Factor X Captain's Lounge

“We need to stay aggressive. We need to treat next week like we’re the team who’s behind. We’ve accomplished nothing so far, nothing. Remember what happened to end both halves last year. We need to remember and learn from that.”

That excerpt was from Tom Clukay’s post-game speech to his teammates came just moments after the team’s 4-1 semifinal round win over Emil’s Animals. The team’s latest come-from-behind win was nothing short of huge, extending their win streak to three straight weeks since being knocked out of first place a month ago, and – more importantly – placed the team in excellent position to capture their first-ever Monday Night Handicap championship, moving them 5 points ahead of second-place Emil’s with five points remaining in round I. Factor X can “seal the deal” next week with a single win in any one of the three remaining games, or in a roll-off, should Emil’s pull off a final round sweep to tie and force a tiebreaker. The worst Factor X can finish this round is second, although that’s a scenario the team has unanimously and emphatically refused to discuss.

“We’ve really come together as a team this year,” Clukay recalled. “Buddy and Will are both having breakout seasons, and every week it seems like someone different is stepping up big when the team needs it, whether it’s a key spare, a strike or a big game. We’ve had some great individual talents on this team over the years, but this has to be one of most cohesive Monday night rosters we’ve ever had. Even the subs show up every single week, just on the off chance they’re needed. How many teams can say that?”

Factor X has taken the concept of team bowling to a new and innovative level this season, employing a lottery system each week to set their lineup, even on the weeks that subs participate. “The goal has been to stress bowling together as equals, with no one bowler playing any more important a role than anyone else,” the team’s captain explained. And despite the magnitude of next week’s match that could potentially culminate in the team’s first-ever Monday Night championship, Factor X is adamant that they’ll stick with the game plan that’s brought them this far.

Ironically, last week’s blind draw resulted in what would probably be their “normal” lineup if they were forced to set the rotation in advance, with Bill Allen leading off followed by by Buddy Wing, Tom Clukay and Will Allen at anchor. But despite the “comfortable” line-up, it was Emil’s who opened the night looking comfortable; led by matching 215 games from anchor Tim Rowell and two-man Kyle McInerney, the Animals built a quick early lead then held off a late charge from X to take a 1-0 lead, 929-852.

“I was a little worried at that point,” Buddy Wing later recalled. “We worked real hard in the 8th and 9th frames to get it back to manageable numbers, then gave about 50 pins back again in the tenth.”

X quickly made amends in game two. Scoring for all four Animals tapered off as the lanes transitioned, with each Animal averaging 20 pins fewer than in game number one. Scoring for Factor X on the other hand headed in exactly the opposite direction; led by Will “new-shoes” Allen’s 244, it was X’s turn to post a solid 800-plus scratch score, evening the series at a game apiece and turning a 77-pin deficit into a slim 33-pin advantage…

But while the 100-pin turnaround may have temporarily eased Wing’s game-one fears somewhat, other veterans on the Factor X roster knew better:

“Emil’s is a very resilient team,” Clukay said. “Having the lead was certainly nicer than going into game three behind by a lot, but I knew that was only gonna make them try that much harder.”

And that they did. Indicating the importance of their pivotal game three battle and it’s potential impacts on the outcome of the first half of the season, both teams put on one of their best offensive performances of the season. All four X men opened with six strikes in the first seven frames, yet found themselves unable to pull away from Emil’s initially, who were doing their best to keep things close. It wasn’t until the eighth and ninth frames that X was finally able to open a little breathing room for themselves, finally pulling away with their best game of the year, a 948 scratch score that also netted them their best handicap mark on the season, 1047. Buddy Wing led the way in the finale with 256, followed closely by Bill Allen (235), Will Allen (230) and Tom Clukay (227).

X couldn’t have picked a better time to break out. Assuming that whoever won game three was going to take series, game three was going to result in a 6-point swing for either Emil’s or X with just one week left in the half, turning what easily could’ve been a one-point deficit into a five-point lead.

Factor X will see limited action over the course of the next two weeks as the PBAX Trios league takes the final two Thursdays of 2009 off for the Christmas Eve and New Years’ Eve holidays. With no Thursday night league to worry about, X turned their full attention to Monday night this week, and with great results. X took down Almost Doesn’t Count for the second time this season, defeating them 4-1 to extend their lead over the second place Animals.

Despite the final results, the night did not start out positively for X, Incorporated. Drawing the number one spot in the lineup for the first time this season was Will Allen, whose apprehension to bowling out of that spot was clearly evident as he pulled his number from the hat. Quite ironically however, Allen would turn out to be the only team member to break deuce in the opener, as the rest of the team struggled, either with timing or inability to make spares at crucial junctures late in the game. Allen would finish with 217, but big games by Kim Vall and Carol Bailey would earn Almost Doesn’t Count the opening point 906-867, despite being without the services of teammate John Vall in game one. Bailey finished with 186, while Kim Vall shot 204… mostly with her emergency ball which she was forced into using after the thumb slug in her primary weapon of choice disintegrated in the fourth frame.

“That’s a shame,” were the only comments team captain Tom Clukay could muster at the end of the game, in reference to the fact that his team had their chances but didn’t take advantage of them when they presented themselves.

It was a mistake they would not make again the rest of the evening.

Momentum started to swing in Factor X’s favor midway through game two, when a string of strikes by X opposite a series of unforced errors by Almost Doesn’t Count infused X with a shot of confidence for the first time all evening. It turned out to be the beginning of the end for ADC, as X went on a tear from there, pulling away for the 937-869 win behind the strength of big games by Will Allen (237) and Tom Clukay (232). The win evened the series at one win apiece and gave X a slim 30-pin advantage heading into the rubber game.

ADC appeared to regain a measure of control early in game three after X opened with strikes in frame one and then failed to capitalize in the second frame, exchanging potential doubles for spares and open frames instead. As in game two, the ADC advantage lasted until about midway through the game, at which point X took control of the match once and for all to put them away. It was the team’s strongest finish in more than a month. At one point the team registered five consecutive hang-frames from the fourth to the eighth, turning a more-than-100-pin deficit into 60-pin win in less than half-a-game, despite the best efforts of ADC anchor Kevin Bailey. Bailey strung 7 strikes in a row to end the final game, shooting 245 in the process… only problem being that even a 245 was inadequate when matched up against scores the likes of 247 (Bill Allen), 227 (Will Allen), 225 (Tom Clukay) and 202 (Buddy Wing). X finished the night with a 901 scratch to take game three and total en route to the 4-1 series win.

The victory extends their lead of the second-place Animals from one game to two, as the Animals eked out a hard-fought 3-2 win over red-hot Donelan’s. Donelan’s came into the night the hottest team in the league over the last month, winners of 20 points in a row before being cooled off somewhat by Emil’s. The wins by X and Emil’s sets up a semi-final position round rematch between the two teams next week; the season series between the two is currently split at 5 wins apiece.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

The Sweeney-Johnson motorcade kept right on motoring this week, shifting into high gear in their match against last place USA, defeating them by a whopping 18-2 margin, and leaving would-be challengers URATACA and The B’s to… well… eat their dust.

This week’s 18-2 win keeps Wat R We Doin’ undefeated in round two and extends their overall record to 60-20. The suddenness of the turnaround has caught everyone in the league by surprise; WRWD finished a distant 8th place in round I, and had just 33½ wins versus 46½ losses at this same point of round I… barely half the number of wins they have now amassed through four weeks of round II. While far from one of their most-dominating performances of the season, it was still plenty good enough to outscore struggling USA at almost every turn, save only Boutell’s match point victory over Dianne Johnson in game one 200-170 and Aaron Hanks’ 221-195 win over Cathy Sweeney in game three.

The gap between WRWD and their next-closest competitors widened significantly despite the best efforts of URATACA and The B’s to try and keep things close. URATACA’s 14-6 win over Aramark was their third consecutive win and kept them in control of second place in the standings, but dropped them another four points behind the leaders, who now enjoy a comfortable 9-point bulge at the Christmas break. Like WRWD, The B’s struggled in round I but seem to have found their second wind in round two. Finishing round I in 9th place, The B’s most-recent 17-3 win over a Pwned team that was virtually untouchable through the first 10 weeks of the season moved them into third place, but stretched the deficit between themselves and WRWD to double-digits.

In other action, round I champs PB&G got back on the winning track with a tight 11-9 win over SRS, while Degeneration X defeated Factor X 12-8 in “X Wars.”

Bonus Singles Update: Budwick Threatening to Overtake Marois

Undeterred from last week’s surprise sweep, Mike Budwick returned to his winning ways this week against father Steve Budwick, defeating his elder 4-1 and closing to within a game of first place Bill Marois, who lost to Stan Meunier 1-4. It was actually Dad who took the early lead in this battle of lefties, defeating Michael 207-170 in the opener. It was all the younger Budwick after that however, with Mike taking game two 175-154 and game three 212-182 for a 557-543 series win.

Round two of the bonus singles has been a frustrating one for Stan Meunier, who despite averaging 190 has found himself matched up against the wrong opponent at the wrong time much of the first month. Meunier took that frustration out on Bill Marois big time, dominating the match in “Mike Budwick” fashion: losing game one 188-196 but then following that up with convincing 220-178 and 171-160 wins to capture series 579-534.

Tom Clukay was high scorer in the singles for the second week in a row, both game- and series-wise. Clukay bowled 247-592 for his second consecutive upset, this time a 3½-1½ win over Jason Hebert. His 247 game earned him high game honors for the week and a second consecutive $20 bonus check.

Challenge Series Update

Darrell Sweeney took the lead in the Factorxbowling.com Match Point Challenge this week with a decisive 4-0 sweep of opponent Bill Marois, Sr. Sweeney defeated Marois 224-216, 217-198, 191-180 and 632-594 en route to his overall 14-2 record that gives him a two-game edge over Steve Budwick, who split his points this week with PB&G opponent Paul Falk. Bob Everhart remained one-half point behind Budwick in third, splitting 2-2 with Mike Budwick.

In the Gardner Ten Pins Sport Challenge average race, Stan Meunier bowled 579 this week to extend his lead over defending champ Bill Marois. Meunier now leads the league with 191.83, while Marois’ 534 dropped him another six-tenths of a pin to 187.24 on the year. Tom Brown’s 592 upped his third-place average to 186.76, closing the gap between himself and Marois to less than half-a-pin.

PBA Showdown Update

Looking for a daily lottery number to play this week? How about the numbers 5-9-2?

Tom Clukay’s Factor X team and Tom Brown’s Degeneration X team did battle this week, and both shot solid 592 scratch games in this one; Factor X in game one, Degeneration X in game three. Interestingly enough, 592 was also the high series in PBAX action this week. Tom Clukay bowled it, and so did Tom Brown.

It was the second time this season the Showdown qualifier has ended up in a tie. Stan Meunier and Jason Hebert did it in week three with matching 602 sets, now Brown and Clukay have done it with their matching 592s. Jason Hebert won the tiebreaker back in week three when his name was selected in a random draw, and now Tom Clukay has earned his second entry into the Showdown courtesy of this week’s tiebreaker in which it was Brown pulling Clukay’s name from the hat.

Congratulations, Cluke. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!  See everyone in 2010!

MNH Recap: Back on Track

Factor X scored their first convincing win in nearly a month this week, defeating the team who sent them into that tailspin and reclaiming first place from them in the process. Bowling against Emil’s Animals for the second time in a month, X avenged their earlier 4-1 loss to the Animals, evening the season series against them with a a 4-1 series win that knots the head-to-head season series between the two at 5 wins and 5 losses each.

This week’s match was anything but the high-flying, high-scoring match that transpired between the two in their first meeting. Missing from the Animal roster this time around was Tim Rowell, and in his place was sixth man Mike Johnson. But even with the lower scores there was plenty of action and entertainment to be found, most of it coming courtesy of Johnson’s defection to the “southpaw side” of the lane this year.

“It started as an experiment to increase our handicap in a fun league with my wife on Wednesday nights,” Johnson explained. “But it seemed to be going so well that we decided to do it on Monday nights, too.”

The strategy appeared to be working to perfection early in game one, as Johnson opened with a 5-bagger, taking a quick 50-pin lead on lifetime natural lefty Tom Clukay, much to Clukay’s – and Factor X’s – dismay. Errant shots by Johnson late helped keep the game manageable for Factor X however, and ultimately enabled Bill Allen and Buddy Wing (bowling out of the three- and four-slots respectively) to take control of the game in the end. Both finished strong, Allen with 219, Wing with 225, helping to overcome Johnson’s opening 212 mark.

Scoring returned to more-normal levels for Factor X in game number two, but remained anemic for the Animals. This time it was Clukay’s turn to put up a 212 from the southpaw side of the lanes, and Johnson’s turn to struggle. Combined with Will Allen’s 227 and Bill Allen’s 218, the X Men returned to the black side of the 800 mark as a team, scoring 835 scratch, casting aside the Animals’ 701/826 score and extending their series lead to 164 total pins.

But in game three it was X’s turn to go anorexic. Only Bill Allen would finish above the 200 mark in the finale, finishing with 202 as the remainder of his team all scored under 190. Scoring remained sub-par for the Animals as well, but between Ricky LaChance’s 207, Kyle McInerney’s 195 and Glenn Boisse’s 190, Emil’s put together just enough firepower in game three to short-circuit Factor X’s attempt at another sweep, taking game three 865-801 to salvage one-of-five points on the night.

The 4-1 win moves X back to the top of the standings ladder, easing them from two back to one point up on the Animals in the race for first.

PBAX Recap: It Could’ve Been Worse…

But it could’ve been a lot better, too… especially given the way that Tom Clukay and Factor X came out of the starting gate. Clukay opened with a 247 game which featured nine strikes: four pocket hits and five off-hits that carried despite their questionable angle of entry. The game will not go down as one of Clukay’s more-dominating performances – he was actually out-bowled by opponent Tom Brown who finished a distant 52 pins back – but as they say in bowling circles everywhere, “it’s not how, but how many.” Factor in Karl Larson’s 177 game and resulting 223-186 win over Ricky LaChance, and just like that, X was out to a quick 4-1 lead and an 89-pin overall advantage.

But once again, Factor X could not hold on to the momentum. Clukay’s accuracy was not much better in game two, and as the lucky strikes began to dry up, so too did Clukay’s lofty scores. Both Henry Caouette and Karl Larson managed to edge out narrow match point wins over opponents Craig Caswell (subbing for Todd Tetreault) and Ricky LaChance, but missed easy spares would come back to haunt X in this one, as Tom Brown’s big 225-185 handicap win over Clukay would earn his team the 3-2 win by final score of 605-601.

Still up by a substantial margin after two, the Factor X roof caved in in the finale. Transitioning oil slammed the scoring door shut for both Caouette and Larson, who had bowled so consistently through the first two games. Caouette’s output would plummet 36 pins, while Larson’s scoring would free-fall by 42. Clukay’s 188-188 scratch tie with Brown would shield his team from the sweep, but Degeneration X would ultimately finish the night the same way Factor X started it: with a resounding 592 scratch series that would dominate their opponent and, in this case, earn the league’s “other X team” the 4-1 total pins win as well for a 12-8 series victory.

Interestingly enough, the number 592 must have had cosmic significance at some level in this one. Not only did Factor X start the night with 592 and Degeneration X end with 592 as just mentioned, but Tom Clukay and Tom Brown both tied for the league’s high series of the week with… wait for it… 592. Clukay won the tie-breaker lottery draw with Brown for this week’s PBA Showdown qualifying entry, making it two weeks in a row now that Clukay has won that honor. Congratulations, Cluke… and Merry Christmas, one and all!

Dianne Johnson, Cat Sweeney and Darrell Sweeney won their third straight match to start round II of the PBAX Trios, defeating what had been a red-hot Aramark team 11½-8½ to retain sole possession of first place over hard-charging URATACA and SRS. The win brings their total wins this round to 42, giving them a 5-point lead over the other two aforementioned teams.

Behind the smooth stroke of Pat Egeland who was subbing for Tom Budzinski this week, it was Aramark who opened as the aggressor in this one, pulling out a hard-fought 600-596 win over WRWD in the opener that earned them a quick 4-1 lead. Egeland bowled 193 scratch, and teammate Bob Everhart shot 181 scratch to help pace Aramark. The Aramark lead doubled to 8-2 after two following an equally-tight five-pin win that netted Aramark four more points. But it was all WRWD after that.

As the scoring pace for Aramark in the final game started to dwindle somewhat, WRWD took full advantage and began to sizzle. Cat Sweeney continued the strong pace she had set for herself in game two, following up her 179 scratch with a two-pin improvement to 181, and was joined by teammates Dianne Johnson and Darrell Sweeney, who bowled scores of 205 and 182 respectively, overpowering Aramark by 159 total pins to take 9½ of the final 10 points for the come-from-behind win.

The loss dropped Aramark a spot in the standings from third place to fourth behind URATACA and SRS who both leaped ahead of Aramark following strong 16-4 showings. URATACA’s win came against the then-second-place B’s and featured a total team effort by all three “Uratatackers,” each shooting mid-to-high 500 sets. High for URATACA was Jamie Richard who is now alternating weeks with Jimmy Lovewell as the team’s “fourth man.” Richard bowled games of 196, 220 and 180 en route to the league’s second-highest 3-game set on the night, a 596. SRS kept up with URATACA by matching their 16-4 win with one of their own, which came against a “Mike Wilson-less” Pwned crew. SRS continues to make their case as “best first-half team in the league”; after finishing second in round I they now find themselves in the bridesmaid position once again and sport total season wins of 167, 12½ points better than second place PB&G.

Next week will mark the final night of bowling before the Christmas break, as WRWD will take on last place USA, SRS goes up against round I champs PB&G, and URATACA puts their game to the test against a determined Aramark trio.

Bonus Singles II Update: Marois On Top Again

Can anybody beat this guy? Make no mistake, no one is belittling the talent that Bill Marois brings to the lanes, week in and week out; he’s truly one of the premiere bowlers at Gardner Ten Pins, and has the credentials to prove it. But c’mon now, guys… there’s opportunistic, and then there’s opportunistic! And there’s getting out-bowled by your opponent, and out-bowling yourself!

Round II of the Bonus Singles has been anything but “Marois-like.” His 179.1 average through 9 games ranks him sixth out of eight bowlers… and yet, the man has won ten points in a row, and has reclaimed what appears to be his “rightful spot” atop the Bonus Singles standings amidst what even Marois himself would likely agree was a monumental slump. Marois registered his second consecutive sweep by casting aside opponent Ron Bernard this week 194-179, 181-178 and 190-156 for a 565-513 series win.

“I think it speaks to his talent,” Tom Clukay suggested. “Here’s a guy that, even when he hasn’t got his best stuff, he finds a way to win. Whether the pattern is high-scoring or low-scoring, at the end of the night, he always seems to come up just a little bit bigger than his opponent, regardless of which of the five patterns he’s on.”

Paving the way for Marois’ ascent to the top were losses by both Budwicks, as Steve lost to Jason Hebert 4-1 and previously first-place Mike was upset by last-place Tom Clukay, who bowled his best set of the season. Clukay’s 676 was not only his first Sport 600 of the year, but was the league’s highest three-game tally through the first fourteen weeks of bowling. He defeated Budwick 223-187, 238-211 and 215-156 en route to the sweep.

Clukay’s 238 earned him this week’s $20 High Game Instant Payout award, while his 676 earned him an entry into the PBA Showdown blind draw round to be aired during a PBA Sunday afternoone event in late February. Congratulations, Tom.