Having just gotten over being sick, I pushed myself to my bowling league since I don’t like to leave my team down.
Although I wasn’t bowling my best, fortunately my opponent that particular night wasn’t having much better luck. Consequently, in the 10th frame of my first game, all I needed to do was get a mark (a strike or a spare) to lock up my point. But I made a poor shot, missing my target inside. Although the ball was in the pocket, the angle was flat, and the result was a disastrous and rarely seen split: the 7-8-10. For those who don’t know the numbers off hand, the 7 and 10 are the two pins on either far corner (referred to when left alone as “goalposts”) and the 8 pin standing next to the 7 like the groom on a wedding cake. Unless I could clean up my mess, I was leaving the door open for my opponent. It wasn’t like this was a major game with a lot on the line, but it was still a matter of pride.
So I moved myself over to the right, took my plastic ball I use for spare shooting, and lobbed it fairly gently down the left hand of the lane. The ball moved all the way to the one board (the edge of the lane) and then slowly started to curve back in. The plastic ball went directly between the 7 and 8 (nicknamed “parking the car”) taking out the 7 and nicking the 8 just enough. Because it hit the 8 so lightly, rather than knocking it back into the pit, it tipped the 8 over onto its side and sent it skidding across the deck. It nudged into the 10 like a pool cue and the 10 very slowly tipped over and then fell.
I stood there stunned for a moment that that had worked and then had just enough time to put my game face back on before turning around and shrugging as if it was no big thing.
Although other bowlers don’t make a big thing about it, they’re typically aware when someone within a few lanes of them leaves a spectacularly bad split and always watch with interest out the corner of their eye to see what happens. So when the 10 pin went down there was a small and localized roar of reaction and people from all around came over to congratulate me on converting it (with one or two properly ribbing me over having made such a crappy shot that I left it in the first place.) They even announced it from the desk over the loudspeaker, “Peter just picked up the 7-8-10 over on lane 21” which satisfied the curiosity of people who were near enough to hear the reaction and know that something had happened, but too far to know exactly what it was.
Not bad considering barely 24 hours earlier I’d been turbo-barfing.
PAD
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That sort of recovery never ceases to impress me. Well done.
Wow. Sometimes I think you should write a comic about bowling (hey, in Japan there are comics about baseball, football, boxing, soccer, ice hockey, basketball, bicycle racing, golf, tennis and rhythmic gymnastics). You’re the only writer I can think of who knows enough about it and could make it seem really interesting.
That’s just too cool. I’ve gotten the 7-10 before, and could never pull off the recovery. Nice work.
When you leave a 7-8-10 split, the usual thing is that the 5 pin is actually standing in place of the 8 pin which already fell. Nasty split and a nice recovery. 🙂
Nice! Did your team win the game?
We did, as a matter of fact. Then the other team won the second game, but we took the third.
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PAD
I miss bowling. When I was a kid, my uncle (married to an aunt — they split when I was about 13) owned a bowling alley. I got to be fairly good, though im not sure if i ever broke 200.
Did I just contradict myself?
PAD – pack that nine pin, baby! Beautiful job on picking it up!
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Kim – I used to bowl before my knees informed me that it wasn’t such a good idea anymore. “Fairly good” means that you’re holding a consistent average, and while you could break 200 every now and again, carrying a 170 or 180 average is nothing to sneeze at. I always felt pretty good when I was able to keep my average around 175 – 180. And if you’re having fun – who cares if you’re bowling at a pro level?
Please help me Mr. David!! It feels very silly to be posting this as a comment on your website, that you may or may not read, and I apologize if I sound like one of those crazy desperate fans. Sitting here posting to a professional writer for the first time is making me so nervous, I hope I don’t make a fool of myself. I’ve read your book “writing for comics & graphic novels with Peter David” and I was hoping that a professional like yourself could help me. What luck that I stumbled upon the website, of none other than the writer of the book himself. I’m writing a comic book, which I will not name or give details about, and I’ve run into a few originality issues. In fact, it seems a bigger company has come up with the SAME IDEA that I came up with myself. The last thing I wanna do is give up on this book, but if they sue me I’m screwed. If you are willing to help me, I’m guessing you’d rather talk somewhere other than your blog?
Pretty darn impressive! I’ve only picked up a 7-10 split once, and that was by slamming the 7-pin hard from the inside, so it hit off the wall and slid back across the lane. I’ve never picked up a 7-8-10, though!
bowling – one of the best things to do as a family. my kids and I are on a league team together on Sat. mornings and – even though we lose more than we win – the time together is priceless.
Nice pickup!