VENTRY: A week of firsts and more firsts on the lanes

By Ed Ventry

This past week featured many honor scores around the local lanes, including a lot of firsts. It started Wednesday afternoon at Rapids Bowling Center as (Niagara Falls High School dean of students) John Forcucci rolled his first career 300 game in the Schoolmasters league. Amazingly, this was John’s first time even picking up a bowling ball since his rotator cuff surgery last December. What an incredible way to kick off a season.

On Monday evening at Frontier Lanes in Lewiston, Mike Ashcroft rolled his first career 300 game in the Sicoli-Massaro 3-man league. The 300 was the first at Frontier this season as new head mechanic Steve Palmer and his staff has been working diligently to improve the lane conditions for bowlers. “Our goal is consistency with the shot,” Palmer said. Mechanic Rob Samborek added, “We got off to a slow start, but we’ve done some things to improve scores here recently.”

It started last Monday night in the same league when Rich Skurski rolled Frontier’s first 800 series of the season. His 807 series was the first of his career and it also included a high game of 299. Hopefully, Ashcroft and Skurski have paved the way for many more high scores at Frontier in the near future.

At Island Lanes, Island resident Al Beyers rolled a 278-811 in the Friday Night Businessmen’s league. This was also Beyer’s first career 800 series.

Just this past Tuesday night in the Coors Doubles league at Rapids, ’06 Lewiston-Porter graduate Aaron Magliazzo rolled his first sanctioned 300 game en route to a 783 series.

Another first this past week occurred Saturday when junior bowler Tyler Favorite rolled his first career 700 series. His games of 211, 257, and 255 totaled 723 in the Junior Classic league at Bowl-O-Drome. This series was originally reported incorrectly, so we apologize to Tyler.

- Not a first, but what a story this is. Brian Shaffer accomplished a feat Saturday night that has only been done on two other occasions in Niagara Falls Bowling Association history. In the American Legion league at Rapids, Shaffer rolled two 300 games in the same 3-game series, and back-to-back. That’s 24 strikes in a row for those of you keeping score at home. These were the 21st and 22nd 300 games of Shaffer’s bowling career.

So, surely Shaffer totaled an 800-series, right? Well, actually no. After rushing around and arriving to the lanes late, Shaffer missed the practice session. This caused him to make some less than desirable shots to start and although he still rolled seven strikes in the first game, a plethora of splits lowered his first game total to only 164.

“I wish I got off to a better start,” Shaffer said. “It reminds me of a time in high school ...” Apparently in high school, Shaffer bowled for Niagara-Wheatfield and he was referring to a varsity bowling match back in 10th grade. On the day that he had his first chance at rolling a 300, he ended up falling just short with a 299, but similar to last Saturday, started that series with a 139 game. Of course, his friends joked with him about this coincidence.

Shaffer grew up in the Niagara Falls area and then moved with his family to Syracuse. He and his family have recently moved back to the area and Brian is very happy to be back home. Regularly a 230 average bowler, he is averaging 240 for 12 games this season.

- On Friday night, Ed Lavery rolled his 16th career 300 game in the Scotty’s Barber Shop 5-man league. On Wednesday night in the Fred’s Collision league, Connie McGillicudy rolled his fifth career 300 game. Both leagues are at Rapids.

- In ladies bowling news, Trish Zemla rolled a 290 game on the way to her 750 series on Saturday night at Rapids in the American Legion league.

- This weekend marks the 50th anniversary season at Frontier Lanes. To celebrate this, Frontier will be hosting karaoke with Al Territo on Friday night and will have live music on Saturday night. Both weekend nights will also feature cosmic bowling after 10 p.m.

- If you or a friend achieve a special bowling accomplishment that you feel deserves mention in my column, please drop me an e-mail.

- On a personal note, I want to congratulate my lovely wife Sunnie on rolling her highest game ever on Tuesday night at Rapids, a 167. She beat two of my games from Friday night with that score.

Ed Ventry is a director on the board of the Niagara Falls USBC men and youth bowling associations. Contact him at eventry@roadrunner.com.