Guttersnipe

Another demoralizing loss for the team last week. Both sides went in with only two live bowlers, a pair on each of the teams having pre-bowled. Possibly something to do with Valentine’s Day. At least that was the case for our pair of harried married rollers.

The thing about this set-up was that we could see all the pre-bowled scores. It begged the question – is it better to go into a game with high hopes, truly believing you have a shot at victory or to know from the outset that you have no chance of winning a game, let alone the whole thing?

Their previously rolled scores were all way up the board and clearly some of those folks’ best games. They blew their averages away. While our two had a couple decent games between them, they were nowhere close to good enough to even give us a glimmer of hope.

We did what any dead man walking does. We ordered some beer and endeavoured to get the entire debacle over with as quickly as possible. Story of my life. At least the opponents were decent enough people and we ripped through those games fast enough to actually break a sweat.

Game one started off well for me and Lily. We were knocking down spares and putting some strikes together but just couldn’t keep it up. I paced our side with a 147 and he did 120 and we got cleaned out by a 58 point margin. This is when we really knew we were cooked.

Game two was more of the same but we switched up the scoring leads. He with a 144 and I managed 112. It was a slaughter. 93 points and we weren’t even an hour into the night.

It only got worse in the third game. 128 points separated us and the winners. It was a brutal flogging, one that leaves a fella feeling sour and his arm kinked to hell. The good news is we got out of there just after the mid-game 50/50 draw and I was home by 8:30.

I’m not even going this week. I’ve been conscripted into going to an escape room with a visiting friend who I haven’t seen in months. It’s the first time I’ve ever been the one trying to escape a room with me in it and it’ll be a nice break from the interminable winter bowling league. Until next week, that is.