Our marquee match-up between Team ADOBO and Team BALUT can only be described in one word: EXCITING! Team ADOBO is composed of fashionista and up-and-coming bowler GRACE Que, quiet but deadly LINO Matamis ('musta po! I am the #1 fan of your famous barbeque....), and the dormant (sandbagging? under-performing? malas?) genius of the lanes BLUE Sapalaran. ADOBO (apart from being a delicious staple food for us Filipinos) is a dangerous team, as all three players can explode above their averages at any time. Lino and Blue are both capable of scoring in the 200's. Blue in particular has been plagued throughout the league with uncharacteristic (for Blue) low scores: we know he is bound to awaken from dormancy and bounce back, but when?
Team ADOBO (L-R): BLUE Sapalaran, GRACE Que and LINO Matamis
Photo Courtesy of May Libo-on
Team ADOBO promised us a blog-worthy performance, knowing that they are the marquee team of the week. Kelangan daw maganda ang write-up ko sa kanila! Edmer, Lowen and I in Team BALUT were in fighting mode: at the bottom with only 1/2 point separating us from the 9th spot, we want to move UP! I was feeling good after a stellar performance at Wednesday league and good practices all week. Bring it ON! And so it began....
Game 1 was neck and neck (talagang exciting!). Lino was hot, throwing strike after strike, but Edmer was keeping up. Grace was hitting her spares, even the dreaded 10-pin: naks, ang galing! She actually consistently got her 10-pin spares all night =impressive! Lowen, Blue and I were struggling but fought to keep it close. It came down to Blue and me, the two anchors, in the 10th frame. Alas, I fell short (missed my spare and only scored a 125) and Team BALUT lost by a measly 5 pins. Diyos na mahabagin, wala na bang katapusan ang kamalasan ko sa 10th frame? I lost that game for us by playing below average by 30 pins! Tuloy ang dasal, tuloy ang dasal.... Game 1 goes to ADOBO, but it is close: Hataw na, mga BALUT/SISIW!
Alice Mercado and String/Chona Aquino collaborated on selling the 50/50 raffle tickets tonight during Game 1: thank you, ladies! Our winner of $40 in prize money, announced between the first and second games, is Lolet of Team SISIG. Congratulations, she is a first time winner! Full disclosure: our 50/50 pot is now at $191, which will be added to the prizes to be awarded to our MFL players. Wow, limpak-limpak na salapi!
Hala na, while Team BALUT was planning to wake up and fight, the "sleeping giant" of Team ADOBO awoke: Game 2 was the BLUE SAPALARAN SHOW! Deng (daing?), hanep sa galing! Edmer continued to score above his average, I recovered from my Game 1 fiasco to get within one pin of my average, and Lowen continued to struggle. But Blue blew us away with a 198 game, ably supported by sound performances from both Lino and Grace. Concede, concede! Walang habol! Ngayon pa humataw si Blue, inspired daw! Bakit kami pa? Anak ng tipaklong, mai-itlog ba ang BALUT? Pero, hindi pa tapos: laban laban LABAN!
Teka muna, pwede bang bumati? Special mention sa mga inspirasyon/musa ng Team ADOBO: sina HERMIE Matamis at LERMA Sapalaran. Mabanggit na rin si JAMES Que ng Team SISIG sa katabing pit (hindi siya muse, pero inspirasyon, naks!). Kay galing ng laro ng Team ADOBO dahil laging naririyan ang kanilang mga inspirasyon! Love, support and TLC = priceless!
Back to the game.... BALUT came out fighting and making marks in Game 3: sa wakas, humahataw na ang BALUT/SISIW! It was neck and neck from frame to frame = truly exciting! I distracted myself by collecting and counting monies from the other pits and paying Palace our league fees. The songs I sang my balls in the pahabol blogs paid off, Spinderella and Beast Ball were making marks for me (ako'y nasa langit na). The other teams had wrapped up their play as we entered the 10th frame. All other matchups had sweeps, but we still had a chance to prevent one. This is it, Team BALUT!
OMG, spares were truly hard to come by in the 10th frame for Grace, Lowen, Lino and Edmer. Puro miss, walang buffer para sa mga anchor. Maybe it was distracting to have the entire league watching us, kay daming kantiyaw! So, it came down to Blue and me again, but he had a strike in the 9th frame and I only had a spare. Patay kang bata ka, nakaka-hika at atake sa puso naman ito!
As I picked up my Spinderella strike ball, I was hearing so many things from the peanut gallery: panalo na daw ang ADOBO, wala ba daw kayong bilib kay Jing, kaya ko daw mag tatlong strike (oh yeah! thank you! BowlStar yata ako, and, yes, I can do it!). Nakatitig kayo sa puwet ko, pero here I go: stand here, throw there; breathe, focus. I throw my first ball: anak ng ewan ko ba, strike! Redemption, hope is ALIVE!
Then Blue throws his ball: 9 pins fall! May sukling isa: may pag-asa lalo ang BALUT!
Focus, focus, breathe in, breath out. I throw my ball: one pin remains standing! Sayang, hindi pa naka-strike, kaya naku, nakasalalay lahat kay Blue!
Nobody is breathing as Blue throws his ball to make his spare. His ball rolls towards the 6-pin, but looks wide left: miss! Pandemonium, pandemonium, oh the humanity! I am jumping up and down: Team BALUT unbelievably wins by two pins! TWO PINS! We avoid a sweep and get one win: naka-isa, magka-isa, pa-isa-isa, cha cha cha!
I can't even focus anymore and throw my ball into the gutter trying to get my 6-pin spare. Game over, made my average after scoring a 180 (salamat!).
With Team SISIG getting swept by Team KROPEK in the pit next door, Team BALUT is now in 9th place. As Dennis of Team LAPU-LAPU later said, ako lang ang masaya sa isang win. We'll take it, yebah! For the first time, BALUT is no longer in the bottom!
But truly, truly have to hand it to my team: I may have delivered in the 10th frame but Lowen's 150+ game and Edmer playing above average all night long made it a tremendous team effort and much deserved win for the BALUT Bandits. Go Team BALUT/SISIW!!! Fight, team, fight!
So here are the unofficial standings. The official standings will be posted on the Palace website.
I should be working overtime, I'm so behind...! I should be sleeping! But here I am blogging coz I am so hyped up after tonight. Jay of Team DAING (#1!) was right = the blog will get written, and it will be a long one and it be posted quickly (the opposite would have happened if we lost: short and late!). I am happy coz we are no longer in the bottom: Go Team BALUT! Also played at my 153 MFL average tonight and got a 450+ series, which allows me to narrowly hold on to my MFL top female average slot = my perch is precarious, I need to find my mojo. Mitchie-LAPULAPU, Alice-KROPEK/KILAWIN, and Angie-TAPSILOG all had stellar games much, much better than mine tonight. Congratulations on your fantabulous performances, my fellow female bowlers!
So here are the unofficial standings. The official standings will be posted on the Palace website.
| Team # | TEAM | RANK | CURRENT | Wk 7 | |||
| win | loss | win | loss | ||||
| 7 | DAING | 1 | 20.5 | 7.5 | 4 | 0 | |
| 9 | PISBOL | 2 | 19 | 9 | 0 | 4 | |
| 3 | KROPEK | 3 | 16 | 12 | 4 | 0 | |
| 4 | TAPSILOG | 4 | 16 | 12 | 4 | 0 | |
| 8 | ADOBO | 5 | 15.5 | 12.5 | 3 | 1 | |
| 1 | LAPU-LAPU | 6 | 15 | 13 | 4 | 0 | |
| 5 | MONAY | 7 | 12 | 16 | 0 | 4 | |
| 6 | GOTO | 8 | 9.5 | 18.5 | 0 | 4 | |
| 2 | BALUT | 9 | 8.5 | 19.5 | 1 | 3 | |
| 10 | SISIG | 10 | 8 | 20 | 0 | 4 | |
I should be working overtime, I'm so behind...! I should be sleeping! But here I am blogging coz I am so hyped up after tonight. Jay of Team DAING (#1!) was right = the blog will get written, and it will be a long one and it be posted quickly (the opposite would have happened if we lost: short and late!). I am happy coz we are no longer in the bottom: Go Team BALUT! Also played at my 153 MFL average tonight and got a 450+ series, which allows me to narrowly hold on to my MFL top female average slot = my perch is precarious, I need to find my mojo. Mitchie-LAPULAPU, Alice-KROPEK/KILAWIN, and Angie-TAPSILOG all had stellar games much, much better than mine tonight. Congratulations on your fantabulous performances, my fellow female bowlers!
Congratulations to all the winners and to all the players who did so well tonight. And to those who were swept, do not lose hope! Another week, another opponent, another set of lanes to show your mettle: Fight, fight, FIGHT!
My fellow MFL players, there are only two more nights in regulation play, then we have a bye week before our finals on November 17. The chances to move up and down the rankings are running out: who will reign supreme and win the jackpot prize money? I can hardly believe how time has flown. We are truly having fun, so we are ALL winners! Thank you for all the fellowship, joy and positive energy you bring to the league and all its participants.
Not sure if there will be a pahabol blog this week. It may need to be a bye week for me from writing a second blog post for the MFL, but you know it is not for lack of inspiration! Too busy, people. Like I said, I should actually be working right now but the blog was calling to me....
Till next time, leaguers, see y'all at the lanes. Let's get ready for Week 8. Bowl, baby, BOWL!
;)
Not sure if there will be a pahabol blog this week. It may need to be a bye week for me from writing a second blog post for the MFL, but you know it is not for lack of inspiration! Too busy, people. Like I said, I should actually be working right now but the blog was calling to me....
Till next time, leaguers, see y'all at the lanes. Let's get ready for Week 8. Bowl, baby, BOWL!
;)
No comments:
Post a Comment