ELM TRIO - LEAGUE CHAMPS

ELM Trio 3 - Movin On Up 4

We entered the second half finale with a record of 74-38, one point ahead of Movin On Up and Let It Roll at 73-39. Team 15 was in fourth place at 72-40. As it was a position round, we faced Movin On Up on lanes 1-2 while Let It Roll and Team 15 met on lanes 3-4.

The winner of the second half will face the winner of the first half on sweeper night for the league title. Since we won the first half, a first place finish in the second half would settle the league championship without a match on sweeper night.

Roz's bum shoulder kept her out of action so we were left to face Al and Will with Roz's average of 145. When Eli and I both opened the first frame with pocket 7-10 splits, we wondered if we were destined to bowl for the championship next week. After Will started with six shots buried in the pocket for strikes and Al striking whether he was in the pocket or straight through the nose, it was looking like a certainty. We recovered from the ridiculous splits in the first frame to put up a respectable score of 573 but it wasn't enough. Will's 233 and Al's 190 propelled Movin On Up to a 590-573 win.

Will and Al cooled off a bit in the second game but we still fell short. We had a shot but Larry finished with five straight open frames and I hit another pocket 7-10 split with my first shot in the tenth frame. We wasted Eli's excellent 221 game on a 534-515 defeat. This left us down two games and 36 pins behind for the extra point.

Losing the first two games was the equivalent of boxing's standing eight count. Movin On Up knocked us around but we were still on our feet. The two wins improved their record to 77-39 as ours fell to 74-42. This meant we had to win the final game for two points and outscore them by at least 37 pins to earn the extra point and finish in a tie for first place. Thankfully, Will and Al couldn't find the form they had in the first game. We pulled out the final game 561-515 and won the extra point for total pinfall by a score of 1649-1639. Our score was 3-4 which left us and Movin On Up tied for first place at 77-42.

WEEK 34  01  02  03  SER   G  PINS   AVG  HG   HS 200 500 600

ELI     212 221 168  601 102 19629 192.4 264  664  41  19  13
LARRY   171 127 158  456 102 14380 141.0 199  506   0   1   0
MARK    190 167 235  592 102 19443 190.6 253  660  42  23   9
TOTAL   573 515 561 1649 306 53444 174.7 623 1790  83  43  22

But that wasn't the end of it. On lanes 3-4, Team 15 prevailed over Let It Roll 5-2. Thus, Team 15 also had a record of 77-42 and we had a three-way tie for first place. The league rules provide for a one-game roll-off to break the tie. After consulting with our league officers, it was decided all three teams would bowl the tie-breaker on lanes 9-10.

Team 15 struggled and fell behind quickly while we and Movin On Up came out hot. In the end, we had the hotter hand even though Al and Will bowled well. I failed to obtain Team 15's score but I have the scores for ourselves and Movin On Up.

Eli      215    Al       177
Larry    145    Roz      145
Mark     236    Will     221
Subtotal 596    Subtotal 543
Handicap   0    Handicap  23
Total    596    Total    566 

As the victors in both halves, the league championship is ours. We can focus on winning a little money in the sweeper and enjoying the awards dinner.