Kegler's Corner: Steve Byers 741

2. Steve Byers, 741

3. Lynn Spellman, 710

4. Joey Sheirbon, 692

5. Chad Mason, 689

3,596 total pins

Last week saw a continuation of mighty fine league bowling scores at Hood River’s Orchard Lanes. The new oil pattern seems to be working well for most of us. And the oil itself, which is a newer, high viscosity product called “Curve,” is a key component in getting these excellent results plus it has staying power through all three league games. Those are important factors.

Like a broken record, like a broken record, there is repetition in the current Team of the Week, namely Patrick Olson and Lynn Spellman, who are getting tanned from making the limelight so often. Both shot 700s last week; Patrick logged a huge 764 three gamer in the Industrial and “Spelly” broke out his “strike ball” for a 710 set in the Fraternal.

Patrick’s monster 764 series is simply mighty fine bowling, period. In the old says, we used to kind of grumble about the big scores that employees of bowling centers seemed to shoot with uncanny regularity. We called them “house men.” We half expected them to shoot big scores, which they did about every week, but it seemed like insider trading cheating. Well, Patrick is the proprietor of Orchard Lanes, he bowls three leagues and practices a lot every week, so it’s no wonder he shoots big numbers about every week. He really knows these lanes and he is currently carrying a heady 219 average. In Nike’s words, if you want to be like Mike, you better work like Mike.

The other star bowling employee at Orchard Lanes is long time staffer Josh Worth, who doesn’t practice and only bowls three games a week in one league. Josh is currently averaging a gaudy 217, his all-time best. How do you explain the different “training regimen” in these two other than Josh is talented, and he is having a great season?

Steve Byers is a regular, long-time mainstay in the Industrial league. He’s bowled it for years and is currently carrying a 192 average. This past week he subbed on the Mt. Hood BBQ trio in the hot-shot Fraternal league, and he must have found it to his liking as he fashioned a fantastic 741 series. Here’s an interesting thing about that series. Steve’s three games were 10 pins apart, 237, 247 and 257, a ten-pin stepladder! In the old days, that may have qualified for an award. Steve keyed his team to an 18.5 to 6.5 win over the tough Hood River Sports Club crew led by Josh Worth. Nothing like a little friendly competition to bring out the best in everybody. Hands down, Steve is our Bowler of the week, that 741 was 165 pins over his average.

Joey Sheirbon and fire baller Chad Mason round out this Team of the Week. Joey can grow cherries and pears with the best of our local orchardists, plus he can also fire up a mess of turkeys and ham bones with that solid down and in bowling game of his. For those of you non-bowlers, in our jargon a turkey is three strikes in a row and a hambone, which is a non-traditional, kind of disrespectful term for four strikes in a row that was popularized by outspoken Fox sports TV guy Rob Stone. Joey raised his average to 201 pins per game as he rolled a cool 692 set to lead all scoring in the Tuesday Nite Mixed which just nipped Chad Mason’s 689. Joey had a good week on the lanes as he also tossed a 669 in the Industrial. The talented and young Mr. Mason who also plays the lanes down and in with speed is carrying an eye-popping 211 average with no practice. As they say, youth must be served and speed is essential to score big in modern bowling.

Several folks just missed the big five. Kevin Harris and Rod Pratt both shot 688 sets in the Industrial. Nancy (all-star) Asai wasn’t far back with the 684 she fired in the same session. She’s been pounding the pins lately. Lefty Mike Parke continued his assault on the sticks as he notched a 678 in the seniors. We call Mike the “Doomsday Striking Machine” because, like his mirror image, lefty pro Earl Anthony, who some say is the GOAT, both seem to roll machine-like strikes on every ball. Mike is currently carrying a 206 average which tops all seniors.

Kudos to Hood River Supply’s Woody Eskildsen who racked up a nice 661 set in the Industrial. Woody is another proponent of the infamous down and in line that sems to work so well at Orchard Lanes.

Finally, all rise, here comes the judge, Don Hull, that is. Don incarcerated the sticks last week with a nifty 614 series that he trundled in the County league. That was Don’s first 600 this season. Don just edged Gordon Pillon, who blistered the sticks to the tune of a 610 set in the same session. Great bowling everybody, keep up the good work!

•••

Hey everybody! Here is the latest news about bowling in Hood River. String Pins are currently being installed in the party room at Orchard Lanes and they should be ready to go in a week. They are fun to watch. If you’ve never seen string pins, you’ve got to check these out. The pins are attached at the top to strings! And the strings do not get in the way and cause stoppages. It’s incredible, it’s fun, its different, you’ve got to try them.

Let’s go bowling everybody!

High scratch league games and series:

Monday night Industrial:

Patrick Olson: 279, 243, 242, 764

Kevin Harris: 237, 688

Rod Pratt: 256, 244, 688

Nancy Asai: 258, 222, 204, 684

Joey Sheirbon: 248, 669

Woody Eskildsen: 237, 661

Dustin Ticknor: 257, 651

Aaron Troxel: 258

Matt Hodges: 258

Tuesday Nite Mixed:

Joey Sheirbon: 255, 692

Chad Mason: 266, 236, 689

Jeff Hasegawa: 254

Ciena Brittle: 207

Nancy Asai: 202

Wednesday afternoon senior Colts and Fillies:

Lynn Spellman: 256, 221, 205, 682

Mike Parke: 241, 223, 214, 678

Mick Sherrell: 243, 225, 631

Wednesday night Fraternal

Steve Byers: 257, 247, 237, 741

Lynn Spellman: 256, 710

Dustin Ticknor: 256, 669

Jeremy Bloom: 243

Matt Hodges: 240

Roger Montavon: 237

Keith Hay: 236

Bernie Keys: 222

Thursday County

Rod Pratt: 226, 222, 209, 204, 626

Don Hull: 242, 203, 614

Gordon Pillon: 244, 231, 212, 610

Ryan Pratt: 225

Matt Stoneberg: 214, 200

Don Hoffman: 209