Hood River News

Orchard Lanes bowling

November 26, 2005

Junior Star of the Week:

Trevor Johnson

This 11-year-old is steadily improving in only his second year of bowling in the Junior All Star league at Orchard Lanes. Last week, he ended up 91 pins over his average, which was better than everybody else in the league. As a result Trevor earns the Junior Star of the Week honors and a sub sandwich courtesy of Sub Shop #15.

Johnson barely nosed out Jason Degeus, who tossed a trio of consistently solid scratch games (194, 199 and 205) for a very nice 598 series. Without a doubt, Jason is the hottest junior bowler in town right now.

Bowler of the Week:

Doug Arnell

How about the exemplary performance of Windermere’s main man and our young real estate specialist, Doug Arnell, who really had his way in the Senior league last week. Arnell fired a 213 game on his way to a fine 590 series, which was 140 pins over his average. As Bowler of the Week, Arnell also gets a free sandwich from Sub Shop #15.

Team of the Week:

Brandon Kawachi 716

Stuart Kawachi 660

Bryan Mason 646

Mike Parke 638

Pat Olson 634

total: 3,294

Scoring conditions remained difficult again last week. However, changes were made in the lane-conditioning program last Friday so things may get better. Our current Team of the Week has some of the lowest numbers I’ve ever seen. I can’t remember when a lowly 634 series ended up as the fifth best score for the entire week at Orchard Lanes.

Yes, our top five are all big names in local bowling that frequently make the cut. As the saying goes, “when the going gets tough, the tough get going”. The cream almost always rises to the top, no matter what.

The guys just scored a little lower than normal under the tough lane conditions. The big exception, of course, is perennial all-star Brandon Kawachi, who emerged with a solid 716 series in last Friday’s Happy Foursome league. As I said, some changes were made last Friday. And Brandon’s big revving bender was able to scatter the sticks with ease. This is why I’m hopeful that scores will dramatically improve from now on. Keep your fingers crossed … it’s a lot more fun to bowl those big numbers.

League report:

Good scores from the various leagues at Orchard Lanes included the following:

Industrial league

Brandon Kawachi 251

Court Barker 245

Josh Worth 235

Tuesday Nite Mixed

Betsy Frazier 209

Mary Olson 207

Senior league

John Strange 259

Ron Baumsteiger 246

Joe Krug 223

Doug Arnell 213

Steve Nance 212

Carol Clement 202

Fraternal league

Randy Neito 259

Bob Hanel 234

Mike Martin 232

Happy Foursome league

Carl Casey 235

Doni Tardiff 234

Shirley Thornhill 221

Judy Olson 212

Jean Casey 204

Bowling on TV:

Last’s week’s show was pretty good; I hope you got to see it. The Masters is the toughest and most prestigious tournament in professional bowling.

Lefty Mike Scroggins won by edging the top seed, right handed Norm Duke, who I think is just about the best bowler in the world. Three of the four bowlers on the show were left-handers and two of them struggled with the lane condition. Scroggins, who throws the ball kind of like Earl Anthony used to, made good adjustments and got a few breaks along the way.

He started the title match strong and put together a big string of strikes to put Duke on the ropes. However, he opened the ninth frame with a big split to give Duke a chance to win. That was a huge mistake because Duke is the best there is in the clutch.

Duke had some trouble in the early frames. But he made the right moves and finished up strong by punching out with a string of six strikes to put the pressure on. Scroggins had a real shaky tenth frame, which could have easily resulted losing him the tournament.

In the end, however, Scroggins was able to convert an easy spare and win by just a few sticks.

This week the pros are bowling the Chicago Classic, which will air on ESPN at 10 a.m. Sunday.