With the changes in equipment over the past few years, Green resident Kurt Jackson didn’t like his chances of increasing his honor score numbers.
“This new equipment the past two years has gotten so volatile,” the 64-year-old right-hander said. “It’s just so aggressive. You could be bowling really well and then it just sort of starts jumping on you.”
But earlier this season in the Tri-County Senior Traveling League, Jackson went to a five-year-old Storm Physics ball and the rest, as he said, is history.
Bowling at Macedonia’s North Woods Lanes, Jackson put together games of 235, 269 and 299 for an 803 series, the 23rd of his career to go along with 33 300 games..
“I had almost given up on getting another one,” said the Lockheed-Martin retiree. “With the equipment being what it is, it just wasn’t going to be easy. I’m just happy it happened.”
Jackson admittedly didn’t start his day well, struggling until making a move in the fifth frame of Game 1.
“I found out I was playing too deep and the ball was laboring to get through the oil,” Jackson said. “I moved a little right and it changed the angle perfectly. It was really an easy move.
“I think I moved one board left in the second game, and that’s really rare when I don’t have to move more than that. That was the only move I made on both lanes the last two games, and I haven’t done that in a long time.”
After finishing with the last six strikes in Game 1, Jackson ran off the first eight in Game 2 before leaving a 4-pin and adding a 10-pin on his second ball in the 10th frame.
A run of 11 strikes in Game 3 ended with a wobbly 7-pin on his final shot.
“I threw a good shot, but it came up a little light,” Jackson said. “I threw a lot of pins over there and it was wobbling, but it just didn’t want to go.”
But Jackson also admitted there was luck involved in the milestone.
“It was one of those days when I carried a lot of shots that sometimes you don’t carry,” Jackson said. “I was surprised by a few of them.”
Jackson did get a new ball this season, a Brunswick Knock Out, but the week before the league was at North Woods, he decided to pull out his Physics.
“I threw it at Stonehedge the week before, and bowled well, but I just didn’t carry real well,” said Jackson, who carries averages of 221 in the Tri-County league and 224 in the Senior All-Star Traveling League. “I decided to pull it out of the bag again at North Woods and the rest, I guess, is history.”
Jackson had a pair of 800 series in 2018 at Spins Bowl Akron and added the last two of his career 300s that same year at Spins Bowl and Kent Lanes.
“This feels way better than I anticipated,” Jackson said. “I just didn’t know if it would happen again.”
STOCKER HITS 300
Canton’s Ernie Stocker reached a milestone during the Liberty Vending league at Eastbury with his 15th career 300 game.
But the notable fact on this 300 is that it was Stocker’s first in the 2020s, giving him 300 games in five decades.
Three area players — Guy Mitchell, Tom Suchan and Bill Gaume — are on a list of five players nationally who have recorded 300 games in six decades.
It was his first 300 since having knee replacement surgery. “I could quit now and be happy,” Stocker said on Facebook.