Big week, with two summer leagues starting for me: the Summer Sizzler league on 9 pm Monday nights and my beloved Women's League on our regular Wednesday night schedule at 6:30 pm. The nights are getting quite warm, which could make for some scorchingly hot nights on the lanes....
The Summer Sizzler league was bigger than we thought, with a total of 16 two-person teams. My GoPapa Joel and I are JC Squared, and we played against the blind scores (140, based on 150 average) of an absent duo. Playing against another absentee team on the lanes beside us were Philly Pinoy bowling buddies Romy and Blue. Romy had just played with three Filipina gals (Grace, Alice and Bicoy) on team Lucky Strike at the 6:30 pm Mixed League. Philly Pinoy rookie AllStar Bicoy currently has an awesome 150+ average on that league, and AllStar Romy had just played 200+ games.
It took a while for the earlier league to wrap up, so it was 9:30 pm before we could start playing. Romy and Blue were bowling up a storm beside us, throwing strike after strike. Joel got hot as well and ended up with a 230+ game! I struggled in the first and last games (bowled 118 and 121, uggh) but got a 194 in my second game - SO close (again!) to a 200 game but not quite. Romy and Blue were done early, sweeping their opponent. Joel and I won the first two games and were on the last two frames of the last game when we realized were down by a few pins. We want a sweep too! Our competitive juices kicked in, with Joel converting on a hugely improbable 3-6-7-10 split, allowing us to win the game by FOUR pins! Sweep for us too! The guys all had averages in the 190s, i had to be content with my 144 average. Great bowling, guys, awesome start!
Wednesday night for the ladies started out with a bit of chaos. I could hear the Mission Impossible theme playing as we strove to figure out how our 8 teams could play on only 6 lanes, since two lanes allotted to us had apparently been assigned to the Men's League! After much discussion, two of the eight teams, my IncrediBOWLs and the Split Enz, were assigned to two lanes on the other side of the building: poor Shirley was able to work this out for us but she was going to make sure we had our lanes together, as always, by next week. On the Split Enz are Anjeanette, Sherry and Angela: all great players, and such a formidable opponent to be matched against on the first week, when our averages will be set. My teammates Mitchie/Carmina and Chelo had had no practice for a while, and so i was voted anchor until my perrenial anchor woman Mitchie could get her confidence back. Both Chelo and Mitchie played better than I did most of the night though - great for the IncrediBOWLs and a great start for us all! We tied in the first game then won the second game, then the Split Enz, who had a hard time getting all warmed up, got their groove later on, especially after both Sherry and Angela got done selling raffle tickets during the second and third games. They wound up winning the third game and total pins, so we lost, 1.5 to 3.5. Anjeanette and I took a while before we got any strikes, i just struggled the whole night and could not recover like Anjeanette did. Mitchie got hot in the third game and bowled a 178: that's my madam anchorwoman! Chelo and I both ended up with a 141 average, what are the odds? We had great fun, with all the high fiving and dancing we were doing, although Angela noted that I was not as noisy as i usually am, hmmm...maybe coz i was playing awful?
I brought home that night goodies from the Womens Fall League banquet that was held at the Thorndale Inn on May 15, which I missed coz i was home sick with a low grade fever and bad asthma, and could hardly breathe. My dear Scatterpins did well as the #2 team for both the first and second half of the year. I got a towel for bowling 60 pins over my average, the 197 i bowled when my average was 136. I also got $15 for our team rolling a high team series. Overall I received a whopping $133 in cash, together with a lovely handmade tissue box from Shirley and Ruth, some homemade lotion (which my daughter immediately claimed coz it smelled heavenly!), and some cool giveaways from the bank. Awesome, I tell you... I truly feel like a winner and am so BLESSED to have found this lovely league!
On a related note, another Philly Pinoy team made its debut on the Tuesday night mixed league. Angie's List is comprised of Angie (of course!), Raul, Desi and Roy, who is new to the Palace leagues. Our newbie had awesome beginners luck on Tuesday night, bowling his first 200 game at league with a 230+ no less! Way to go, Royster, i think that makes you our player of the week!
So we are off to a good start, folks, let us keep the momentum going. See y'all at the lanes!
