Bowling League

Students ages 4 to 20 can earn funds for college scholarships by bowling with the Kids Fall Scholarship Bowling League at AMF Laurel Lanes, 15013 Baltimore Ave. The bowling league offers college scholarships through the SMART program (Scholarship Management and Accounting Report for Tenpins). The league starts Aug 27 and offers certified coaching, awards and trophies. Registration is Aug. 13, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.; and Aug. 20, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Registration fee is $35, and includes a T-shirt, sanction fee and tournament entry.

Students ages 4 to 20 can earn funds for college scholarships by bowling with the Kids Fall Scholarship Bowling League at AMF Laurel Lanes, 15013 Baltimore Ave. The bowling league offers college scholarships through the SMART program (Scholarship Management and Accounting Report for Tenpins). The league starts Aug 27 and offers certified coaching, awards and trophies. Registration is Aug. 13, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.; and Aug. 20, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Registration fee is $35, and includes a T-shirt, sanction fee and tournament entry.

Bebe V. George, a lawyer who founded a bowling league for people of Greek descent, died of lymphoma at the Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care in Towson on Monday. She was 84. The youngest of five children born to Greek immigrants, she would watch the theatergoers at the old State Theatre from the steps of her family's East Baltimore home. Along with her siblings, she worked at her father's Timonium candy factory in her youth, recalled her sister, Anne G. Kosmides Perentesis of Towson. After graduating from Eastern High School, she worked in real estate for several years before enrolling in classes at the University of Baltimore.

Bebe V. George, a lawyer who founded a bowling league for people of Greek descent, died of lymphoma at the Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care in Towson on Monday. She was 84. The youngest of five children born to Greek immigrants, she would watch the theatergoers at the old State Theatre from the steps of her family's East Baltimore home. Along with her siblings, she worked at her father's Timonium candy factory in her youth, recalled her sister, Anne G. Kosmides Perentesis of Towson. After graduating from Eastern High School, she worked in real estate for several years before enrolling in classes at the University of Baltimore.

At first glance, a Saturday lunchtime bowling league at the Brunswick Normandy Lanes in Ellicott City looks like all the rest. The typical large number of people mill around, laughing and giggling. And there is the usual group that stops to watch as soon as someone prepares to bowl, And there are people who are there for fun and not much else. The only difference in this league is those who are part of it. Pinbusters is a recreation bowling league for adults with special needs or disabilities that runs three times a year in eight-week sessions.

Tired of that same old bowling league format? While you're thinking of signing up for fall bowling leagues, consider the match point system of scoring.Match point scoring adds an element of individual competition to team bowling that can make for more interesting team matches.In your traditional bowling league, the team with the most pins for each game wins one point. With another point awarded for total pins for three games, there's a possible four points to be won on a given night.In the match point system, each bowler on a team is paired against a bowler on the other team.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Matt Gilman of Davie, Fla., bowled a 300 game this past weekend in a youth bowling league at University Bowl. He is believed to be the youngest bowler ever to roll a perfect game.Gilman is 11 years and 2 months old. He was born May 18, 1982.The Young American Bowling Alliance, based in Greendale, Wis., keeps track of youth bowling records. A YABA spokesman said the youngest bowler on record to have bowled a 300 game was Richard Daff Jr., of Crownsville, Md., in 1991.

When Don McMaster got out of the Coast Guard, the native of Downers Grove, Ill., began searching for a tenpin bowling league to join in Baltimore, a traditionally duckpin-dominated city. It was harder than he thought.The year was 1946."They didn't have [tenpin bowling lanes] around here," McMaster, 71, Bowlingsaid last week. Tenpin leagues, he said, "bowled on duckpin lanes. They had to have a special setup."After two years, McMaster did find a tenpin league to join, a Monday night bowling league called The Drug Trade League.

It started with a simple paid advertisement in the Anne Arundel County Sun: MS bowlers seek help.The ad asked for volunteers, drivers, scorekeepers, ball returners, pushers, folks who can devote a little bit of their time to bowlers who need a little help now and then.A lot is behind that simple advertisement.Let's start with multiple sclerosis. MS is a condition marked by hardened tissue in the brain or spinal cord, associated with paralysis and jerking muscle tremor.That description fits all the members of the Hopeful Wheelers bowling league that meets from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. every Friday at Severna Park Lanes.

In the past few years there has been a steady decline in the number of sanctioned league bowlers in the ABC and the WIBC, but not in the Calvert League at Fair Lanes Woodlawn.There has been a dramatic increase in the Calvert League over the past five years, the same years that saw a decline in ABC and WIBC membership.Today the Calvert League is one of the largest in Baltimore, filling more than half the 48-lane center -- with bowlers actually being turned away."We have 30 teams of five members each," said James Blue, the man behind the league.

At first glance, a Saturday lunchtime bowling league at the Brunswick Normandy Lanes in Ellicott City looks like all the rest. The typical large number of people mill around, laughing and giggling. And there is the usual group that stops to watch as soon as someone prepares to bowl, And there are people who are there for fun and not much else. The only difference in this league is those who are part of it. Pinbusters is a recreation bowling league for adults with special needs or disabilities that runs three times a year in eight-week sessions.

Climb down the stairs past the neon blue and canary yellow walls and you'll find a slice of hon heaven. Short, squat pins fly here and there as midget balls glide along the wooden boards. But it's not just duckpin bowling, the game invented in Baltimore in 1900, that most of the clientele seek at Taylor's Stoneleigh Duckpin Bowling Center. They're drawn by the down-home, slap-on-the-back flavor of the 52-year-old alley. What makes the place unique, patrons say, is that this haven for a working-class game is in the middle of a Baltimore County neighborhood better known for its soccer moms, bagel shops and tree-lined roads.

All in wheelchairs. A convoy of them. They roll into the Perry Hall Bowling Lanes and make their way to the starting lines -- men and women of varied ages, ethnic backgrounds and diverse financial circumstances but beset with a mutual problem -- multiple sclerosis.They take the tenpin ball and, from a sitting position, direct it toward the pins. It will hopefully make contact with the intended target, but not always. Occasionally, it might stop en route with not enough momentum to carry to the end of the alley.

Ben K. Han fired his career-high single game and three-game series on Oct. 9 in the Korean Express league at Fair Lanes Ritchie.Using a 15-pound Columbia bowling ball, Han put together games of 207, 298 and 267 for a 772 series."

In the past few years there has been a steady decline in the number of sanctioned league bowlers in the ABC and the WIBC, but not in the Calvert League at Fair Lanes Woodlawn.There has been a dramatic increase in the Calvert League over the past five years, the same years that saw a decline in ABC and WIBC membership.Today the Calvert League is one of the largest in Baltimore, filling more than half the 48-lane center -- with bowlers actually being turned away."We have 30 teams of five members each," said James Blue, the man behind the league.

Tired of that same old bowling league format? While you're thinking of signing up for fall bowling leagues, consider the match point system of scoring.Match point scoring adds an element of individual competition to team bowling that can make for more interesting team matches.In your traditional bowling league, the team with the most pins for each game wins one point. With another point awarded for total pins for three games, there's a possible four points to be won on a given night.In the match point system, each bowler on a team is paired against a bowler on the other team.

What is the oldest bowling league in Anne Arundel?OK, I don't know either, but the oldest league at Greenway Glen Burnie is the 36-year-old Thursday Jills, which has eight teams of five members each.So says Liz Penze, who works the control counter when the women are bowling at Greenway Glen Burnie duckpin center."I know the league has been around for a long time," said Bonnie Keyton, who has been secretary for the league for 15 years and a member for 19.Keyton lives in Severn and carries an average of 100. That average was 116 a short time ago, but she has had foot problems that led to eight operations.

Looking to speed up play in your bowling league this season?"There's three primary reasons that league play is too slow," says Joe Rineer, owner of Mount Airy Lanes."

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Matt Gilman of Davie, Fla., bowled a 300 game this past weekend in a youth bowling league at University Bowl. He is believed to be the youngest bowler ever to roll a perfect game.Gilman is 11 years and 2 months old. He was born May 18, 1982.The Young American Bowling Alliance, based in Greendale, Wis., keeps track of youth bowling records. A YABA spokesman said the youngest bowler on record to have bowled a 300 game was Richard Daff Jr., of Crownsville, Md., in 1991.

When Don McMaster got out of the Coast Guard, the native of Downers Grove, Ill., began searching for a tenpin bowling league to join in Baltimore, a traditionally duckpin-dominated city. It was harder than he thought.The year was 1946."They didn't have [tenpin bowling lanes] around here," McMaster, 71, Bowlingsaid last week. Tenpin leagues, he said, "bowled on duckpin lanes. They had to have a special setup."After two years, McMaster did find a tenpin league to join, a Monday night bowling league called The Drug Trade League.