The Business Done

05/07/08 07:13 AM | Spurts

Last Day montage: Clockwise from top left. Mishell, Larry and Melinda. Sue Reilly, John Laughlin; A last look at the lanes: The Sign still lit and the neon pin.
The Sport Bowl is done. Over done with gone. There was no way to save it. In the 9 or 10 years I bowled there regularly I made a lot of friends, met a lot of nice and interesting people, and had a lot of fun. Saturday was the last 'league official' event. The strike pot tournament, which was held to distribute the scratch pot that was building for over two years since the last time one of the centers bowlers bowled all 14 required strikes in a three game series. There were 118 entrants in the Strike pot tournament, I knew about 20% of them well enough to have a casual conversation with them. Recognized about another 12% as bowlers I've seen or bowled against in a decade of competition, still I think it odd that I really only recognized about a third of the entrants in the SPT.
Of the 118 entrants, 25 made the pay-out. 1st place took $2500, 2nd $1250, and so on all the way down to a three way tie at 23-25, each of them getting $140. Of the 25 "winners" list I recognized only 12 rollers counting myself (in 7th place). My pay-out for 7th with a 704 series, $415.00 which is to be mailed at some later date. So, besides the thousands of great memories, the dozens of stellar performances, the milestone bowling moments I've had (along with a few dozen stinker nights and crappy performances I am forced to remember to make the good ones shine a little better), I get a tiny fraction of the money I put into the side-pots back and a big bragging towel to wave when ever I feel I need.