Breakthrough, and a challenge.

Names below have been changed to protect the innocent.

So, I have become so frustrated with my erratic bowling score, that I decided to take desperate measures.

1st a little background:

In 1997, while visiting the island of Koh Phangan in the gulf of Thailand, I was the victim of a bizarre hammock accident. (Sometime I will get it together to do a whole post on just this weird event, please be patient. I'm still trying to learn to post images properly.) As a result of this accident, I broke various bones in my wrist in four different places, which has lead to some arthritis, and pain. Consequently, my wrist becomes very sore during bowling, and my score suffers, making it difficult to break 150. Additionally, I find that even as much as 3 or 4 days later, I'm still hurting.

So I decided to try a wrist brace. I bought the $9.99 special at Big 5. Just give it a shot, what could it hurt, right? So my teammates and I have a make-up league game for the afternoon of March 21st, and we head down to the alley a little early to get used to the brace.

I start practicing. It's a little funky, and it feels like it's fucking up my accuracy. But my wrist doesn't hurt. So I throw five shitty frames.

Then, on the sixth frame, I start throwing strikes. I finally end up with a 2-strike, 9 pin leftover for the tenth frame, and a final score of 154, which beats my personal best of 150 by 4 points.

This, needless to say, is really cool. But wait, it gets better.

I practice another game before league play starts. League play consists of 3 games which will bring up my day total to five games, a big no-no for my wrist.

Sure enough, game 1 is 116. My wrist isn't sore, but my accuracy is inconsistent. Then it happens:

Game 2:



T is consistently the strongest bowler among us, and usually scores way out in front. S is his wife, a novice bowler with amazing potential. I've seen her make very difficult shots like it was nothing. I'm actually doing better, throwing a strike-spare-8 or 9 pin twice in succession. T's off this game, which means that he's just bowling well, instead of excellent. But S starts throwing strikes (mostly) or spares in the sixth frame which lasts for her through the 10th. I throw my 1st "turkey" ever for three consecutive strikes starting in the 7th, and T throws a 2 strike-1 spare combo starting in the eighth.

The results:
My highest score ever + 1st turkey ever for a personal best of 170. (even during my 4th game of the day!)
S's personal best ever: 165.
T: a perfectly respectable 138 with a nice finish.
Our group score is our 2nd best ever of 473.

For game 3 of league play (my game #5 of the day), I bowl a perfectly respectable 141. T rages back for a 167. S has a 115. Our group score is 426.

Needless to say, I'm ecstatic. I'm bragging about my new bowling prowess to anyone who'll listen. Best of all, my wrist pain is reduced.

But then, two days ago, that bastard, T, sends me this:



You just couldn't let me revel in my glory of 170, could you? Oh no, you had to up the ante to some 201 kinda shit, eh, "Sunflower?".

Ok, it's on, bitch.

Stay tuned.