Kegler's Corner: Nancy Asai rolls 714, leads Team of the Week

2. Jeremy Bloom 683

3. James Klugel 673

4. Bryan Mason 669

5. Josh Worth 653

3,392 total pins

For the most part, league bowling scores for the past couple of weeks at Orchard Lanes have been kind of like our nasty weather in good old Hood River: Icy cold. Notable exceptions to that include our fearsome fivesome on the current Team of the Week.

Nancy Asai is certainly unfazed, and she’s bowling better than ever. Last week in the Industrial, she posted another 700 series, her second great 714 three gamer this season.

Most of us wish we were stuck on that heady number, there’s no other way to say it folks, that’s just plain good old bowling. It takes an arm load of strikes to bowl a 700, plus it usually means you are a proficient spare shooter. That accurately describes Nancy’s game. If most of us practiced and worked on making spares, we would raise our average 15-20 pins a game. But we don’t; we get lazy.

In this latest 714 set, Nancy began with a solid 247 in her first game of the session. It takes at least six strikes in a row to roll a 240 game if you make all of your spares. You’ll need more strikes than that if you miss any spares.

In her second game, Nancy hung in with a 209. The second game in a league outing often involves overcoming what we call, the transition. That’s when the pristine oil pattern that is put down on the lane to begin each league begins to change. Depending on who you are bowling with on a pair of lanes for league, the oil is moved off spots where everyone rolls their ball and it’s transferred down lane. That changes ball reaction — it may hook sooner, later, or not as much. Bowlers have to adjust to these changing conditions in order to keep striking and making spares.

It’s not easy to do and can result in a poor score if you can’t adjust. The transition is challenging to overcome and often takes its toll on us bowlers.

If you make the right moves and conquer the transition, your confidence grows and when things go well, the lane opens up for the third game of league. “Open up” means we find that our ball has more area, so we can miss our target a bit and it will still find the pocket and it has more carry power. So, strikes can come easier if you know what you are doing and are on your game. We are all human so there are days when we just can’t make it happen.

Of course, those times would be less if we practiced like we should. Nancy clicked like a well-oiled machine in her third game and marked up a nifty strike filled 258.

So, there you have it. That’s the nitty-gritty of good night on the lanes by an all-star bowler. Yes, Nancy is a heck of a bowler. Want more proof? Just try to comprehend this: She led all scoring at Orchard Lanes last week. In doing so, she beat every man in every league — how about that, folks! Who says you have to be a big, strong man in order to crush those 10 three pound, six ounce pins into submission?

How do you feel about that guys? Are you motivated? Well, you better get it together because Nancy is one tough competitor and it will take everything you’ve got to beat her.

And we’re not kidding. It’s more than just a couple of nights of good scores. For this entire season — and we’re nearly halfway through it — Nancy is carrying a dizzying 208 average, a lofty, mind-boggling number which is among the best in town. Good luck beating her.

Jeremy Bloom, our No. 2 guy on this Fab Five is No. 1 in Odell, where he is the Bondo magician at Bloom Auto Body and Collision. The silky-smooth right hander does his David Copperfield illusion a couple of times every week in league action at Orchard Lanes. In his latest bit of magic, he made the pins disappear in the Tuesday Nite Mixed last week with a nifty 683 series. Jeremy just keeps on rolling along. He is currently averaging 212 pins per game.

James Klugel is a new name in Hood River bowling, but you better get used to seeing it. James hadn’t bowled for years when he got back into the game this season.

He has arrived big to the big time. Last week James notched 670 sets in both his Industrial and Fraternal outings. His 673 was high and good enough to make No. 3 on the team of the week. He has sure figured things out in just a few months of league action. He began in September averaging 178. His ten-pin toppling talent is nothing short of amazing as he is now averaging 200! That’s an improvement of 22 pins per game from the start of the season. We would lay odds that James is the most improved bowler in town.

Bryan Mason, our fearless and dependable postman has unleashed his sharp breaking hook on the pins, busting them up in Orchard Lanes league action for years. He’s been a long time 200 average bowler who has made the team of the week many times before this time. But he’s been mired in a bit of a slump lately so it’s gratifying to see him bust out of it with a mighty fine 269 game and 669 series that he fired in the Fraternal, good enough to earn clean-up on this team of the week. We hope Bryan is back on track now.

Josh Worth, long time Orchard Lanes staffer, has become a fixture in Hood River bowling. He gets the job done week after week without much fanfare. He’s such a regular we don’t see the forest for the trees and Josh deserves more attention. He has gone well past the journeyman level in this great game.

He’s currently carrying a mighty fine 213 average, which seems automatic for him — that’s how good he is. Josh fires that speedy sphere of his with masterful precision in a tight line that hooks sharply way down lane into the pins. That pin buster of his gets lots of strikes and it’s an accurate spare maker. Josh’s latest effort resulted in a solid 653 set in the Fraternal, which earned him the anchor spot on our big five this week.

And, in the most pins over average department last week, Bob Mason took a break from plowing snow to push the pins over to the tune of a cool 621 series in the Mixed. That fine effort was 108 pins over his average. James Klugel was just a couple of ticks back as he was 106 pins over his average in the Industrial.

Let’s go bowling everyone!

League reports

Industrial (Monday, 7 p.m.):

Nancy Asai: 258, 247, 209, 714

James Klugel: 257, 673

Lynn Spellman: 247, 650

Tuesday Nite Mixed (7 p.m.):

Jeremy Bloom: 254, 236, 683

Nancy Asai: 237, 210, 620

Woody Eskildsen: 236

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

Lynn Spellman: 205, 204, 604

Ken Kramer: 210

Jesse Flores: 205

Fraternal (Wednesday, 7:30 p.m.):

James Klugel: 257, 671

Bryan Mason: 269, 669

Josh Worth: 245, 653

Lynn Spellman: 653

Jeremy Bloom: 243