Fair Lanes

Everyone is equal on the lanes -- young, old, men and women can compete and win under the handicap system.But when you're a young woman, 5 feet, 2 inches, with less than two years of bowling experience and no experience in national competition, that idea seems far-fetched when you're faced with a man who towers over you and outweighs you by 100-plus pounds and the television lights come on."That's when I got a little nervous," said Stephanie Gooch, of Arnold. "When I had to walk out on the lanes with the television lights blazing.

The North-South Challenge Match drew 38 youth duckpin teams from Maryland, Virginia, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Washington to T-Bowl lanes in Hartford, Conn.The Fair Lanes Travel League team of Jeremy Kavalsky, Laurie Keatts, Michael Kiskis, Marlon Bradshaw and Shaun Rutherford finished third in Division I. Randi Kavalsky captured both high average (124) and high individual game (178) in Division I.The league consists of eight teams of quads from five Fair Lanes centers -- Eastpoint, Middlesex, Westview, Perring Parkway and Pikesville.

Registration for the National Duckpin Youth Association leagues will begin tomorrow and continue through Saturday at Sandusky's Riviera Bowl.There's good news for the folks who had their children bowling in the NDYA at Greenway Glen Burnie.John Dolch will be the director of the program at Riviera Bowl as he was at the Glen Burnie center."Everybody plays the game in this program," Dolch said. "There are no bench warmers."Competition will be for ages from 4 to 21. The 4-6 duckpin bowlers will be in the Pee Wee Division and bowl one game each Saturday.

Baltimore Neighborhood Facilities. Inner City Bowling Center. Shake 'n' Bake.Call it whatever name you like, it's still an outstanding tenpin center with 26 lanes, snack bar, automatic scoring and experienced management. And located in the heart of the Pennsylvania Avenue commercial district.Cleve Brister, the facilities coordinator for the city, and Robert "B. J." Jones, the center manager, have more than 40 years of experience in the sport of bowling."I started bowling duckpins back in the '50s," said.

Keith Clark has been associated with the duckpin center in Brooklyn for 15 of his 32 years, which is only fitting for the new owner of the 14-lane duckpin house that has been in the same location for generations."

Danielle Johnson and Keith Butt will be traveling to Denver.Johnson and Butt will represent Maryland in the Major (ages 15-21)Scratch Division at the Coca-Cola International Youth Championships next week.In the Maryland State Young American Bowlers Alliance Championship tournament at Brunswick Perry Hall in May, Johnson and Butt earned their places in Denver against almost 900 of the finest young bowlers in the state.They will be joined in Denver by Dayon Dixon of Baltimore and Crystal Miller of Taneytown, the winners of the Handicap Division.

"All right, people, it's time to bowl!"Nancy Middleton has been starting the Tuesday Morning Foursome duckpin league at Fair Lanes Westview that way for seven years. That's just one of the many ways that a good league secretary takes care of business.Middleton, a retired AT&T employee, born and raised in Baltimore, lives in Windsor Hills."I've been bowling about 20 years," she said. "I hope I'll be bowling for another 20 years."Too many people think that being a league secretary is easy. Too many league secretaries think the same thing.

A team of Anne Arundel tenpin bowlers, the Maryland Free State #1, placed seventh in Division I (160-179 average) at the Women's International Bowling Congress Championship Tournament last month in Salt Lake City, Utah.The team of Peggy Mekins, Boots Jarrett, Pat Baker, Becky Patterson and Pat Chambers banged out a 2,646 set, just 42 pins off the winners' pace. That was good enough to bring home a check for $1,200.Mekins just recently moved from Pasadena to Severn. A secretary for the Maryland State Police, she began her bowling career "about 15 years ago."

So, how tough is it to become a professional bowler? Not xTC very.Not very hard to get the card from the Professional Bowlers Association, that is. To hit the pro tour trail and prosper, that's another thing.Ask one of the top bowlers in the Baltimore/Washington area who has carried a pro card since 1983. Ask Howard Marshall."If you decide to go on tour you should have a two-year plan," he said. "Your sponsor, if you're lucky enough to have one, should know that because it's going to take one to two years before there's going to be a profit."

Fair Lanes Inc. said yesterday that it would file a bankruptcy reorganization plan after reaching a deal with its biggest creditors to fix the finances of the debt-ridden company.The Hunt Valley-based operator of 106 bowling and entertainment centers, including 33 in the Baltimore-Washington area, said its agreement with creditors would allow it to file a prepackaged plan, typically hastening approval by the court and forcing the deal on possibly recalcitrant minority bondholders.Both Fair Lanes Inc. and its parent, Fair Lanes Entertainment Inc., were expected to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection today, said Mac Clayton, chief executive of the two companies.