Kaplan Rolls 300

Bill (a.k.a. Coach) Kaplan posted a well deserved perfect 300 game one week ago today while bowling in the Tuesday Night Mixed league at Twin Oaks Bowling Center, proving his worth as a long time high school and youth league bowling coach.

Long after his youngest moved up to adult league, Kaplan stayed on as his grandkids became active in the sport that he loved almost as much as his fishing, but that’s a tall tale in itself so we’ll stick to the bowling part.

This is the third perfect 300 for Kaplan who witnessed a brief hesitation before the last pin fell to give him the final strike of this particular game.

Added games of 181 and 223 put Kaplan over the wire at 704 for series.

As a bit of history, Kaplan’s first 300 game was in fact the last 300 game rolled on the old wooden lanes of Holiday Bowl back in May of 2011 and to add a bit of drama, it was during week 37, the awards/no-tap tournament night of the same TNM league.

This wasn’t a first for this league as they had learned years before to certify the event just in case a “Natural” 300 was bowled, so this one counted for the record.

Kaplan didn’t see another 300 game until June of 2015, this time while bowling in the Scratch Trio league at Thunderbird Lanes.

So here we have him making the rounds with his third perfect 300 game, this time at Twin Oaks. There should be an award for that. Congratulations Coach!

Adult Highlights

Jim Bomboy put games of 278, 234 and 235 together to post the week’s high series of 747, while managing the masses in the Suburban league at Twin Oaks.

Zach Morales was in the zone with 717 that went 244, 215 and 258 and Brandon Tipton rolled 224, 231 and 246 for a 701.

Bomboy noted the high game of the night was a front ten effort by Paul Davis that ended at 288.

James Ray was still striking a week after his big series, scoring 710 this week to lead in the TNT where he had games of 228, 235 and 247.

Mike Peckinpaugh was the senior bowler of the week with games of 231, 268 and 206 for a 705 from the Socialites and Chris Dickerson was the Friday Nite Mixed Rollers high scorer with 702 on games of 248, 221 and 233.

And, for a walk down memory lane, remember how exciting it was to bowl a strike or even a double? Well, according to Early Birds secretary Gary Sammons, Dawn McCammon was beyond thrilled with her first turkey as she struck in frames 3, 4 and 5 of game three. Wouldn’t it be great to see more of this? Thank you for sharing Gary.

Youth Highlights

After only two weeks of bowling, Alonzo Chavez bowled his first 100 game of 113 while bowling in the TBird MiniShots.

Zachary Madden posted his first 100 game of 112 in the TBird HotShots and Peyton Smith topped the youth charts with a 591 series on games of 166, 222 and 203 in the TBird Legends.

No-Tap News

Diane Frame took first place in the women’s division of last week’s Senior No-Tap Colorama at Thunderbird Lanes with an 841 series that was the high set of the day.

Sue Avis finished in second on the ladies side with 725.

Gene Augustine took first for the guys with 780, followed by Ken Knoff, 739, and Sam Bowman rounded out the top three with 727.

Bowman’s 673 scratch series was high in the Scratch Singles competition, followed by David Yett with 669.

High rollers Diane Frame and Sam Bowman were paired in the Mystery Doubles where they took first in game one with 544 and first in game three with 543.

Ken Knoff and Cathy Shuman managed to grab game two with a 530 combined score.

Strike pot ticket winners were Charles Norman, David Jones, Peggy Towne and Michael Sneed but there were no takers in the special challenged edition of the day’s event.

Bowlers were greeted with a new shot that might be another one like Waldo, too tough to tame.

Many of you may have seen the video on social media of a young Thunderbird bowler converting the “Back Row”, toppling the 7, 8, 9 and 10 pins with ease.

That same “Back Row” shot was added in place of the Even Pins spare to give our adults something off the charts to attempt, at least for a while.

If you would like your shot at the Back Row, the 21, the Snake Bite, Pill Draw, Match Play or any of the other special challenge shots, join the crowd every Friday afternoon at Thunderbird Lanes.

The event starts at 1 p.m. and all bowlers must be age 50 or older with a verifiable average.