When I took this championship belt from it's previous owner, he had held it for 4 weeks which at that time seemed an insurmountable amount of time for one person to be champion in DUMBO (DaNang Ultimate Moronic Bowling Organization). When I took it, I expected to have happen what has always happened in these things in the past and that is that you keep it for a week, maybe two. But here we are and I am 1 week away from having held the belt for 2 months and I am as stunned as anyone.
We had our lightest turnout this week that we have had in quite some time because of the fact that there was some sort of golfing outing that resulted in a bunch of our members doing that instead. I'm not a golfer so that isn't ever going to be me.
So let's look at my scores, shall we? I didn't do great but it always helps when your opponent bowls a lot worse than he normally does.
The guy I was playing against is on the top row and my score is in the middle. We had an extra person on our lane that was not competing for the belt.
Anyway, early on we were matching one another tit for tat on spare pickups with me getting only 1 more than he was, as far as I can remember neither of us had any strikes until the 10th frame. Prior to the tenth he had a couple of wicket splits (indicated by the red circle around the number) that i don't think anyone except the best bowlers in the world would be capable of picking up intentionally. I just bowled like a dickhead in frames 8 and 9. Then in frame ten my opponent turned on the heat and nearly bowled 3 strikes in a row. On my turn I returned the favor kind of and bowled a spare / strike.
So this means we enter game 2 with me 13 points ahead of him since the victory is decided by whoever had the highest total score of both games combined.
I think it was a little bit demoralizing to my opponent when in the 1st and 2nd frame of game two I got a strike in both. I was well on my way to having one hell of a game but frames 5 and 6 killed me. My final score was 130 something but the computer system erases all of your marks once you bowl your last ball (which is annoying) so I took the photo early. By the 9th frame it was mathematically impossible for my opponent to win so I took the photo.
My game was pretty good but this just goes to show how essential it is to mark in ever fram if you are going to have a truly amazing score. I got a strike or spare in all but 4 of the frames and still only got to about 140. I was particularly embarrassed by my lead in gutter ball in frame 7.
So I kept the belt again and also still have the all time high score in the league at 202. There was only one award that changed hands and that was "the gobbler". The gobbler is taken away from "Craphat" by "Magic" this week and even though Craphat is smiling in this picture I can assure you he is crying on the inside.
You get the gobbler award by getting 3 strikes in a row. It is the only award that can change hands multiple times in a day and last week it changed hands twice. I had the gobbler once and currently hold the record for the least amount of time to be the campion of that at 8 minutes.
We changed the championship rules at the post game meeting this week so that next week the championship bout it going to be 3 games instead of 2. The justification being that in UFC the championship fights are always longer. The notion passed unanimously.
I can't believe I am still champion and really thought that this week's opponent was going to take it from me. I have felt this way before because while I do have one of the better averages in our crew, I am NOT the best bowler there - I have just outperformed my opponents when it mattered, which I suppose is all I really have to do.
Currently, there are only 3 people left in the division that I haven't yet defended the belt against. If I beat all three of them the contenders are supposed to reset but I think I will just vacate the belt if that happens instead.
I normally end these things with a photo of Nadi with the championship but she was a fussy britches that night because I stayed out drinking too long and didn't take her for her 2nd walk of the day. She was growling at the belt if I got it near her. So instead I just stacked up 2 pillows for her to sit on.