We held our final Challenge night at Hood River’s Orchard Lanes last Wednesday. The challenging oil pattern we chose was called Great Wall of China. It was 48 feet in length with just over 25 ml of oil applied to each lane. Remember a lane is 60 feet from the foul line to the head pin, so this pattern is long! Just 12 feet for the ball coming out of the oil to get to the pocket. It was slick. The oil ratio from the outside of the lane to the center was at 7:1. This pattern was more challenging than we normally face but it was not terribly hard.

The shot proved to be formidable for most of us with one notable exception. Patrick Olson was right at home. He won the scratch division in a complete rout racking up a gaudy 917 total pin count, a cool 229 average for the four-game test. Along the way, he also nabbed three high game pots with scratch 259, 226 and 216 games. Lenny Bunting took the other high game pot with a fine 223 game. Lynn Spellman finished second with a solid 804 total, a 201 average but he was 113 sticks behind Patrick!