The year 2021 went out like a Mike Tyson right to the jaw at Hood River’s Orchard Lanes last week. We got slammed by old man winter, which dissuaded some of our leaguers from making their scheduled weekly visit to the lanes. The seniors took it one step further and cancelled their entire league on Wednesday afternoon. Better safe than sorry. Yet, we Hood Riverites are a hearty bunch. We’re not intimidated by icy, slippery roads and parking lots, for those of us who braved the treacherous conditions to bowl league, it was like always, a breath of fresh air, our well needed break from the mundane monotony of our daily lives. Are bowlers serious? Just take a gander at the big scores posted by our fabulous five:
TEAM OF THE WEEK:
Patrick Olson                         742
Lynn Spellman                      732
Jeff Miller                             731
Jeff Brittle                            710
Josh Worth                           670
3,585 total pins
 These big numbers all came out of the hotshot, fast paced Fraternal league on Wednesday night. Four 700s. For those of you who aren’t familiar with league bowling, a 700 series represents a proficient score that used to be an almost magical milestone. It’s become more frequent in the modern game of bowling due to high-tech, big hooking bowling balls along with perfect and consistent lane conditions. Still, it’s a fine three-game total because that’s what we do in every league session, we bowl three games. You might say, wow, that’s a lot of work but it’s not, it only takes a couple of hours. It’s a ton of fun, we all love to roll the rock and usually it’s over too quickly. Racking up strikes is our goal on every toss and getting 700 in three games means you have averaged over 233 per game. That amounts to a bunch of strikes and spares. We can’t forget those spares. The other side of the coin in bowling happens when you don’t get strikes. Perfect hits don’t always get strikes, so good bowlers, ones who shoot those big 700s, must be proficient at making spares. Strikes don’t come easy and neither do spares. They take talent and the more you do it, if you want to be a seriously good bowler, the better you can become. You need to practice.
Our Team of the Week are all good bowlers. We’re fortunate here in Hood River to have so many talented ten-pin topplers. Here’s a snippet on each of these stars.
Patrick Olson led our parade of big shooters last week with a classy 742 series. Patrick, as you may know, is the proprietor of Orchard Lanes where he’s been the main man for 28 years. He’s been around this great game since he was a teenager. He’s a heck of a bowler and he clearly knows what he’s doing. His big score resume in bowling includes dozens of perfect 300 games and huge three game sets in the 800s. A 742 series for Patrick is no big deal, that’s how good he is.
Lynn Spellman is a long-time regular who bowls multiple leagues. His resume also glistens with multiple perfect games and big series. Lynn’s had some health issues in the past couple of years involving his back and some balance problems but that hasn’t stopped him from bowling. Lately, he’s been working on these things by using a plastic ball to improve his accuracy. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the science of bowling balls, the upshot is, a plastic ball will not hook much so it won’t hit the pins with sufficient power to get strikes. Do you think this experiment helped Lynn? Well, last week he switched back to his modern high-tech bowling ball that hooks with prodigious pin punishing power, and he stirred the sticks to the tune of a sparkling 732 series that included big 276 and 267 games. That is by far his best set of the season, so something has sure clicked for Lynn. His 732 was 162 pins over his average which was the top individual performance last week.
Jeff Miller. What more can we say about the lanky, 6-foot, 5-inch perennial all-star pin buster from The Dalles. We have used every adjective in the book to describe his prodigious prowess on the lanes. For just about everybody Jeff is the No. 1 bowler in this area. He regularly averages 220 or better every year. Unquestionably, his bowling resume has more 300 games and 800 series than anyone else around here and his big hooking power ball wowed us once again last week as he fired a cool 731 series. That’s an impressive number for most of us but it’s just barely above average for this big shooter!
Jeff Brittle is famous around here for his uncanny ability to hook his bowling ball, it turns nearly 5 feet! He’s darned good at it and as far as hooks go, he’s No. 1 around here. Nobody else comes close. That big hook monster of his is not just another pretty face, it’s a hard charging awesome pin buster. This season, Jeff has that big bender of his under complete control as evidenced by the nifty 710 series he posted last week which raised his average up to 200 pins per game, a number we all seek which indicates you’re a darn good bowler. That 710 set was his best this season.
Josh Worth is having another great season. He averaged a personal best 211 last season and he’s upped that to a glitzy 216 this season. Josh has had some big nights but overall, he’s been the picture of consistency. For example, he shot a 669 series last week and this week he tacked on a 670. Nothing wrong with those numbers.
Just missing the limelight were Matt Hodges and Nancy Asai. Long and lean Mr. Hodges launched that down and in missile of his for a nice 667 series in the Industrial. Nancy likes that same angle of attack and in the same session she notched a nifty 664 series. Ms. Asai has been on quite a tear lately. She’s now back in her all-star form as she has raised her average 11 pins in the past 6 weeks.
Happy New Year! Let’s hope 2022 is better than the past couple of difficult years. Go bowling everybody!
LEAGUE REPORTS, HIGH SCRATCH GAMES AND SERIES:
Monday night Industrial:
Jeff Miller: 670
Matt Hodges: 258, 667
Nancy Asai: 258,216, 664
Rod Pratt: 658
Kyle Van Cleave: 247
Steve Byers: 240
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Tuesday Nite Mixed:
Chad Mason: 277, 651Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
Jeremy Bloom: 245
Paul Dethman: 235
Nancy Asai: 228Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
Ciena Brittle: 212,200
Shaiyan Wolf: 210,204
Wednesday night Fraternal:
Patrick Olson: 257,247,238, 742
Lynn Spellman: 276,267, 732
Jeff Miller: 256,248, 731
Jeff Brittle: 257, 710Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
Josh Worth: 670Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
John Riggleman: 254, 655
Bernie Keys: 223,208, 609Â Â Â Â
Jeremy Bloom: 236
Ciena Brittle: 210
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