Kegler's Corner: Rick Nishimoto rules the roost

Lee Montavon, +182 (830)

Karen Loomis, +136 (736)

Steve Byers, +132 (786)

Randy Nieto, +124 (778)

League action was simply spectacular at Hood River’s Orchard Lanes last week — big scores were everywhere. Leading the parade of prominent producers was banker-turned-local-orchardist, Rick Nishimoto, who pummeled the pins to the tune of a fantastic 299 game in the Tuesday Nite Mixed league. The powerful right hander left that nemesis of all bowlers, the 10 pin, on his 12th and final toss in his quest for perfection in the second game of his set. But don’t feel too bad for Rick; he’s rolled 300 before, so another one will just add to his resume.

Rick finished up the evening’s work with a scratch 715 series, which was a whopping 226 pins over his average. That rarefied performance makes him the No. 1 bowler in town last week.

If it weren’t for Rick, we’d be celebrating the astounding effort of Lee Montavon, who put together one of the finest three-game sets by a woman in some time here in Hood River. Lee looked like she was on tour after fashioning three straight scratch 200 games in the Tuesday Nite Mixed (246, 209 and 201) for a fabulous 656 series that was a huge 182 pins over her average.

Lee has a lot of experience bowling at Orchard Lanes. She has lots of bowling talent and she rolls a very nice hook that upends those 3 pound, 6 ounce sticks with ease.

While we are on the subject of terrific, how about Karen Loomis, who corralled the pins beautifully in the County league with fine scratch 233 and 224 games that enabled her to climb over that magical 600 series barrier. Karen finished with a nice scratch 604 series that was 136 pins over her average. And why not? Karen has been away from the game for a while, but it wasn’t long ago that she was one of the top keglerettes in Hood River, with many lofty scores on her resume, including some big-time scratch 700 sets. Welcome back Karen, it’s nice to see you cuffing those sticks around again!

Our clean-up hitter on this team of the week is Steve Byers, an avid bowler who has been very active in the game, having been a rep to the governing body of bowling. Steve is a heck of a bowler and was on target all night in the Industrial, firing scratch 279 and 237 games on his way to a fab 720 series. Steve ended up 132 pins over his average.

Finally, anchoring this fine squad of big shooters is the incomparable Randy Nieto, who painted the town in the Industrial with big scratch 266 and 247 games. Randy’s down and in game was right on as he finished up 124 pins over his average.

It was really quite a week for scoring. There were six scratch 700 sets including the aforementioned ones by Rick Nishimoto and Steve Byers. In addition to those big hitters, our pro’s pro, Jeff Miller, notched a scratch 721 in the Wednesday Night Fraternal, smooth Roger Montavon had two scratch 700s, a 704 in the Tuesday Night Mixed and a 703 in the Fraternal, and the spellbinding Lynn Spellman had a scratch 700 right on the nose in the Wednesday afternoon Colts and Fillies league.

These guys are among the elite bowlers in town, so we’ve come to expect scores like these from them. They do this often so their averages are so high that they were not enough pins over their averages to make this team of the week. But bowling big scores like these deserves recognition anyway, no matter how good these guys are.

Oh, and by the way, Pat Olson also tossed a 299 game this past week in the Fraternal. Pat left a solid 9 pin on his last ball which is unusual for him as he rarely gets tapped on those 300 chances. He has sixteen perfect 300 games, and now five 299s or worse on final ball misses. That’s an amazing 76-percent conversion rate. I guess he doesn’t get very nervous on that last shot, like most of us do.

Great bowling everybody!