Bowling For Respectability

I had a silly experience yesterday afternoon with my current team at work. We were out at a bowling alley for a celebration, and split into 3 groups (3 lanes) to roll a couple games. It was 10-pin bowling, which I've played probably a hundred times in my life. Vicki and I often go bowling when we travel in the States, just because we both enjoy it and we're close enough in skill that the games are typically close (she usually wins by a nose). Anyway, my usual score is anywhere from 110 to 130, depending on how many times I choke after a strike or spare. I can also score the game - although you never need to now, what with electronic lanes - and explain why a perfect game is 300 (450, for 5-pin bowling), and so on. So I know how to bowl, and do OK at it for an occasional bowler.

And yet, there I was at this bowling alley that has been converted to an entertainment centre or something, looking like I couldn't bowl at all! The reason? They took the lanes and shortened them, such that the distance from the start of the approach to the foul line was only about 8 to 10 feet, with tables situated at the start of the approach so that you couldn't even 'extend' it backwards if you tried. For those who don't bowl, the approach is the area in which you stride forward prior to releasing the ball, and is supposed to be "not less than 15 feet" (I just looked it up). Like anyone who bowls very often, I have a very specific technique for lining up my feet before I start, and involving the number of steps I take, at what point I swing the ball back, and so on. I didn't even notice the shortened area when I first got there, but when I went to throw my first ball, I had to release it in mid-stride as I'd suddenly found myself on top of the foul line much earlier than expected. Needless to say, the ball went straight into the gutter. Next ball: same thing. My score at the end of the 2nd frame: 1! I don't know if I'd ever before, as an adult, thrown a gutter ball other than when trying to pick off a corner pin... and yet there I was bowling 3 of them in my first 4 attempts!

I tried all kinds of adjustments over the rest of that game (final score: 77) and in the second game (final score: 87) but never could figure out any workable cadence to use. I felt like a baseball pitcher who's suddenly being forced to do their windup from behind the mound or something similar. It was totally frustrating, and the group I was out with were all very amused by my claims of "being a lot better at bowling than this!" None of them seemed to even realize the approach was short, as most had only bowled a handful of times before, some of them at that same obscene establishment.

Anyway, that was one of the more unpleasant bowling stories I could tell. Much better was the day the friend at IBM and I - this was during one of my co-op terms in Toronto in the early 80s - sneaked out of work to go bowling. While there, we saw a big sign advertising "All You Can Bowl - $10 - Sunday Morning Only" and decided to come back that weekend and take a lane each, to see how many games we could bowl in 2 hours. We did something like 8 each, after which our arms fell off (figuratively, not literally). Now that was fun!