By BILL SNIER
AKRON — After starting his day with a strike, 10-pin and 4-pin, Marty Rigby felt it was time for a change.
Not in equipment; just the way he was delivering the ball.
“It’s funny, but all season long I’ve been between 620 and 650 in that house,” said the 70-year-old Akron right-hander about Park Centre Lanes in North Canton. “It was sort of a carry problem.
“But after the first three frames, I decided to try something different. So I changed my hand position and went straighter and killed it.”
The Tri-County Bowling and The National Bowling Association (TNBA) hall of famer did exactly that using his Storm IQ Tour Ai.
Playing a line from 12 (board) to around nine, he finished Game 1 with the final six strikes for 234. He then followed up with 289 and 278 for an 801 series — his 18th career 800 to go along with 44 300 games.
It was his first 800 series in eight years, although he did have a 300 game in the Senior All-Star Traveling League two months ago at Spins Bowl-Kent. He also bowled in the Ebonite league at Station 300, averaging 211 in that league and 206 in the Senior All-Star Traveling League.
But this 800 in the same league surprised him.
“I never expected this. But the balls are so different these days that you don’t have to throw them as well as you had to in the past,” said Rigby, who retired as Uniontown postmaster with the U.S. Postal Service.
“After I made the change, I just kept striking. I did have a little bit of area in my favor.”
Rigby had the first 10 strikes in Game 2 — giving him a run of 16 in a row — before leaving a 2-pin on his 11th ball.
“I just threw it a little too hard,” Rigby said. “The lanes had tightened up a bit.”
He then returned to striking in Game 3 with the first five before leaving a 7-pin in the sixth fame. But then he picked up again where he left off until a nine-count on his final ball.
“I knew where I stood,” said Rigby, who buried his first two balls in the 10th frame before leaving a 10-pin. “I just had to throw the shots the same way and get to the line well. I knew that would be enough.
“But no … never did I expect this.”
Rigby now will take some time off before heading to the USBC Open Championships in Baton Rouge, La., with his son, Marty, in July.
“I’ll work for a month with him and then take off the end of summer,” Rigby said.
But his remark to teammates after his final run at Park Centre was telling.
“I’m just glad (the season) is over,” Rigby said.