The lanes to his left and right were quiet. The silence told Larry Brown that many of the eyes in Husted’s Hazel Dell Lanes were upon him.
It was one of those moments bowlers dream about — and prefer not to dwell upon.
On the last day of the 61st edition of the Clark County Bowling Championships, the first 10 balls that Brown threw were strikes. After the first nine, he noticed no one was bowling in the lanes next to him.
“I knew a lot of people were watching,” Brown said. “I knew what I had to do, so I didn’t waste a lot of time.”
He hit his mark perfectly in the 10th frame. Two more would mean a perfect 300 game.
The 55-year-old Vancouver resident had once before bowled a 300 in league play. In the past month Brown twice bowled 300s in practice, giving him a good feeling about the county tournament.
Actually, Brown’s confidence began to build in January. He won a division for retired Navy at a national military tournament in Las Vegas, knocking down 1,004 pins over four games at the amateur event.
“I started thinking this might be a special year,” Brown said. “That’s a tournament where you get a lot of respect.”
Bowling has had a special place in Brown’s life since a friend introduced him to the sport at age 16 in Philadelphia. His mother had just died, and the friend figured bowling might be a nice distraction.
It was. Brown said he returned to the bowling center on his own the next day, and within the week was participating in small stakes gambling games and breaking even.
Back then, Brown knew only that he seemed to have a natural knack for 10-pin. Brown and his wife, Nina, settled in Vancouver in the early 1990s when he retired from the Navy. And he became active in several local bowling leagues.
On Sunday, he was aware that he had the opportunity to accomplish something special.
In the 11th frame of that first game, he said he tugged the ball just a little. But all the pins fell. Maybe this was Brown’s lucky day.
He tried to breathe slowly as he picked up the ball and lined up for his 12th throw. He considered adjusting his mark slightly left to account for the subtle pull on his previous shot. But the time for adjustments isn’t when a bowler’ has rolled 11 strikes in a row.
So Brown did not change his mark.
“I pulled the ball a little bit to the left,” Brown said. “As soon as the ball left my hand, I knew I had missed the shot.”
Rather than sulk, Brown picked up where he left off in his second game, recording a 277. Sure, it was disappointing to come up two pins shy of a 300 game, but to record an 800 series in the county championships would be even better.
To do that, Brown needed a 225 third game.
Going into the ninth frame, he still had a shot at it. But the 8 pin refused to fall. Brown picked up a spare in the 10th, too, and finished with a 796 series.
While he just missed a couple of magical scores, Brown did win himself a couple of county championships on Sunday. He finished atop the standings for the singles and all-events scoring, when handicap pins were added. The all-events prize is based on total scores from singles, doubles and team events. Brown teamed with Carl Falls to finish second in doubles.
Not a bad tournament, for a guy who has been limiting his bowling to one league a week this year as he bounces back from back surgery.
The showcase tournament for the Clark County chapter of the United States Bowling Congress, the county championships played out over three weekends this month. This final weekend saw entries almost double, and saw Brown turn in an attention-grabbing championship show.
Paul Danzer covers Community Sports for The Columbian. He can be reached at 360-735-4521 or paul.danzer@columbian.com.
