Looking at the stats in my league, I am one of the more consistent bowlers but I do not have the highest scores nearly every week. I am one of the few that manages to stay around a certain average and doesn't deviate too far below that average, but it has been many moons since I blew people out of the water and got the highest score of the week.
Getting the highest score of the week is quite an accomplishment when you consider that our group here has an attendance of around 20 people every week and about 2/3 of those people go with us every single week. Every person get's at least 2 games per day (on game days) so for you to get the best score is pretty unlikely when you consider that your contribution is only going to be 2 out of 45 or so games that are played. Unless you are seriously good, chances are someone is going to do better than you do.
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The above is not our bowling alley but it may as well be because there are not very many companies that manufacture ball-return machines so they all look very similar. On a side note I would like to point out that I believe that bowling alley technology is still made like basically everything was made up until the 70's or 80's in that it is designed to last FOREVER. If you dig into the history of almost any bowling alley in existence you will find that the equipment, while expensive, has been there for decades and simply doesn't break down outside of very rare occurrences. The equipment is quite simplistic in nature and is made of extremely robust materials. The construction of two lanes costs around $80,000 which isn't cheap by any means but when you consider how long bowling alleys have been in operation it also isn't outrageous. I have several friends in the US that have cars that cost far more than this so I always think "man, you could have bought your own bowling alley instead!"
Anyway, the point here is that I fear every single week that I am going to be dethroned as the champion and this is something that is expected to happen on a regular basis. Our league wouldn't be very fun if the same guy was champion all the time and the others in the league didn't really have a chance to take that prize away. There was a time in the past that we had an American guy in our ranks that had bowled his entire life, had his own ball and shoes, and would routinely bowl over 200. We all started to kind of hate this guy because the competitions were no longer fun since he was so much better than the rest of us. It didn't help matters that he was kind of an asshole as well and when Covid hit and he never returned, not many of us were ever going to complain about that.
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By the way, if you haven't see the film "Kingpin" and you like bowling... go see it. It's hilarious
This Tuesday I went in for our regularly scheduled practice session that happens for Dumbo every week. We have a suggestion that is kind of a rule meant for all the people near the top that it is taboo to go practice outside of this one time per week. Our league is fun because nobody is leaps and bounds better than everyone else. Obviously there is no way for us to enforce this and I am aware of a few of the top guys that go practice more than this but the end result for them is that once this knowledge gets out there, everyone is rooting against them when they compete :)
On Tuesday I started out pretty terrible like I always do while I am figuring out the oil patters on the lane. This is a real problem when you bowl with a curve like I do because the first 3 frames are normally spent figuring out where I need to place the ball in order to take full advantage of my curve. If there isn't enough oil the ball will curve wildly to the side and miss the head pin or worse, miss all the pins. If there is a lot of oil the ball will never "bite" and hook unless you slow down your throw and focus on rotations. It is times like this that I wish I was capable of bowling straight but after 30 years of ALWAYS bowling with a curve I am no longer capable of bowling straight at all.
My first game started out shitty, and I have gotten to the point where I expect this. I managed to figure the lane out by the 4th frame and then finished strong to have a first game score of 144. Not a stellar score but I aim to maintain a 140 average so yeah, job done.
The second game was more of the same with me getting the odd strike here and there and normally always hitting the pocket on the first ball. The reasons for not getting a strike was because of bad luck and the pins simply don't fall in my favor. The one thing that was irritating me about my game is that I was missing spare pickups pretty badly. I am the type of bowler that I can tell if it is going to hit the mark as soon as it leaves my hands. My 2nd game wasn't so great, but also wasn't terrible. I ended with a 137. Still close enough to my average but not making me happy.
The last game was more of the same with me getting a 143. So yeah, I was able to maintain my goal of 140 average.
The guy I am up against this Thursday for my 3rd week as champion of DUMBO is only the 2nd Canadian I have ever faced in our league. He is a jovial fellow and fun to be around. He also isn't hyper-competitive but is one of those physical specimens that is kind of good at any sport that he decides to play. He is also incredibly inconsistent in his bowling performance. It is not uncommon for him to bowl under or barely 100 points but then on a "good" week he will bowl outstanding. Last week for example, he bowled a 194 and had it not been for him flubbing the 10th frame, he would have been only the 7th active-ish member of our group to ever break 200 on a competition day. His other game was also above 150. However, the week prior to that he averaged 118 points across his 2 games. So the odds are likely in my favor if there actually was a betting line on us since I can be depended on to bowl around 140 every single game whereas he is "feast or famine" as far as his ability is concerned.
Obviously, I would prefer to win tomorrow, but it all kind of depends on which version of my opponent turns up to the lanes tomorrow: If I get the really good guy that turned up last week, I could be in real trouble. If I get the guy who can't hit anything for some reason, I'm probably going to be ok.
In the end I am happy to either win or lose tomorrow but if he wins, I don't think he will stay champion for very long because he is just too inconsistent.
We are expecting a big crowd tomorrow because all of the New Year celebrations are finished with at this point. Let's hope that I can stay consistent and either win with glory or lose with grace.