Kegler's Corner: Hood River Athletic Club wins first round of Fraternal league

1.  Pat's Pro Shop, 126.5 points

2.  Ol’7-10, 126 points

3.  Randy’s Painting, 124 points

4.  Mt. Hood BBQ, 119 points

5.  Clear Cutters, 113.5 points

6.  Triple T’s, 108.5 points

7.  The Rollers, 107.5 points

8.  Orchard Lanes, 106 points

There is just one more week to go in round one and as you can see above, the race for first is tighter than a sticking door. Eight teams can still win it. Last week’s matches ended as follows:

Powerful Pat's Pro Shop (Joey Sheirbon, John Mayfield and Patrick Olson) slammed tough Hood River Supply 19-6. The veteran Ol’7-10 trio crushed The brave new Crew 17-8. Underdog Triple T’s routed robust Randy’s Painting 19-6.

Relentless Mt. Hood BBQ smacked the dangerous Rollers 19-6. The up and coming Clear Cutters outscored mighty MTS 17-8; the Cutters Court Barker has found the range like we knew he would, returning to league action this season after a long layoff, Court fired his second 600 in a row, a slick 640 series that included 238,236 games and his teammate hot-Rod Pratt added a 626 set. MTS did not go down easily as their anchorman, steady Steve Byers tossed a solid 247 game and 614 series that kept his team in the match; MTS only lost the second game by 8 pins and overall total by a slim 4 pin margin, so with just a couple more spares by MTS, the outcome could have easily been reversed, it was that close.

Talented Orchard Lanes stomped newbie Decavo 17-8. 

Next week’s matches will determine who will win round one. Here are the match line-ups: Pat’s Pro Shop vs The Crew; OL’7-10 vs MTS; Randy’s Painting vs The Rollers; Mt. Hood BBQ vs Decavo; Clear Cutters vs Hood River Supply; and Triple T’s vs Orchard Lanes.

It’s going to be difficult for The Crew to beat Pat’s Pro Shop. The pro shop has the highest team average in the league, consequently they have the lowest handicap. The brave new Crew will have a huge 163 pin handicap advantage per game over the pro shop. That’s a huge number of pins so the pro shop will need to be in top form to overcome that big deficit! As good as they are, the Pro Shop can be beaten.

The veteran Ol’7-10 trio will have their hands full against perennial league champions, mighty MTS. The handicaps for these two teams are essentially the same so either team can prevail. It all depends on who’s hot and who’s not!

Robust Randy’s Painting will have to give up 77 pins per game to The dangerous Rollers. That’s not going to be easy to overcome although Randy’s Painting has the horses to do it! 

Relentless Mt. Hood BBQ will have to give up about 40 pins per game to newbie Decavo but that shouldn’t deter a big night for the smoky grillers!

Clear Cutters have emerged with a new, tough line-up that’s been hot lately. So, even though the Cutters have to give up about 50 pins per game to last place HR Supply, the Cutters will be hard to beat.

Big underdog Triple T’s has about a 70 pin per game handicap advantage over Orchard Lanes, but they will need every stick in order to beat the seasoned and talented Orchard Lanes trio.

High scores last week:

Men: Steve Byers 241 game; Court Barker 640 series

Women: Nancy Asai 191 game and 546 series

Bowler of the week: Court Barker, 103 pins over average

Tuesday Nite Mixed league (first half):

 1.  Mad Skilz, 19 wins

2.  Team Nishi, 18.5 wins

3.  C.P.R., 16 wins

4.  Double A Orchards, 15.5 wins

5.  Gutter Dawgs, 15.5 wins

6.  Take Ten, 15 wins

There are four weeks to go in the first half and the above teams are in the thick of the battle although the way things go in this competitive league, practically any team can still win. However, Mad Skilz (Judy Mason, Jennifer Bloom, Bob Mason and Jeremy Bloom) and Team Nishi are two resilient teams that are always hard to beat. It’s going to be fun to watch how this one shakes out!

Last week, Who Gives a Split swept Double A Orchards 4-0; Team Nishi beat Are You Splitting Me 3-1; and all of the other contested matches were split 2-2.

The match between Take Ten and Split Faced was remarkable. First of all, Take Ten’s star anchorman Ken Espersen, jumped right out of the gate stringing 11 straight strikes in his first game of the night. Unfortunately, needing just one more strike to get a perfect 300 game, his 12^th and final ball left 2 pins standing, so he had to settle for an award winning 298 game. Ken wasn’t done though, he kept striking all night long, notching 224 and 212 games to close out his session with a brilliant 734 series that was 146 pins over his average!

And here’s an astounding thing in that match that shows you must never give up no matter what. Ken’s efforts for his team were definitely over the top yet they barely split 2 games to 2 with their opponent, Split Faced. Looking at the final score totals, Split Faced won the second game by a mere 9 pins and they won the third game by only one little, itty, bitty pin! Take Ten won the first game by 120 pins and overall total by 110 pins. You’d think that it would be overwhelming for a team to win facing scores like Ken posted but Split Faced proved it can be done! You just have to hang in there.

High Scores:

Men: Ken Espersen 298 game and 734 series

Women: Erin Salisbury 215 game and 558 series

Bowler of the week: Ken Espersen

Wednesday afternoon Colts & Fillies league (first half):

 1.  Rolling Pins, 31 wins

2.  Cousins, 29 wins

3.  Rice Krispies, 25 wins

There are still a long five weeks to go in the first half, but the above three teams are looking good to capture first place.  

Last week Awesome 3 got whitewashed 4-0 by Rolling Pins (Patsy Busick, Ed Busick and Matt Phillips; Matt rolled a nice 214 game that dominated this match); Cousins blanked Jessies Team 4-0; Rice Krispies took Skamaniacs 3-1; and We Tried beat Gutt-er Done 2.5-1.5.

High scores:

Men: Lynn Spellman 216 game and 622 series

Women: Sue Spellman 191 game and 510 series

Wednesday night Fraternal league (round 1):

 1.  Hood River Athletic Club, 165 points

2.  Mt. Hood BBQ, 151 points

Congratulations to the steady Hood River Athletic Club trio (Jesse Orr, Ken Kramer, and Josh Worth) who won round 1 of the Fraternal league. Last week’s key match between HR Athletic Club and Mt. Hood BBQ decided the first-round winner as the clubbers won 17-8. The final result may have been 17-8 but the match was a lot closer than that as HR Athletic Club only beat Mt. Hood BBQ by a measly 49 pins total. By winning round 1, Hood River Athletic Club automatically qualifies to bowl in the league championship roll-off at the end of the season.

In the other contested matches last week: the virtuoso Bloom Auto Body threesome wiped tricky Tres Psicos 23-2; the upstart Get Hu’sum BBQ crew beat The underdog Red Rockets 17-8 although the battle was a lot closer than that as the BBQ-ers only won total by 15 pins; and the top-notch Ten In the Pit team smoked The skilled Bowling Stones 17-8.

High scores:

Men: Patrick Olson 245 game and 697 series

Women: Ciena Brittle 206 game and 562 series

Thursday Afternoon County league:

 1.  Blind Bowlers, 14 wins

2.  The Incredibowls, 13 wins

3.  Lady Ballers, 13 wins

4.  The Flu Fighters, 12 wins

5.  The Gutter Balls, 11 wins

6.  Holy Rollers, 11 wins

7.  The Unbowlievables, 10 wins

The above teams in the current standings have an excellent chance to win the first half of the league. There are still 6 weeks to go in the half.

Here are the results from last week’s matches in this rambunctious league for mostly new, inexperienced bowlers:

The Incredibowls and BS-er took a broom to Save the Pins and Over the Line sweeping them 4-0; talented Rod Pratt and ever improving Yoyo Cervantes were hot for The Incredibowls as Rod fired a dandy 656 series that was highlighted by 244 and 227 games and Yoyo added a cool 605 series that was capped by 221 and 209 games; their key opponent in the match, the eminently qualified and low key Victor Flores starred for the BS-ers once again as he stroked a smooth 645 series that included excellent 232 and 224 games. Currently, Rod and Victor are in a dog fight for high average in the league. Rod is averaging, 195 and Victor is at 190. Those are mighty fine averages that validate the outstanding bowling talents of these two pin busters!

In the other matches The Gutter Balls thumped BLIND BOWLERS (Andrew Serak, Nate Lain and James Reck) 3-1; The Flu Fighters hammered The Munsons 3-1; Stop, Drop and Bowl pounded The Unbowlievables 3-1; and Lady Ballers split 2-2 with Holy Rollers.

High Scores:

Men: Rod Pratt 244 game and 656 series

Women: Erma Hickman 180 game and 433 series

Bowler of the Week: BS-ers Butch McNair, 111 pins over average

Honor veteran’s day and GO BOWLING everyone!