A plethora of perfection
Published 12:00 am Thursday, March 21, 2002
The old saying &uot;Nobody’s perfect&uot; apparently doesn’t apply to Holiday Lanes.
Thursday, March 21, 2002
The old saying &uot;Nobody’s perfect&uot; apparently doesn’t apply to Holiday Lanes.
The Albert Lea bowling alley has had perfection all over the place lately.
Between Jan. 30 and March 3, there were six 300 games rolled in league competition or the city tournament. It’s by far the most they’ve ever had.
&uot;It’s been pretty hot out here,&uot; said manager Loren Kaiser. &uot;We’ve got good bowlers, and they put up good scores this time of the season. We’re not doing anything different to the lanes.&uot;
Dustin Barr, Holiday Lanes’ other manager, started the 300 run Jan. 30 in the 5 B’s League. It was his first 300 game.
Kenn Breamer and Gary Prihoda did it Feb. 6, Breamer in the Holiday Classic League and Prihoda in the morning Switch-a-Roos League. It was the fifth 300 game for Breamer – all at Holiday Lanes – and the first for Prihoda.
Next was Jerry Breeden, who rolled his first 300 game Feb. 19 in the 5 B’s League. Breeden, who commutes from DesMoines for the league, is the only non-Albert Lean among the six recent 300 bowlers.
Craig Bowman, also bowling in the 5 B’s League, got his 300 Feb. 26.
Gary Ulland, competing in the Albert Lea Men’s City Bowling Tournament, rolled his first 300 game March 3.
Barr didn’t have any explanation for the recent hot streak at Holiday Lanes, other than improvement in equipment through the years.
&uot;We’ve got a $20,000 machine that oils and cleans the lanes, but we haven’t done anything different the last two months than we did the last two years,&uot; said Barr. &uot;Up in the Twin Cities, there are probably 10 or 15 300 games a night. With all the new balls, there’s more area to miss and still get strikes.&uot;
Kaiser said Don Breeden is the current leader among local bowlers with an average of 228 per game. Three others are at 221.
&uot;The scores are up a little bit on average, but not drastically,&uot; said Kaiser, who agreed that modern technology is a big factor in the scoring these days.
&uot;We did get new pins,&uot; said Kaiser. &uot;We try to do things the same way day after day, week after week. Every morning we strip and oil the lanes, and we do fill-in oil every afternoon. The synthetic balls make for more consistent shots, they hold oil better. They’re high-scoring and low-maintenance, which is just what you want.&uot;