Splitzter - November 7, 2002

  They call him the “Hammer”.  A cool nickname to say the least.  In a close match, he’s the guy you want as your anchor to “nail down” the victory.  Mike Cramer last season had more “close but no cigar” shots at 300 than anyone I can remember.  Others have been close also, but the magic score eluded Mike his entire bowling career.  He finally broke that spell 3 weeks ago and shot his first perfecto.  Well, the dude came through again in the Hernandez Insurance Classic with his second 300 of the month in game three.  Starting with 214-185 scores who would have seen the second 300 coming?  With both scores coming so close to each other, Mike ordered the multiple 300 ring.  For those who are unaware of this award, I’ll explain.

A bowler shooting an award score has the option to upgrade the ring to solid gold.  If you shoot multiple 300’s, you can have the ring upgraded to the multiple award which has a little 2, 3, 4… etc. on the setting. I’ve never seen one so I’ll be looking forward to checking his out when it comes in.  I’ll betcha if you ask Mike to show it to you, he’d happily ablige.

Our long time buddy, Bill “Geritol Bill” Botjer came within one pin of having the second 300 for the week that same night.  Bill started with games of 244-212 before starting his run of strikes.  His final 299 game gave him a very nice 755 series.  You would think that this kind of number would have led the league that night.  Nope… not even close. That honor went to Emilio “Little E” Mora, Jr.

Little E has been on fire this season.  Beginning the evening’s festivities he had the highest average in Henry County at 238.  Pretty darn good.  The big lefty cranker actually raised it Wednesday night with games of 258-280-246 for a league leading 784 series.  This puts him at 240.8 after nine weeks of competition.  I wonder what it’s like to have to shoot 723 to keep your average from going down.

Association Secretary Clare Valley is in the process of getting entry blanks around for this year’s Henry County Bowling Assocation’s Mens Handicap Tournament.  Hamler Lanes gets the Team event this year with River City Bowl-A-Way hosting the Singles/Doubles event.  Multiple participation is encouraged in the Team event again this year which makes for a great time, as always.  The cost is $18 per event with the All-Events being an additional $2.