This past Sunday morning Frank De Luca, Anna and I had the pleasure of taking the trip up to Westbrook, Maine to preview the alley for the Pro Series event.  The singles knockout tournament is going to take place this coming Saturday, October 20th.  The shift times are 1:00 PM and 4:00 PM.  The singles events are great.  Go in, throw your five strings, throw your game, qualify in the top 32 and let the fun begin.  I qualified for this even two years ago in Concord at Boutwell’s.  It should be fun.

Let me tell you this place is great.  It’s run by two firecracker women in Pam and Rose.  Rose is the owner’s mother in law.  She is quite the character and I wish she was at every Pro Series event or we had every event at West-port Lanes.  Needless to say, our first conversation started with her making fun of me.  I will leave the details out, but after I returned from the rest room her wisecrack was “still thinking of a comeback for that one?”.  Yeah, she might make fun us more than we make fun of ourselves.  It should be interesting to say the least.  To add to that, she said she said she was out of work for a period of time, and her son in law asked her to work a couple of days at the alley, and 26 years later she is still there.  She told me that she worked in with electrical equipment and services all the machines herself.  Included in that skill set must be the doorbells for reset buttons which is great.  We couldn’t decide if a strike should be called a “ding dong” or just “ring the bell”.  I’m sure we will hear both if people read this post before the tournament.

After making fun of me for being a “professional” bowler, she told us that this house was tough, and it wasn’t fast at all.  The bowling alley was built in 1966 and the new and current owners bought the place in 1967.  It has all the original equipment.  The most interesting thing has to be the pinsetters.  If you think Lanes N’ Games in interesting you need to watch these reset.  The rack comes down into place, and then the pins slide in from the top into each corresponding hole making what appears to be a perfect rack every time.  There is a MASSIVE delay in waiting for the pinsetters to come back up, but when it does, the pins are never wobbling at all.  You fast bowlers better learn some patience on Saturday.  The pinsetters are LOUD too.  It’s going to be a fun day that’s for sure.  I managed to make some pins come out from the deck so Frank grabbed the pin and snapped a photo of the pinsetters as best he could.  Thanks Frank!

On the right we can see the pinsetters.  It’s so interesting to see them in action.  I have a second photo which shows a slightly better angle of the chutes that feed the tubes albeit a little blurrier.  We did the best we could on this day.  It was a great day overall and it wouldn’t be natural if I wasn’t a smartass back toward Rose and Pam, so I had to ask the question.  Why are you called West-Port Lanes in Westbrook, that’s just confusing.  It turns out the bowling alley is called West-Port Lanes because it’s on the Westbrook-Portland line.  They were both awesome and it’s kind of sad this place is so far away.  If it were closer, I bet it would be a packed house.

Onto the bowling.  Before we started Rose asked what lanes we wanted.  I said put us on lane eight, whatever, it didn’t matter really. She responded by saying that it was the toughest lane in the house, and their top average was 111.  So we were a little hesitant stepping up to the lanes.  You could tell the pins were heavy.  I would compare it to a combination somewhere between Wakefield and Central Lanes two of the toughest houses around.  I don’t want to scare anyone but Frank completely annihilated the place, 130-110-135 for a 375 on the morning.  I struggled in the first string, but bowled well overall.  Here it is, in writing, Anna beat me 99-91 the first string.  I bounced back mightily in the second string once I figured the lane out.  I finished with five in a row to throw a 128, and the five marks included picking up the 4-7-10.  After I filled my 4th and final spare with a “ding dong”, the light above the lane came on and we had to move to lane 6.  I didn’t make the adjustment and bowled poorly the third string finishing with a 101, for a 320 which is kind of blah.  This is truly and honest house.  Nine and ten boxes are going to help you make the cut since we are going to see our share of six and sevens I’m sure, even from the best bowlers.

West-port features ice cold beer, so I know a handful of bowlers that are going to be happy even if the lanes aren’t forgiving to them.  They have food there too, in case you need a pick me up.  Not that I want to take anyone away from the lanes during the event but there are a McDonald’s, Burger King, and KFC/Taco Bell all within walking distance of the alley if you’re looking for something different.  It should be a great competitive event.  If you’re on the fence, you should come down.  You never know what’s going to happen once you start bowling.  Who knows, you may own the place!

Here is the other photo of the pinsetters.  You can see the chutes slightly better.  I truly believe this setup is amazingly unique in the way it sets the pins down for a new rack.  Why more alleys don’t do it this way is beyond me.  There’s never a problem and pins never tip over.  We did have an occasional 2-pin or 3-pin jump the chute and end up in the gutter but that’s better than having a pin missing all together.  It was just different.

Thanks again to Rose and Pam for their time, hospitality, charm, and wit.  I will have a comeback for Rose when I get there on Saturday!