We’re just a couple weeks into ten-pin bowling league action up on the Heights at Hood River’s Orchard Lanes. Here are the highlights.
Monday Night Industrial league:
Team MTS roared into first place winning 23–2 over Mt. Hood BBQ; Tripple T’s got second taking out powerful Pat’s Pro Shop 20–5; The Crew claimed third place after clobbering Decavo 19.5–5.5; The Rollers rolled into fourth with an 18–7 win against Ol’7-10; and Hood River Supply made it to fifth due to a 15–10 crunching of Orchard Lanes.
Top Monday night Industrial league scores: Aaron Troxel: 249.
Wednesday afternoon senior Colts & Fillies league:
After two weeks of action Awesome 3 has definitely earned their team name as they haven’t lost a game, winning eight straight! Wow.
Top senior Colts and Fillies league scores: Lynn Spellman: 247, 237, 203, 687; Rod Pratt: 222, 217, 213, 205, 612; Barb Johnson: 218; Mick Sherrell: 216; Matt Phillips: 215, 203; Tony Teschner: 210; Dave Baumsteiger: 208.
Wednesday night Fraternal league:
After the first two weeks, it’s a two-team race. Hood River Athletic Club has dominated and is in first with 41 points. Tres Piscos is in second with 38.
HR Athletic Club has been led for as long as we can remember by anchorman Josh Worth’s speedy sphere. He can fire that ball of his with the best of them. Josh, a long time league stalwart who is one of the top bowlers in town, is clearly having no trouble knocking down those new 3-pound, 6-ounce pins as he is bowling to the tune of a mighty fine 218 average.
Top Wednesday night Fraternal league scores:
Patrick Olson: 676; James Youtsey: 235, 674; Josh Worth: 255, 664; Stan Pratnicki: 661; AJ Perdue: 267; Owen Clemett: 257; Chad Mason: 239; John Helm: 236
Team of the week
1. Lynn Spellman, 687
2. Patrick Olson, 676
3. James Youtsey, 674
4. Josh Worth, 664
5. Stan Pratnicki , 661
Total pins: 3,362
Considering that leagues have just begun, and most bowlers are really rusty after the four-month summer layoff, these Team of the Week scores are particularly good. The bowlers are also facing brand-new pins that will take a while for them to break in. New pins are a challenge as they have a perfectly flat bottom, so they do not fall over easily.
This Team of the Week is comprised of familiar names in Hood River bowling. They are all topnotch. Here’s a brief sketch on them:
Lynn Spellman leads this week’s stellar five. He is the quintessential down and in stylist who racked up his big three-game series in the Wednesday afternoon Lads and Lassies Senior league. For you novices out there, the down and in bowling method means the ball is rolled more toward the side of the lane with angular spin so when it gets down near the pins it hooks into them. That hooking motion is what creates more strikes. More strikes equals bigger scores and more fun, right! Remember that for the next time you come on up to bowl at Orchard Lanes. Lynn’s game is mostly finesse as he lets the ball do the work; he doesn’t get all contorted trying to impart speed and revs like so many power players do.
Patrick Olson is the proprietor of Orchard Lanes. He’s been in bowling for 40 years; he knows what he’s doing and is one heck of a bowler. Might as well be known as the local pro, big average, more than 20 perfect 300 games and multiple 800 series.
James Youtsey, a pro painter who recently did Orchard Lanes, is fairly new to league bowling but he’s shown steady improvement, another down and in player. Solid 200 average bowler.
Josh Worth is a long time staffer at Orchard Lanes. Check out his bowling prowess in the high scoring, hot-shot Fraternal league as noted above.
Stan Pratnicki, ex-New Yorker, ex-big time chef, and whitewater rafting entrepreneur, is now the power behind tasty Get Husum BBQ. Stan is a pin-buster extraordinaire, a powerful down and in bowler who plays the lanes even closer to the gutter while putting so much speed on his ball it almost looks like it’s airborne for the 60 feet from the foul line to the pins! Apparently, working out lifting those heavy cooking pots plus steering rafts on the White Salmon makes you strong!
Great bowling everyone.
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