Tenpin

The 1993-94 bowling season is fast approaching.There's a good chance that all the centers have some room left in their leagues, but if you haven't signed up for league play yet there's very little time left. A few more days and every league will be filled.Of the five bowling centers in Carroll County, three are split houses: Hampstead Bowling Center and the two Thunderheads, Westminster and Taneytown. Mount Airy Lanes has 12 duckpin lanes, and County Lanes has 12 tenpin lanes.Thunderhead Taneytown has 12 duckpin and 16 tenpin lanes, cared for by Gil Barnes, Moe Pickett, Jim Reaver and Danny Wantz.

That roaring sound you bowlers hear is the 1995-1996 season rushing into the tenpin and duckpin lanes of Carroll County.Once again, five centers, spread across the county, await league bowlers:* County Lanes, Westminster -- With 12 tenpin lanes available, 17 leagues will be action again this year, said Ken Frock Sr.The down-in-the-basement center is still owned and operated by Chuck Ludwig.The Down Under Cafe will be operated by Danny Smith, and no alcohol is served. The pro shop will continue to be operated by Danny Haines.

It's that time of year again, time to dig out the duckpin/tenpin bowling ball and head for the lanes.In Carroll County there are five centers to choose from, and nobody is very far from the action.County LanesLast season, a new manager took over the Westminster tenpin center. Ken Frock Sr. continues to guide the activities, and Ken Frock Jr. takes care of the mechanical chores.There are 12 tenpin lanes in the center owned by Chuck Ludwig.The pro shop is operated by Danny Haines.There will be 17 leagues this year.

The Women's All-Star Association tournament rolled into Bel Air Bowl for the Roto Grip-Bel Air Open on March 28, bringing with it 192 entries and prize money of $9,730.Cathy Almeida of Pennsauken, N.J., captured first place and $750.Chele Rutherford of Edgewood was in 14th place, and Kendra Cameron of Gambrills, the anchor on the Essex Community College team, finished 24th.On Sunday morning, Cathy Dorin of Linden, N.J., led the starting field with a nine-game total of 2,032.In the six-game match-play finals, six champions with 30 WASA titles between them made the cut.Cathy Almeida jumped into a early lead with an opening game of 254. However, by the third game, an exciting three-way race developed between Almeida, Kathy Cavicchi of North Babylon, N.Y., and Jackie Sellers of DuBois, Pa.The lead changed hands five times between them in the finals.

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.

Some bowlers remember the time when the only tenpin ball you could purchase was rubber. Some remember when only polyurethane was available. Some of the younger bowlers think that reactive resin balls always have been around."

Kay Connors and Mike Dawson have a foolproof plan for winning tenpin tournaments: never lose a match.That is exactly what the two Harford County bowlers did in the Harford Lanes 32nd Invitational tenpin tournament at Aberdeen.The event is scratch bowling against the cream of the Harford Lanes tenpin bowlers -- 108 bowlers who have thrown a minimum of 150 winter league games are invited to participate in two divisions, 54 men and 54 women. The double-elimination format guarantees everyone a chance to do well.

Jim Barker of Westminster came close to breaking the Carroll County tenpin three-game series and came close to throwing back-to-back 300 games at the same time.He's been throwing a tenpin ball for more than 30 years; now he's dropped the weight from his customary 16 pounds to 15 on his current ball, a Critical Mass.It was the ball he used last month for his second 825 series. The record of 835 was set two years ago by Abey Abend of Taneytown."I opened the set with a strike, then I had three solid 10-pin taps in a row," Barker said.

The Thunderhead Lanes fourth annual Tenpins Doubles tournament started Oct. 23 and finished with the final matches on Jan. 31 at the Taneytown center.Qualifying was open to all tenpin bowlers at the three Thunderhead centers: Westminster, Taneytown and Gettysburg, Pa.Dawn Grimes of Taneytown won first place with partner, Ethel Leffingwell. Grimes won second place with her partner, Ralph Holweck. Grimes won third place with her partner, Mel Allen.Grimes split checks with her partners for all three finishes -- $1,600 for first place, $300 for second and $100 for third.

'Tis Maryland born and Maryland bred. That's duckpins, folks.It was the spring of 1890 that John McGraw, the fabled Orioles manager, and a friend, Wilbert Robinson, figured out a way to juice up business at their Diamond Lanes [tenpin lanes, of course] in Baltimore. They whittled down a few tenpins and a few tenpin bowling balls [they were made of wood, too] and a smaller version of tenpins was born.Baltimore Sun sportswriter Bill Clark coined the term "duckpin" after some bowlers commented that the flying pins resembled a flock of flying ducks.