Gutter Busters take control! Friday night league saw the fearsome 4 man family team of Harpers and Linnes. When the lanes come on it’s time to bowl and with the warm-ups under way the teams are looking good. For the opposing team Ball Babies we have Gary Conner, Lynn Conner, Patti Carlin, and Mark Carlin. For the Gutter Busters we have our team captain Rebecca Linne, Freight Train Levi Linne, the Striker Rick Harper, and Pin Basher Jason Harper.
After warm ups are done the teams shake hands and the pins start flying. Rick starts the Gutter Busters off with a strike and Gary from Ball Babies opened with an 8/ for the first game. When bowling on a league each team bowls three games with ten frames in each game for each player by the end of the third game they tally the score and the team with the most points wins the night. By the fifth fame the bowlers are settling in and the Ball Babies lead with a total pins score of 429 with the Gutter Busters behind with 415 pins. When the tenth frame draws the game to a close the Ball Babies take the game with a 761 total pin count and the Gutter Busters with a 736. The highest game was from Jason with a 190. The second game starts of with a bumpy ride with a 6- from Rick and a 8/1 from Gary. Rebecca tares up the lane with two strikes in a row and Jason answers with a strike of his own with Levi giving the same response. By the fifth fame the Gutter Busters are behind by 40 pins but all hope is with them because of Jason and Levi going head to head with strikes to make the other team sweat. Once again the tenth frame is the deciding factor for who wins and who loses. With an upset the Balls Babies take the second game with a 747 and leave the Busters in the gutter with a 707.

The final game is under way and the tension is tight between the teams to claim the last game. Who will win? Rick gets a great start with a strike and follows it with another strike; Rebecca who in the last two game has managed to blow it comes out with a spare. Jason follows with a strike and Levi pulls out with a spare to finish the first fame of the second game. By the fifth frame the two teams are neck and neck and at any moment someone can take the lead and wait Jason rolls….yes! It’s a strike sending the Gutter Busters ahead by 20 pins and by the end of the game the Gutter Busters are ahead by 139 pins. Tis the end of the third game and all through the lane not a pin nor ball was insight and out of the blew came the Gutter Busters win the final game with a 821 and the Ball Babies with a 689. The high bowlers were Rick and Levi with a tie of a 209 game.

With the bowlers finished and the dust cleared the Gutter Busters and the Ball Babies tie with winning two games each. Rebecca the team captain says “You win some you lose some and tonight was not our best night”. They each took two games because of how the points work, you have the three games and at the end you add the total and the best ending score counts as a game. The night ended with Gutter Busters still in first place by 3 games and many teams trailing behind but not by much and everything can change by next week. Bowler Rick Harper of the Gutter Busters said “I hope that by next week I will get back on my A game”. The team hopes to continue their 43 wins 21 losses to hold first place. You can see the Gutter Busters every Friday night until April when their season ends and they head off to Reno, NV to bowl in the national bowling tournament were last year the team placed 35th out of 1,000 teams.