Seeing Rachel’s blog about her son Allan’s (my namesake) interest in bowling reminded me about my experience in bowling.
In 1966/67 I was stationed at the Guided Missiles School at Dam Neck, Virginia, located just south of Virginia Beach, teaching computer maintenance. I was participating in the base intramural bowling league and having a ball (pun intended). Money was tight so when I heard about a job opening at the bowling alley, I applied and started right away. At first I was just a cashier but opted to be trained on the AMF pinsetter machines and became a mechanic. Soon they eliminated the cashier position and gave the mechanic double duty. Lucky me! One of the benefits of the job was free bowling so I took advantage and soon built my average from 135 to 165 then tried out for and made the base bowling team. There were those who did not believe I would make it but I proved them wrong.
There are several military bases in the Norfolk /Virginia Beach area and they sponsored a scratch (no handicap) league that toured the bases. The base recreation department bought us fancy shirts and we practiced on Saturday morning’s right after the alley’s weekly maintenance period. Most of the members of the team also worked at the bowling alley so we were already there. Dam Neck being a small base did not have the talent to draw from as the other bases did so consequently we finished at the bottom of this league. But it was a real experience.
The team also joined a local 900 scratch money league. The 900 figure was based on a sanctioned league average of 180 and the total of the 5 members starting average had to be less than 900. This leveled the playing field and there was a lot of very close games. My sanctioned summer league average was 165 which allowed a couple of our guys with 185 and 190 averages to be on the team. In actuality my starting average was much closer to 175. Because it was a money league each participant added $1.50 per week above our bowling fees which went into a pot that the paid out at the end of the season. Our team won 1st place in the league mainly because of my low starting average and better performance during the league.
During the season I had several games near 235 and in the base intramural league I had a 285 game with a string of 9 strikes. I saw one of the other bowlers in the money league string 15 strikes (should be a perfect 300 but…), 3 to close out the first game and then string 9 more. In the first ball of the 10th frame he bowled a strike but stepped on the foul line so it negated that strike but he closed out with 2 more strikes for a 290. The tension of bowling that well builds with each strike and you really have to control your emotions and shut out everything else to continue successfully. Bowling is not just a physical game but a mental game as well as is every sport.
At the end of the season we entered a local money tournament and came in second place. I got real hot in this tournament and bowled a 657 (average of 219) for the three games. That pushed us way up in the score. We actually came out with the high scratch score but due to starting handicaps one other team beat us by a whisker.
At this time in my life I did not understand the Words of Wisdom however I did learn an allied lesson. I learned that just the slightest bit of alcohol would alter my timing and throw off my score by 10 to 20 pins. Just like booze and driving do not mix, booze and sports do not mix. Bowling is a mechanical sport requiring one to repeat your delivery accurately every time. Then knowing the mathematics of the angles of delivery of the ball will get one to the 175 average easily. Better bowlers then learn to read the physics of the lane to predict what the ball will do each time it rolls down the lane and alter their delivery angle and speed to compensate. The best bowlers also learn to control their emotions so that their performance is repeatable. Adrenalin does funny things to you and the excitement of stringing strikes together raises the tension significantly. Learning to handle the emotions in those kinds of situations tells the difference between a good player and a very good player. Physical conditioning also plays a part so that you do not tire altering your consistency.
However, I have probably have been bowling 5 times since then because of ships schedules, growing family needs and much different priorities in life. I had a great time that season and learned some life long lessons. Now I am just too far out of shape (round is a shape) to bowl again.
