Attempt Eight

LAST MEAL: Pork burgers, mash, runner beans and onion gravy.

SUPPLEMENTARY TRAINING: Organising DVDs into colour order, which is the correct way to store DVDs.

METHOD OF FOCUS: Wearing shoes that were slightly too small for me.

LUCKY LANE NUMBER: 5

BEST SCORE TO DATE: 142

CUMULATIVE NUMBER OF STRIKES: 12

Looking back it's easy to see that bowling on a Friday and then moving a bookcase with back trouble can cause a game of bowling on the following Monday to go awry, however my time machine is broken so I hope I'm forgiven.

This week the score is awful, the number of strikes is as round as the ball and the only pride I could take out of Ocean bowl was the fact I beat my children at pool. I narrowly avoided grabbing a handful of mini eggs at one point, such was the frustration at the numbers on the board.

The rest of this week will be spent lying down in pure luxury so that I have a chance to regain some form for next Monday. I will start by getting one of my defeated pool playing children to make me a cup of tea as big as my head.

Attempt Seven

LAST MEAL: BBQ chicken breast with onion rings and wedges.

SUPPLEMENTARY TRAINING: Lying down, complaining and saying things like, "Ow, my back, it hurts so very much".

METHOD OF FOCUS: Bringing back my old league bowling partner...my Dad.

LUCKY LANE NUMBER: 5

BEST SCORE TO DATE: 142

CUMULATIVE NUMBER OF STRIKES: 11

Regular readers will have noticed that this week's post is on a Friday rather than the usual Monday. This is because I pulled some muscles in my back and was unable to bowl at my usual time; in fact, I probably shouldn't have been down at Ocean Bowl tonight but I had to get my usual fix.

I asked my Dad to accompany me this week and he also has a bad back so, between us, there was agony in the lanes. I was never much into bowling until he asked me to be a part of his team, Mike's Marauders, and we did three seasons before I found Sunday night bowling too much. It seems the appeal of the game never really left me and I have him to thank for that, though.

Fortunately I wasn't too cautious and ensured I stayed focused which led to a strike on my first ball. I'm not going to lie - I thought the second and third frames would lead to strikes too but it wasn't to be. I was disappointed that my score wasn't higher but anything below a 300 is technically a failure so I'm over it now.

I'm confident that my next round on Monday can be performed comfortably and so I am considering this one a practice to see how my back felt. The same can be said for the other six attempts.

Attempt Six

LAST MEAL: Cowboy pie - basically sausages in a big pile of beans with cheesy potatoes.

SUPPLEMENTARY TRAINING: Three hours of online chess against a Russian lad who has probably spent his whole life playing chess. I lost. A lot.

METHOD OF FOCUS: Giving the ball a right royal telling off for not having achieved a 300 score yet.

LUCKY LANE NUMBER: 6

BEST SCORE TO DATE: 142

CUMULATIVE NUMBER OF STRIKES: 10

I really wasn't feeling up to much this week. A busy weekend left me walking round like a zombie all day and the drive to Falmouth was littered with peril as hurricane Imogen battered the county. As soon as I got to Ocean Bowl, however, I was back in the zone and focused on the task at hand.

I started off well but have realised that I need to get the strike rate up if I'm ever going to get twelve in a row. One last week coupled with one this week is not enough, although a few of tonight's spares were unexpected. Frame 8 was a right dodgy split.

The relationship with my ball continues to blossom and every shot felt natural so improving my throw and positioning are the next steps. I've often said I'd be a good bowler if it wasn't for the lanes, the balls and the pins but now I have to step up and get good, or at least better so this hasn't been a complete disaster.

This week I have a very special treat as I was asked to include a graph so it's at the bottom of this post. Don't have too much graph or you won't be able to eat your tea. You can see my peak at 142 but there's also a steady increase every week, meaning it should be around April or so by the time I get back there.

Attempt Five

LAST MEAL: Chicken skewers on a bed of vegetable rice.

SUPPLEMENTARY TRAINING: Accidentally drinking until about 5 a.m. last Friday.

METHOD OF FOCUS: Giving the ball a pep talk.

LUCKY LANE NUMBER: 5

BEST SCORE TO DATE: 142

CUMULATIVE NUMBER OF STRIKES: 9

Ocean Bowl was buzzing this week and my wife put it down to the fact that we'd arrived about half an hour later than usual. Fortunately the staff are like a well oiled machine and it wasn't long before I found myself back in front of the lane for another chance at the title.

I did something I'm not proud of this week - I cheated. Since starting this project I've used the same ball for every throw, however I decided to give another ball a try thus cheating on my tried-and-tested, ever faithful companion. The scores were abysmal though and so I switched back to my usual ball and will not be looking back. As you can see this occurred on frames 2 and 3.

Although I've made an improvement on last Monday I feel my cumulative strikes have been let down this week and it could well be to do with my fling. I'm hoping for a much improved score next week unless my ball holds a grudge, although everything seemed to have been forgotten by the end of the game.

As ever the score is below along with a photo of the two amigos, together forever.