson, and Gerry Cope.

Frani was definitely the stick that stirred the drink in their final match of the first half last week as she rolled a stellar 198 game and finished up 80 pins over her average for the session.

Folks, that’s the way to win. Nice going, Frani!

The seniors claim that the primary reason they bowl is to socialize every week with their bowling buddies. Of course, that’s true — it’s one of the prime benefits of league bowling. They say they don’t get all worked up about winning, but we’re not so sure about that. Checking out the final standings in their first half, the Awesome 3 emerged on top by the slimmest margin of a half a point over the Skamaniacs and one point over We Tried. Couldn’t get much more close and exciting than that.

The Awesome 3 went into that last week of the half with a half a point lead which they held on to by winning three out of four points, as did the Skamaniacs. We Tried won all four, thanks to Polly Bull, who bowled 104 pins over her average.

So, if Awesome 3 had lost one more point, Skamaniacs would have won and had they taken all four, they also would have won. Plus, We Tried could have easily won the first half too. When the race is close like this, it’s always a bunch of fun with more teams in the mix that have a chance to win.

There are two weeks to go in the first half of the County league with the BSers currently in the lead by just one little, itty, bitty point ahead of the gregarious Gutter Girls. The whole shebang could easily come down to the final week, when these two teams bowl each other head-to-head. That will be exciting to watch, but if they split, it could allow another team to pass them both to win the first half.

Never a dull moment in the raucous County league, they really get into it!

In addition to Polly Bull, Deanna Allen, and Cy Cannon had superlative outings last week. As we noted above, Polly, who is a former National Bowling champion, bowled just like the old days in the senior Colts & Fillies, where she beat her average by 104 pins.

For those of you who don’t understand the enormity of this tournament win for Polly, she won a senior title at the American Bowling Congress national tournament a few years ago. Just for your information, this is the biggest bowling tournament in the world.

Folks, there is no other way to put it, this is a big deal, period! Polly Bull is famous! As far as we know, there are no other national bowling champions here in Hood River.

Deanna had a field day in the County league last week, where she topped her average by 103 pins while leading her second place Gutter Girls to that four point sweep. If she keeps this pace up, look out BSers!

Finally, Cy Cannon morphed into a strike machine in the County league last week, where he rolled a fantastic pro-like 256 game which ended up being the second highest game rolled in all leagues at Orchard Lanes last week.

Nice going Cy, and great bowling everyone!

League reports

Industrial (Monday, 7 p.m.):

Aaron Troxel: 236

Joey Sheirbon: 236

Tuesday Nite Mixed (7 p.m.):

Chad Mason: 241

Jeremy Bloom: 238

Ciena Brittle: 212

Senior Colts and Fillies (Wednesday, 1:30 p.m.):

Lynn Spellman: 237, 205, 630

Mick Sherrell: 246

Dick Sherrell: 200

Fraternal (Wednesday, 7 p.m.):

Bryan Mason: 268, 236, 719

Josh Worth: 256, 249, 683

Owen Clemett: 236, 679

Levi Phelps: 656

Lynn Spellman: 248, 236, 654

John Riggleman: 241

Jeremy Bloom: 236

County League (Thursday, 5 p.m.):

Cy Cannon: 256

Ryan Pratt: 208, 201