By BILL SNIER
CANTON — The night did not start well for Gary Brobson.
He missed a 7-pin spare in the first frame during the Liberty Vending league at Eastbury Bowling Center.
From there, the 64-year-old North Canton left-hander just couldn’t miss.
Bronson, who finished the 2023-24 season with three 800 series just two years after left elbow surgery, went through right knee surgery in 2024 and admits he is “about 75 percent” with his game at this point.
But that 75 percent produced games of 278, 299 and 263 for an 840 series, his 25th 800 overall. Then, just last week, he added another 300 to bring his career total to 74 during a 770 series in the same league.
“It really means a lot. Physically, everything is feeling good, but I can still feel it a bit in the knee,” said Bronson, who will retire at the end of November from the U.S. Postal Service. “They told me it takes about a year to heal completely.”
The surgery has been a blessing in disguise for his bowling game.
“It has kept me slow. I don’t rush anything anymore,” said Bronson, who bowls in two Eastbury leagues with averages of 221 and 231, respectively. “My timing is a lot better than I ever thought it would be.
After his first frame miss, Bronson ran strikes to the final ball in Game 1. In the 299, he left a 6-pin on his final ball in his quest for 300 that night.
His only other open frame came in Game 3.
He had the front nine strikes before leaving a “Greek” church (4-6-7-9-10) split on his first ball in the 10th frame for the final count. Brobson’s only opens were on his first and last frames of the night.
Bronson credits Tuesday teammate Matt Frock for his help when he first returned to league play following his knee surgery.
“I had 180 the first game and maybe 190 in Game 2,” Bronson said. “Matt told me, ‘You’re arm swing is there, but you need to trust the knee one time. You can tell you’re not trusting it,’ meaning I wasn’t getting down through the shot.
“The next game, I started trusting it and I shot 230s. I still have shots where I feel it. I’ve had shots where I’ve had to stop in the third step, go back and reset and say ‘OK, wait a minute.’ ”
Bronson used his Hammer Statement Pearl for his 800 milestone. But he says the real test is yet to come.
“I really haven’t tested it more than three games. I just can go home and sit down after that,” Brobson said. “In a couple of weeks I have to bowl the Inter-City (nine games over two days), so we’ll see how it holds up.”
With retirement pending, Bronson plans to take next season off from league play.
“I promised my wife we would some traveling … we plan on buying an RV,” Brobson said. “I still plan on going the USBCs (Open Championships) and I’ll sub if I’m in town. I’ll practice about a month before nationals.”
This time, without recovering from any surgeries.
Thanks for the write up Bill. All us bowlers appreciate what you do.