This past weekend we drove to Albuquerque, New Mexico for the national bowling tournament. Mr. Troutbend participates in it every year with his former team mates from the Denver area. I hadn't been to it for several years and everyone aged considerably more than I have since they last saw me.



See the short little guy in a beige shirt? He is a bouncer at a strip club in Denver. The next guy works at a Kroger store, and the next one is Mr. Tbend. Other teams tried to dress alike, but Mr. Tbend, who is captain of his team, doesn't believe in making them spend extra money.

Here they all are unpacking their gear. Mr. Tbend is somewhere behind all those other guys on the left. The ones on the right in the purple are more of his bowling buddies and they subscribe to the dress alike concept. Overall, they bowled worse than the mis-matched team.



The United States Bowling Congress Open Chamionships is held in various cities around the country with every third year in Reno, Nevada at the National Bowling Stadium (which belongs to the city of Reno). Next year it is Las Vegas, and sometime soon it will be in Baton Rouge again.

They set it up in a convention center - 40 bowling lanes and a bunch of pro shops and bowlers come from all over between February and July to bowl their best. You can only bowl once a year, and they tend to reserve the same days/time each year (like a time share). When it ends, the lanes and pin setters are sold to bowling alleys that want to upgrade their equipment. By the time we get there it is winding down, and most of the equipment is on sale.

Some bowlers bring their families and others seem to view it as a stag party. The lane conditions are challenging, more so than bowling lanes at home, so it is an ego deflater for a lot of guys and some never come back after their first embarassing tournament.

Mr. Tbend averaged over 200 for the games he bowled, but his teams and partners didn't match his high games with theirs. He said he did okay in the brackets, which is a blind matchup with other bowlers and whoever bowls the high game of that pair wins cash. This matching takes place when all the bowling is done. Last year he put in $50 and won back $70, so this year he put in $100 and bowled better than last year.

Here are his results:

Rank Event Scores (three games)
7792 Singles, 177,228,180
3500 Team, 181,237,220
2850 Doubles 203,193,196
2246 All Events 638,592,585 (3 game series in each case)

His ranks will change some because there are a few more weeks to go. We are able to check it all online.


RESULTS FOR BOWLING