“You’re
averaging what, 175?” Low Roller leadoff Jeremy Hutchinson quizzed Clukay
shortly after completion of the match.
2nd Consecutive Win Propels X into Fifth
Posted by BowlerCluke Saturday, April 11, 2009 9:25 PM
Factor X celebrated the return of their newest leadoff bowler with a definitive 18-2 stomping of the Low Rollers, launching them four full places up the standings ladder into fifth place; their highest position in the standings since their 15-5 win over Double G&P way back in week number one of the current round.
… were the sentiments echoed by the Factor X trio of Tom Clukay, Bill Allen and Henry Caouette following their 18-2 dismantling of the Low Rollers. Combined with an equally-impressive 17-3 win against them in round two of the season, it brought Factor X’s record against them to an incredible 35-5, taking better than 87 percent of their points against them this season.
“You’re
averaging what, 175?” Low Roller leadoff Jeremy Hutchinson quizzed Clukay
shortly after completion of the match.
“If you could see some of my other sets this year, you’d understand where that number came from,” Clukay responded regarding his entering average.
After struggling through almost three-quarters of the 2008-09 season, the team’s captain has finally begun to show signs of life as the end of the season approaches, although the Low Rollers would argue that signs of life began well before that. In his six games against the Rollerballs, Clukay has been a one-man wrecking crew, taking 7 of 8 individual match points, bowling a season high game of 265 (February 12th), a season-high series of 669 (this past week), and averaging better than 215 pins per game against them.
It didn’t take Factor X long to get in the swing of things this past week; the team shot 575 scratch en route to a 26-pin win in game one, Phil Gauthier’s 225-213 win over Bill Allen accounting for the only match point the Low Rollers would come away with in the opener. Consistent shooting by the X Men again in game two led to more of the same, with Ashley Blake eking out a slim 197-194 win over Henry Caouette thanks to her clutch tenth-frame spare, but X extending their overall lead to 8-2 after two.
X stepped up the pace even further in the nightcap, with all three players finishing with scratch scores of 190 or better. Both Hutchinson and Gauthier did their best to try and stave off a sweep in the finale, but ultimately came out unsuccessful in their attempts. Working on a strike in the ninth frame, Clukay’s first strike in the tenth salted away the match point win against a frustrated Hutchinson in the tenth, while Allen’s equally-clutch tenth earned him the come-from-behind 220-215 handicap win over Gauthier. All told, X swept all ten remaining points in game three and series, placing the final exclamation point on the convincing 18-2 win.
Next up for the X Men is a rematch with Bill Marois and Team USA; Factor X and USA have split their matches so far this season, X taking their round one battle 15-5 and USA retaliating with a 14-6 win of their own in round two.
As the Bay City Rollers once said, “Oh What a Night!” Dominating performances were the order of the day in week number seven, and it was not uncommon to see teams making big three- or even four-position jumps up and down the standings ladder as a result.
The biggest upset of them all this week had to come in the form of How’s Ya Burger’s near-sweep of the team that has sat atop the standings for the past two weeks, SRS. Entering the night tied for third place with Degeneration X, round one champion How’s Ya Burger made an experienced SRS crew look like rank amateurs, defeating them 19-1 and coming within a scant four pins of pulling off the season’s first 20-0 sweep. Their 1,839 scratch total was by far their best of the season, and ranks second overall across the entire league, second only to SRS’ 1,856 which they bowled in their November 20th match against Hee Haw – a match which, coincidentally, also ended in a 19-1 score in favor of SRS.
The night was a breakout night for all three Burgers involved in the proceedings. Leading the way was Billy Marois, Jr.’s 266-630 set, followed by Ricky LaChance’s 234-605 and Mary Marois’ 220-604. With an average victory of more than 100 pins per game, the only drama that unfolded in this one was whether or not the Burgers would pull off the sweep. Entering the tenth frame with SRS’ Stan Meunier appearing to be in firm control of the team’s lone point, Marois made things interesting with a tenth-frame double that forced Meunier to stay clean, but the drama ended moments later following Meunier’s mark in the tenth.
And just in case 19-1 and 18-2 victories aren’t enough domination for you, Degeneration X put on a little 19-1 butt-whooping exhibition of their own against the Dreamers. As with the Burgers, the shot at perfection came down to the final game; in this case, the battle of anchor bowlers. The results were less dramatic however, as Dreamer anchor had the game well in hand long before the team’s entered the tenth frame, defeating Degeneration X anchor Gregg Underwood by 35 pins, 228-193.
With team scratch games of 615 and 633 in games one and two, the Degenerators were actually on pace to bowl significantly higher than the Burger’s 1,839 set, but a rough final game limited them to a final tally of 1,786. Leading the way for Degeneration X was Todd Tetreault who threw a season-best 258-665, followed by Gregg Underwood’s 221-602 set. Chris Brown contributed in game number two with a nice 216 game of his own.
With so many lop-sided scores this week, it stands to reason that there had to be a lot shuffling in the standings, and that there was. Teams posting the biggest moves up the standings ladder include Degeneration X, How’s Ya Burger and Factor X. The Degenerators and Burgers both leapt from a tie for third into a tie for first behind their matching 19-1 wins, while Factor X’s 18-2 win catapulted them from ninth to fifth. Teams losing the biggest chunks of yardage this week included SRS and the Low Rollers; SRS fell from first to fourth as a result of their Burger-whooping, while the Low Rollers’ loss to the X Men dropped them from sixth into co-cellar-dwellers with Hee Haw.
Finally, honorable mention has to go to Paul Falk and his Double G&P team as the team least likely to win the lottery this week. Falk and company remained red hot, recording their fifth win in a row with a 12-8 victory over Aramark, yet fell from second to third in the standings behind the new co-leaders as reward for their efforts… so nobody ask Paul to pick your lottery numbers for you this week, okay?
Still looking for a Bonus Singles sweep this season, Bill Marois, Sr. used week seven’s match against Mike Wilson to make yet another statement to the rest of the field: catch me if you can. Casting aside Mike Wilson in exactly the same fashion in which he dispelled Will Allen the week before and Bill Allen the week before that with 5-0 sweeps, the league average leader continued to frustrate his closest would-be suitors to the throne, Stan Meunier and Dave Umbrello.
After a brief hiccup last week in which Umbrello relinquished the lead to Marois, Umbrello recovered nicely in week seven, sweeping Steve Budwick to keep pace with Marois three points back and put some breathing room between himself and Mike Budwick in fourth. Second place challenger Stan Meunier came within a whisker of keeping pace with both Marois and Umbrello as well; bowling against his own teammate Ron Bernard, Meunier tied Bernard in the opener before going on to sweep the remaining matches. The game one tie drops Meunier an additional one-half point behind the leader; Meunier remains in second, two-and-one-half points behind Marois and one-half point in front of Umbrello.
In other matches this week, Bill Allen defeated Henry Caouette 4-1 in a Factor X family affair match of sorts, while Billy Marois, Jr. has to be wondering what happened after bowling a superb 630 set only to fall victim to Tom Clukay’s 669 by a score of 4-1. Finally, Gregg Underwood’s 602 set was just good enough to defeat Jamie Richard’s 581 triple by a 3-2 score; Richard was again subbing for Mike Budwick, who has been out with a left arm injury.
Despite Marois, Jr.’s tough-luck loss in the Singles, his 266 middle game earned him his second $20 Instant Payout of round three, making him the first two-time Instant Payout winner of round three. Marois also won $20 for his singles-leading 232 game he bowled on the Shark pattern back on Match 19th.
Gisi Dellmuth kept space between herself and her next-closest competitors in Factorxbowling.com Match Point Challenge action this week, sweeping opponent 4-0 who was absent this week. The fifteen pins Larson was penalized each game for being a no-show figured heavily into the final scoring; Dellmuth defeated Larson by six pins in game two, seven pins in game three, and 32 pins total.
The night was a costly one for Stan Meunier who came into the Challenge just behind Dellmuth in second; Meunier lost three-of-four points to Billy Marois, Jr. After losing the opener to Marois 218-213, Marois put the pedal to the metal in game two, bowling 266 scratch to take game two 291-211. Meunier avoided the sweep by taking game three 200-196, but fell from second to fourth place as a result of the losses.
Moving ahead of Meunier in the standings were two other Maroises; Bill Marois, Sr. and his wife Mary. Bill Sr. swept Jason Hebert, while Mary Marois did same to her head-to-head opponent, Ron Bernard. Mary’s 604 series was her high series in Sport action thus far this season, eclipsing her 600 even bowled just two weeks prior. The latest broom job was yet another cake-walk for the league’s average leader, taking advantage of the struggling Wilson to defeat him 193-129, 216-176 and 230-145 for the 189-pin victory.