Fun was had by ALL...

Wow, what a night at the Palace for the Philly Pinoy regular bowlers this past Sunday. It was the last night of Joey and my Sunday Night Adult-Child Summer League, where we bowled as a team called "Bowling for Nachos." It was a free bowling night, as we could bowl as much as we wanted with our friends and family with free pizza and soda. A total of 15 people on 4 lanes dined and bowled - instant party! We should have brought cake! On lanes 19 and 20, we had Blue, Desi and Joy vs Chelo, Mitchie, Angie and me. Lanes 17 and 18 eventually moved to lanes 15 and 16 (technical difficulties) and had Lino, Romy, Paolo and Raul vs Joel, Ivan, Roy and Edmer. We all bowled 3-4 games and they were all FREE! Just in time coz the practice games at Palace were going through a 100% increase from $1 to $2 per game by Monday and we are cheap!

So many memorable vignettes from our fun night, no wonder we were so raucously noisy with merriment! Here are a few:

- We had chants of "blue" which sounded like "boo" when Blue hit a good shot - brand new cheer!

- Desi pretended to be "shooting" us down like James Bond when he got a strike, kumakasa pa! Not only that, he would dance "body language" like Frieda Fonda - naluma ang nga BOWLdStars!

- We swore there was Velcro on the mighty 10 pin, always seemed to stay upright. Then there was a ball magnet on the right gutter, victimized me and a few others, especially as we tried to hit the mighty 10 pin!

- Lino had to leave early (home to the Commander!), but while he was absent, he was well on his way to a perfect game as everybody on lanes 15-16 took turns throwing strikes in his name - galing ni Lino!!! Everybody was throwing strikes! The guys were under pressure, who was going to break the streak? Alas it was Ka Iban.... "Lino" still had an awesome 200 game with good teamwork, great job, guys!

The lanes were oiled for league play but broke down rapidly and so got difficult to read. My beast ball did well on the first game, giving me the usual wicked hook when thrown down the boards between the 1st and 2nd arrows, giving me a 140 score and allowing me to hit a couple of 6/10 spares using a laydown spot on the 20th board targeted through the third arrow. Wow, I sound like I know how to bowl! But then the lanes broke down and residual oil on the backend was not allowing my beast to hook at the right side of the lane. I took drastic measures and moved RIGHT, changing my left foot stance from the middle (20) to boards 15-18, to throw my beast with only a slight hook from a laydown point on board 8 into the second arrow straight to the pocket. That worked for a while. But when that led to the ball getting magnetically drawn to the gutter too often (darn open shoulder), moving to the left (left foot on board 25) and throwing straight down board 16 (3rd arrow) seemed to work too. Weird but this seems to be the way Beastie plays nowadays, it's imitating a spare ball! Now I just need to actually master those spares....

Only half a year more till Philly Pinoy league starts in January 2013, most of the regular Philly Pinoy players that played at this "party" will be playing at leagues in the fall. Should make for a truly fun and competitive league this winter for Philly Pinoy. Good luck to all the fall league players. I'll see y'all at the lanes, dear friends!

P.S. The IncrediBOWLs practiced with GoPapa Joel and my Joey this evening. My teammates were their usual awesome selves. Even Joey played really well! My just boiled and exfoliated Beast played no different than Sunday night. I got to practice the new approaches from right and left and even got three strikes in the last frame of the second game. I was able to practice my spares, so i should be set for Wednesday night league. Bless my game, gonna do my best and lift up the rest! Till then....

Enjoy the pic taken of me at winter league this year. Hoping my scores start looking as good as my finish!