9: Bowling X-X-X

I'm the Dude, so that's what you call me

What is a turkey? You might ask. Well a turkey is when you get 3 strikes in a row. The phrase originates from the late 18th century where food items were given out as prizes for bowling competitions – including turkey. Particularly around thanksgiving turkeys were given out as prizes and one particular bowling institution decided to give out a turkey for each person that bowled 3 strikes in a row, and hence the phrase was born.

Back when I was a young kid I would go bowling often, I remember that I had my 8th birthday at the Chadstone AMF bowling alley (no longer there), and on that day I hit the jackpot at the arcade game wining over 500 tickets. I had sour warheads for days! Not much has changed since then because for my 21st I took the fellas, you guessed it, bowling.

Bowling has always been a past time that I have enjoyed. In particular, I remember one occasion at Chadstone when my dad came to pick me up after a few rounds of bowling on a hot summers day. He comes into the alley no shoes and drenched in sweat to give me a lift home. I was fairly embarrassed, but hey that’s Dad.

Starting this challenge I knew it would be difficult. I could bowl, but never anywhere close to three strikes in a row. After my brother teased me that I would have to spend a full weekend at the bowling alley and $100s of dollars on games, I watered down the initial challenge to “3 strikes in one game”. This was one of the first challenges that I tried after writing the list and I was excited to get out of the house and go bowling with my girlfriend and my parents. In the very first game I had 2 strikes in a row and then on the third bowl I hit a 9. It was crazy to think that I could have done this challenge so quickly. After realising that it was possible to accomplish the challenge I restored it to the original “3 strikes in one game”.

It was not till several months later, when I was looking at the whiteboard trying to think of challenges to do before I went away on holidays to Malaysia that I attempted this challenge again. This time I went with my girlfriend and her brother, and again I got two strikes in a row but only a 5 on the third. For the next week I went bowling 3 more times, even though I played 3 games each time, I always had at least one chance to attempt the three strikes in a row.

Time unfortunately ran out on me to complete this challenge at home, so I decided that in my first weekend in Malaysia (on a study trip) that I was going to attempt the turkey! Near to my accomodation was a massive shopping complex called the Sunway Pyramid, and low and behold were two bowling alleys. Jackpot! I went early Saturday morning and booked in for 2 games. This was the biggest bowling alley I had ever seen. With over 50 lanes, all booked out, it was chaos.

The first bowl was average – 5 and the second one was worse – 0. Things were not looking good. But on the second bowl I flushed it and managed to get that sweet, sweet X. The next was a solid 4 / 5 followed by another strike, 7 / – and 6 / Spare. I was in good form. The bowling balls were a little bit heavier than I was used to, but because of their weight I only needed to hit the middle pin with moderate speed and gravity would take care of the rest. Strike. Strike. Strike. Three in a row baby! It was glorious. I stood there by myself surrounded by 100s of Malaysians loudly cheering my achievement. And in the first game! The game ended on my highest ever score 164 and better yet, another challenge down.