Victory!

My calculations from Saturday were correct. When I got to the bowling alley last night, we were 2 points behind the leader. There was a team behind us (only 3 points behind the leader) too. This team had 2 of the best bowlers in the league. It was position week, so here was the lineup for the contenders:

1st place: Silver Bullets

vs.

2nd place: Got Wood (My team) -2 pts


3rd place: Pocahontas Rodriguez -3 pts

vs.

4th Place: Phoenix -way the fuck back.

The approaches last night were almost like glass. I guess they thought with all the rain and snow that an extra buff to the approaches were in order. They were treacherous and I struggled with them all night long. The good news is that I bowled decent too.

In game #1, I started off with a 9 count spare. Then proceeded to strike on the next 6 frames. I finished game #1 with a 234. My buddy Rog also bowled a 221 and we picked up the slack for the "power" bowlers on our team which had a lackluster performance. We won game #1 by 57 pins.

Game #2 was just horrible as far as my footwork was concerned. Early in the match, I stumbled on the approach. This played with my mind as my feet were sliding every which way. I settled down a bit towards the end of the game though and just slowed everything down. I only finished with a 162. We lost that game by 3 pins.

Meanwhile on the pair beside us, Pocahontas Rodriguez overcame a huge defecit in the first game to win that game and then just spanked Phoenix in Game #2. This brought up the scenario. We had to win game #3 and Pocahontas had to lose their game #3. Any other scenario and we wouldn't win the quarter. If we won and Pocahontas won, we would lose the quarter by 1 measly point. If we lost, then the Silver Bullets would win the quarter. Ugh!

The good news is that in Game #3, it was only a tight race on our side for the first few frames. Our anchorman Devon finally found his line and ripped shit loose for a nice 200+ game. Everyone else bowled a decent game (I shot 177) and we took 6 out of 8 possible points from the Silver Bullets. Victory was not ours yet.

I don't really have a problem bowling under pressure. Hell, I just shot a 573 series when I could barely stand up under the pressure. The worst part about these bowling tournaments or leagues is having to rely on someone else to win or lose. It's gut wrenching.

By the time I got all my equipment packed up, Phoenix and Pocahontas were in a dead lock going into the 10th frame. Phoenix had already blown a 145 pin lead that they held only a few frames ago! Cocksucking old bastages! In the 10th though 2 key players for Pocahontas tossed splits on their first ball. Add a timely double from one of the weaker players on the Phoenix team and we clinched it.

We are quarter #3 winniners. What does this mean? Well, $100 extra for starters. We will bowl the winner of quarter #4 (unless we can win that quarter too) in a roll-off at the end of the year. The winner of that bowls in a roll-off against the 1st half winner for the league championship. I'd love to just win quarter #4 and bypass that rolloff and head straight to the championship. That's my plan anyway.

In other news, I'm bowling better now than ever before. Despite my fancy footwork last night, I'm getting awesome ball reaction with all my equipment. I'm hitting my mark and have figured out how to adjust better. The result is my average jumping up 4 pins in just a few weeks. I think my average right now stands around 175. I'd love to hit 180 before the end of the year, but I don't think we have enough games to make that mathematically possible. ***Edit***: I did the calculations..if I can average 195 for the remainder of the year, then my average will get above 180. I'm not sure if I can maintain a 195 average, but I'll go down trying!