Weekly bowling update - by an inch or a mile, winning is winning

I’m a little late with my weekly bowling blog update, aren’t I.  To tell you the truth, I would just as soon forget the whole thing, but I’ve promised an update every week, so here it is.

The whole of Wednesday I was in good spirits.  Everything is better and brighter when bowling is on the agenda that same day.  I felt so optimistic that I made the Facebook entry “I ho, I ho, it’s off to bowls we go.  Strike or spare, we don’t care, I ho, I ho, I ho, I ho.”

You should have seen me 30 minutes later.  At first I wasn’t worried when meeting the competition.  I recognized Maria and Louis from previous encounters and from tournaments.  We played them before and we had beaten them before.

My confidence evaporated when I saw the score sheet listing the players and I noticed Maria and Louis’ average and handicap.  Holy cow ... their worst player was better than our team’s best player.  We were in trouble, serious trouble.

Without confidence, a game is as good as lost.  As I mentioned in a previous blog post, bowling games are won and lost in a bowler’s mind.  If he doesn’t think he has a chance, he won’t stand a chance. 

As it turned out, we really didn’t stand a chance.  Maria blasted off with a 200+ game and I couldn’t do anything right.  My ball went to the left, my ball went to the right, he went everywhere except where he was supposed to go ... in the pocket of the pin deck.

The second game was worse.  Maria made 11 strikes and ended up with a score of 289.  I won’t even tell you my score, it’s too embarrassing.

After a smoke break between the second and third game I came back and prepared for another round of punishment.  My game improved though and ... hello, I was catching up with Maria.  She made a strike, I made a strike, she picked up a spare, I picked up a spare.  We were like two bulls locking horns. 

When the score was tallied up with handicap I held my breath.  We had both bowled our hearts out.  Would I have enough for a win?  As it turned out, we drew with an equal score.  On the one hand this was kind of depressing, all that work for ½ a point, but on the other hand ... hello, if I could equal her, I could beat her.

Which is exactly what I did in the fourth and final game.  Admittedly, I only won by 3 pins, but as Vin Diesel said in The Fast and the Furious ... “Whether you win by an inch or a mile, winning is winning.”

I really must practise positive thinking more often.