Bowling Ball

The National Amateur Bowlers Inc. stopped at Brunswick Columbia on June 12-13 when 209 entries competed for $5,402 in prize money.When the last pin had fallen, Nick Caprinolo of Columbia had captured the $1,000 first prize. Mike Burch was second, Pat Henry third, Shai Nyi fourth, and Tim Prevatt fifth."I started bowling duckpins when I was 8 years old," Caprinolo said. "Then I started bowling tenpins and I've been doing that, off and on, ever since."Bowling in two leagues, the Monday Katz N Jammers and the Wednesday Men's at Columbia, he carries a 190 average.

The Pierce Cleaners team consisting of Jim and Debbie Doyle, Mickey Mathias and Dolores and Dan Spytowski recently won the Brunswick Normandy In-House Team Tournament.Debbie Doyle, daughter of the Spytowskis, has been bowling, off and on, for about 15 years. The Catonsville resident, wife of Jim Doyle, uses a 14-pound Burgundy Hammer bowling ball."Since I started using the new Hammer my average has jumped about 15 pins," she said. "I'm sure part of the reason is that now I'm throwing a fingertip grip [ball]

George Knicley and Karen Walter met 3 1/2 years ago at Taylor's Stoneleigh Bowling Center, where Knicley is the manager. They had their first date there, and it's where Karen says she first knew she loved George.And it was where George first told her he loved her, Karen says.How appropriate, then, that the two got married yesterday at the Stoneleigh bowling alley."We wanted to get married. We wanted to do something different," said George, 27, a former professional wrestler who's been involved in duckpin bowling since he was 7 years old. "So, we said, 'let's get married in the bowling alley.

TV tourneys trigger youth's itch to take his turn on tenpin 0) teamSean LeDonne is new to tenpin youth league bowling, but he's learning fast.LeDonne lives in Ellicott City with his parents, Deborah and Jack, and is in the sixth grade at Burleigh Manor Middle School. The LeDonnes originally lived in New York City."At that time we lived in Brooklyn," Deborah said. "Across from where Mark Roth [PBA Hall of Famer] bowled. Sean actually had his first bowling ball when he was 2 years old, but he liked to watch the pro bowling on TV more than bowling itself."

Jessica Phillips has come a long way. The seventh-grader at McArthur Middle School began bowling at age 7 at Rhine Main Air Force base in Germany.Her average that first year was 68. Now bowling in the YABA Saturday morning league at Fort Meade Lanes, she's averaging 165.Her parents, Deborah and Wayne, started coaching her when Wayne was stationed at the PX in downtown Frankfurt.Jessica, 13, is throwing a 13-pound Blue Hammer bowling ball. Her high game is 242, high set is 613."I try to practice two or three days every week," she said.

This bowling doctor makes house calls.Your game is a little sick, face it. Your expensive urethane strike ball is hitting the pocket, but you're not carrying the tenpin. And then you're Bowlingmissing the tenpin. Not only that, you're rubbing the skin off your thumb.What can you do?You always could fight through it, like a bad cold.Or you could call the bowling doctor.Bernie Smith, 55, isn't actually a doctor, but to those who know him, he's a fine bowling instructor. He has helped quite a few people improve their bowling games over the years, including some local professional bowlers, including Marty Letscher of Bel Air."

"We coach him," said Colleen Handel, mother of Chris Handel, "But he doesn't pay much attention to us. Chris does his own thing."Chris, 6, started bowling tenpins when he was 4 and continues to bowl in the Saturday morning Young American Bowling Alliance league at Brunswick Normandy lanes. The Woodlawn resident, still young enough to be a kindergarten student, throws an 8-pound Gumball bowling ball."Chris started to go bowling with us on weekends," Colleen Handel said. "He really liked it, so we signed him up for the YABA Saturday morning league at Normandy."

A 245 tenpin game is good, a second 245 is very good, a third 245 is excellent. A set of three 245 games is. . . "It's odd," Percy Mack said.And Mack was the guy who fashioned the 245 triplicate score at Brunswick Normandy on March 10 in the Funtime Anytime league.Mack, a retired physical education teacher from the Baltimore City school system, bowls tenpins, teaches tenpin bowling, coaches the Catonsville Community College bowling team and is the District 6 vice president for the Greater Baltimore Bowling Association.

Todd Schaeffer, Amy Rosenberger and Kevin McKenzie, youth bowlers at Hampstead Bowling Center, went to the Baltimore YABA Championship Tournament at Fair Lanes Southdale, to bowl against the best young bowlers in the Baltimore area last month.Schaeffer and Rosenberger captured first place in the Junior Mixed Doubles event. They dropped 1,266 pins.Schaeffer, with 2,037 pins, won the Junior Boys All Events title and was just four pins below the winner of the Junior Boys individual division, dropping 711 pins to claim second place.

He's sort of a local bowling legend, this Harvey "Robby" Robinson.The 78-year-old Robby, as he is best known, has done everything in local bowling: pinsetter as a kid, 190-average bowler as an adult, keen-eyed instructor in later years.Robby can quote chapter and verse on local bowling history. He was there the day Johnny Unitas announced he was opening the Colt Lanes in Baltimore County. That was 1960. Robby was one of the first employees at Unitas' centers."Johnny Unitas is an incredible athlete," said Robby.