Little Victories at the Bowling Alley

Monday was the 13th and final week of our bowling season. This past season is one that I'd mostly like to forget, save for two events that happened this week:

* Someone, who may or may not be on our team, who may or may not have the initials "Tom Pitts," managed to let go of his ball on the backswing. It landed with a thud behind him.

That happens sometimes (not yet to me, though). However, the ball, which had a bit of topspin on it, rolled forward verrrrrry slowly into the gutter, making it halfway down the lane before stopping dead.

Oh, and did I mention that it was in the gutter of the lane next to our lane?

I was laughing so hard I cried.

(In subsequent trips down the lane, though, I think he had a death grip on the ball, which may or may not have led to a string of 4 strikes in a row. Hey, whatever works.)

* I was in the anchor position again tonight (which is pretty fitting, since I've been a drag on the team for most of this season). In the third and final game, the team scores were pretty close going into the 10th frame.

I got a strike, then knocked down 8 more. It was a split -- it was either a 6-7 or 7-9 (I'm not sure which, but the 7-9 is much harder, so it was probably the other one) -- so there were 2 pins remaining in the back: one on the left and one on the right.

I was the very last bowler of our two teams, and didn't look at the final team scores (didn't know... didn't want to know), but I figured we'd already lost, so I just went for it, starting on the right side (I bowl lefty) and aiming at the right side of the right pin.

I barely nicked it. It started wobbling. I thought it was going to stay up, until it slowly tipped over to the left. It fell over and tapped its neighbor, which also started wobbling, then fell over.

So I picked up my split. In the process, my team won by 1 pin.

If I'd known I'd needed one to tie, I would have probably gone for one (and missed).