WOOSTER — Jim Fellows admitted there is a belief that as you get older in bowling you should slow down.
But the 2023 Greater Canton USBC Hall of Fame enshrinee continues to prove that wrong with his performance on the lanes.
After capturing a Hall of Fame Summer Series event on the day he learned of his inclusion in the Hall back in June, the 56-year-old Perry Township left-hander celebrated his recent birthday by adding another 800 series during the Northeast Ohio Travel League at Wayne Lanes.
The machinist at Canton’s Everhard Products started with 300 — “I guess I’m over 50 of those,” Fellows said — and came back with 225 and 299 for 824 — “I think I’m over 25 of those,” he added of his most recent 800.
Admitting the lanes were “hooking pretty good that night,” Fellows made the decision to go with a four-year-old Hammer Obsession Tour Pearl ball.
“I made a guess and it worked out pretty well,” Fellows said. “I had to move a little bit right … maybe two or three boards. As long as I kept my speed up, I was pretty good.”
Fellow opened with a 300. When asked if all the shots were flush, he quickly responded, “no.”
“I tripped quite a few 6-pins in that game,” said Fellows, who was going inside out, peaking at the eight board while crossing around 14. “My speed varied a little bit that game.”
After a strike on his first ball in Game 2, he left a 7-pin — and missed the spare for his only open of the night. He followed that with a pair of 6-pin spares, including one in the 10th frame.
But it all came back in Game 3 as he ran off the first 11 strikes before leaving a 6-pin on his final shot.
“That last game was a little better … I think I only tripped a couple of 6-pins,” Fellow said, adding he has never had a pair of 300s in a series before. “When I shot (career-high) 856 (at former 77 Colonial Lanes), I shot 278, 278 and 300. That’s the closest I’ve been to a pair of 300s.”
Fellows bowls in just two leagues, the other being at Park Centre Lanes, and is averaging in the upper 220s in both to start the 2023-24 fall-winter season.
“I’ve had a couple of good series to keep me up there,” Fellows said. “When you get older, you’re supposed to have slowed down a little. But it feels good to be able to still perform.”