11th Frame   12.23.18 By Bill Ryan Avery Latta bowls 254, 659 in youth league ‘Tis the season for strange things happening like Santa coming down your chimney with a new bowling ball, bag and shoes and being disappointed you don’t have any lanes available for him. Or you ask Santa for a 300 game and get a 400

By Bill Ryan   Adam Dilsaver, among City tournament winners taking both singles and All Events Simon and King win doubles; Lane and Hiler take women’s doubles crown, Melendrez  wins singles and Wammes takes women’s all-events. Open Division: Adam Dilsaver’s 800 series propelled him to the singles win and the All Events Crown in the Open Division of the

By Bill Ryan Dilsaver shoots 800 in singles leads city tournament, Dimick leads women's singles Youth bowler James Alfaro bowls 255, 636 Adan Dilsaver posted on his Facebook page he would rather have an 800 series than a 300 game. He got his wish in the opening weekend of the annual singles event in the annual City Tournament

By Bill Ryan Jug’s Bowling Center wins annual Moosman team tournament. The Northwest Ohio Bowling Proprietors annually hold the Dean Moosman Memorial Team tournament in memory of the former proprietor and Ohio Hall of Fame member. This year’s event with the $1,000 first place prize went to Jug’s Bowling Center with a 3,689 total . Though trailing second place finishers

By Bill Ryan ASDI wins open team tourney, H&W Motor Freight win women’s division Anita Dilaver claims Turkey Title; Ken North bowls 300 in American League • City Tournament: The standings of the annual team event of the City Tournament is now official and shows ASD Remodeling Inc. winning the Open Division at 3,403. Brian Close led the team

By Bill Ryan Product test offered On Sunday Al-Mar Lanes will offer bowlers free entry to try the latest releases from 900 Global at the bowling center at 1010 N. Main Street. The product test will feature some of top performing bowling balls in the 900 Global line from 3 to 5:30 p.m. For more information contact

By Bill Ryan Pepsi qualifiers There were 18 youth bowlers who earned qualification to advance in the annual Pepsi tournament in the first round of qualifying through Al-Mar Lanes. They are listed below. The second round of qualifying will be held on Dec. 1 and Dec. 8. Qualifiers are as follows: Girls; 8 and under, Lucia Hannam 159;

11th Frame  11.09.18 By Bill Ryan  Four younger bowlers pass coaching clinic  Colin Fahy, Ali Fahy, Sidney Dilsaver and Cheyenne Kolczynski, all recently attended the Level 1 United States Bowling Congress coaching clinic. Each of the four passed and are now Level 1 certified coaches. The program was held in  Temperance, Michigan.  Bowling for Boobs winners The winners in the recent Bowling for Boobs fund-raising tournament (no-tap scoring) were Dave Walter with a 300 and 843 scratch series; Isaac Milleson with a 300 and 824 handicap series; and for the women, Yogi Wammes with a 676 actual series and Vicki Schumacher with an 809 handicap total. Basebowl winners The

By Bill Ryan  A survey from a third-party research firm shows that participants at the United States Bowling Congress Open Championships support recent changes to the tournament, including the addition of a third average-based division and withholding publication of lane conditions to improve fairness.  The USBC Open Championships survey was reviewed and analyzed by Victus Advisors.  In 2017, USBC introduced significant changes to the Open Championships designed to improve the experience and competitive environment of the event, including a new division intended to increase peer-to-peer competition. Now that bowlers have experienced the changes for two years, USBC conducted a survey to determine the acceptance and approval of the changes.  Victus found bowlers responded with an overwhelming acceptance and approval of the change in division structure for competitiveness (85 percent) and a strong positive majority (76 percent) about overall changes to the division structure and average requirements.  Registration trends for the 2019 Open Championships in Las Vegas also support these findings. To date, 8,230 teams have registered for the event. If current registration trends continue, 2019 projects to be the largest tournament since 2012.  Victus’ key findings from the Open Championships survey data include:  • The overwhelming majority (85 percent) said that the new division structure allowed them to be more competitive or made no difference to the competitiveness of the Open Championships. This is a clear indication that the addition of a third average-based division at the tournament had its intended effect of increasing peer-to-peer competition at the event.  • Overall, 76 percent of respondents said they think the three-division structure is positive for the long-term success of the tournament or that they agree with the goals of the changes. This is indicative of the generally positive view of the new division structure.  • A total of 65 percent of respondents indicated they agreed with or had no opinion about keeping lane patterns secret until after the conclusion of the event. This majority shows a positive leaning toward the changes made in lane condition communications in 2017 and 2018.  The survey also asked bowlers to identify their levels of satisfaction relating to 19 aspects of the 2018 tournament. Victus observed that overall satisfaction with tournament operations was among the best performing categories in terms of bowler satisfaction, which further indicates there has not been a significant backlash to the operational changes made in 2017 and 2018.  The complete Victus Advisors report on the 2018 Open Championships survey is published onBOWL.com/OpenChamp.  Surviving the Game Results of the first week of Al-Mar's Surviving the game found the first three bowlers eliminated were all from the Ladies Major League. They are Diane Swisher, 75 under; Dar Mauk, 74 under and Laura Partin, 69 under Upcoming events Annual Basebowl Tournament, Oct. 28; Bowling for Boobs, Nov. 4; and annual City tournament also

By Bill Ryan There are a lot of theives in bowling leagues. No. I’m not talking about money nor merchandise, rather I’m talking abou the theft of something very valuable, the TIME of other bowlers. There are some fair and legitimate reasons why a bowler may not be up and ready to bowl at their turn, but those are few and far between. More often than not, it’s the lack of paying attention that it is one’s turn to bowl. Some bowlers may need a bathroom break, and that can be forgiven within reason. There are other times when smokers drift outside for a quick hit or 10. However, it has been my experience that most of the smokers do not abuse the time and plan to go for their smoke breaks between games when there is a little more time. There are others that just plain ignore and don’t care that they are holding up the rest of the bowlers on their pair of lanes. Decades ago, it used to be the custom that the lead-off bowler of a team would not throw the first ball in a new frame until their anchor bowler had thrown their first ball in the previous frame. That custom went out 20 fashion trends ago. Those things generally work themselves out as the game progresses. If it’s your turn … bowl. It’s just that simple. There is no rule nor reccommendation to wait, so please don’t. It is now expected that when it is your turn, you should be up and bowling. By not doing so you are wasting up to two minutes each frame. With 30 frames in a 3-game league that adds up and is not unusual to see one team or another be regularly 20 to 30 minutes behind other teams in the same league. With nine other bowlers on your pair of lanes, on a five-person team, one bowler can easily steal that time from the others adding up to the theft of an accumulation of three Everyone’s time is of value. Some bowlers may need to get to work after bowling, or get home to their family or to watch their favorite television show or sporting event. Whatever the reason, why do you think you should steal their time from them? There is no legitimate answer. Team captains if your lead-off has a penchant for this blatant waste of time, rearrange the lineup and get that problem elsewhere in your lineup. Everybody can get sidetracked now and then. We are all guilty of this from time to time, but when it happens frame after frame, game after game, week after week, on a regular basis, you are a thief and when you steal my time, that is time that I will never get back. You’ve robbed me of that precious commodity. Stop it. Walter Ray comes to town There are a limited few openings left for the upcoming Walter Ray Williams Jr. bowling clinic to be held at Al-Mar Lanes on Friday, Dec. 7 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. The cost is $79 per person and this is an excellent way tosharpen your game. For younger bowlers who may not know Williams is a 7-time professional player of the year and the all PBA career money leader and title holder. He is also a silver certified coach. Don’t be shut out reserve your spot in the clinic soon. League highlights through Oct. 7Jackand Jill:Steve Burton, 289, 717; Kirk Starkey 258, 674; Billy Malik, 602; Steven Hoodlebrink 269; Women: Cindy StPeter, 186, 531; Brandi Binion, 191, 467 Standings: VinChar, 16-5; A Split Happens, We’re Broken, St.Peter and Binion-Stephenson, each 14-7DiagonAlley Cats,bgMake Hachtel 128,334; Tim Brackenbury, 143, 301; Women Erin Hachtel, 123, 356; Gina O’Hare, 328; Robin Cagle,120. Standings: Cagle, 12-9; Hachtel and Lapolt-O-Hare, both 11-10MixedUp Guys and Gals:Josh Crawford, 264, 703; Jeff Sayre 618; Bob Johnson, 606; Stretch Stevems. 275’ Dave Dohanos 224; Women; Lori Hutton, 216,581; Andrea Blasius, 489; Tonia Blair, 474; Betsy Johnson, 193; Judy Lee, 179. Standings: Time to Strike and Bowling for Booze,both 18-3.Bobcat 2 a Days:Easton Duncan, 279; Conner Main Standings: Boys Avery Latta 51 wins; Tyler Bowen, 44.5 wins Girls Kaylee Gonyer, 39; Savanah Garner, 34.Rally's Junior All Stars:Conner Main, 126, 323; Easton Duncan, 258; Dakota Blasius, 97; Girls: Kyleigh Leu,92,