Published: March 13, 2009 09:21 am      

Stenberg rolls 300; Bishop falls one pin shy

Brett Stenberg joined the list of bowlers rolling perfect games this season posting a score of 713/300 at Wilson Lanes in the Thursday Night Men’s Doubles League.

A.J. Bishop was near perfect, scoring 664/299 in the Tuesday Night Mixed League at White Oak Lanes.

Troy Cubbage was the area’s leading bowler for the week rolling 738/275 at The Bowler. Travis Walters followed, scoring 694/253.

Mike Brobst’s 731/268 was highest score at White Oaks for the week followed by J.M. Sites’ 729/267.

Stenberg’s 713/300 was the third-highest area score during the week and Craig Davis was next high at Wilson Lanes.

Joe Shoemaker and Steve Capaldi were the leaders at Rainbow Lanes bowling 701/253 and 677/256, respectively.

At Sherwood Lanes, Gary Monahan’s 655/226 was the top score followed by Eric Dudley’s 652/233.

The PBA Experience League results show Bishop leading the list scoring 619/211. Joe Mullenax rolled 616/231, Mike Sipple 606/214 and Felicia Deremer 562/231.

Stephanie Edwards was the area’s top lady for the week scoring 657/233 at The Bowler. Dawn House followed rolling 616/237.

Sandy Hott and Pam Brinkman were Rainbow’s top ladies. Hott bowled 615/225 and Brinkman rolled 585/204.

Alice Monahan scored 599/214 at Sherwood followed by Pam Braskey’s 527/199.

Pat Gwizdale bowled the Wilson ladies’ high scoring 568/205. Sandy Smith was next rolling 565/199.

Michele Hitchens’ 563/211 was the White Oaks high for the ladies followed by Jessica Patch’s 561/196.

Darrell Boatman’s 621/241 at The Bowler was the area’s senior high for the week. Senior Helen Uncapher scored 512/177 at White Oak Lanes.

Danny Walch was the top youth bowler scoring 675/248 at the Bowler. Tanner Smith rolled 607/222 at White Oaks and Tyler Mansfield scored 551/212 at Rainbow Lanes. Nick Ward rolled 512/202 at Wilson Lanes

I got a fair (?) amount of feedback on last week’s discussion of how to grip a bowling ball. I still stand by my comments in that the grip I recommended would produce a much cleaner and more repeatable release for most league bowlers.

Another release that is used by high average bowlers is to insert the thumb all the way into the thumb hole (with the fingers already inserted) then apply even pressure with the thumb straight and the thumbnail touching the backside of the thumb hole. The release is then completed by pushing the thumbnail against the back of the thumbhole. With this release the idea is that it takes minimal finger pressure to grip the ball since the ball weight carried by the thumb is distributed evenly across a large surface of the thumb.

The problem that I have with this release is that it is very sensitive to hole size and how well the thumb fits. Bowlers using this release seem to be constantly inserting or removing bowlers’ tape to get the right fit. A fairly tight fit is usually preferred when bowling several games.

An effective clean and repeatable release is worth the practice time to develop. The bent thumb or the knuckle release usually results in thumb problems.

Good luck bowling and have fun striking out!

Howard “Pete” Peterson is the bowling columnist for the Times-News. He can be reached at petesbowling@atlanticbb.net.