A LONGTIME CANDLEPIN FAN

A presentation of Christus Vincit Sports!

The Good Lord knows that I've been a fan of Candlepin bowling since I was about 10 years old.  I may have mentioned it once or twice on this here blog.  How can one detect a longtime candlepin fan?  Simple.  When you hear one rattle off such names as:

Dick Ewell

Max Valentin

The late great Stacia Czernicki

Tony Czernicki (her widower - still living to tell the tale)

Ed Czernicki (her son, who holds the WCVB-TV Channel 5 Candlepin Bowling record for highest single on the show with a whopping 197)

John Czernicki (her other son - also a helluva bowler)

Dot Petty

Toni-Marie Baldinelli

Tom Olszta (my all-time favorite - he has the most wins of anyone on Channel 5)

Paul Berger (who holds Channel 5's record for the highest three-string total on the show - 500 even!  Strings of 158, 149, and 193!)

Joe Donovan

The late great Don Gillis (Channel 5's announcer)

Bob Fouracre (announcer on Bay State Bowling on Worcester MA's former WSMW-TV Channel 27)

Mike Sargent

Chris Sargent (Mike's son, who tied Ralph Semb's record for the highest candlepin single ever last year - 245!  NO ONE has ever bowled a perfect 300 in candlepin!)

The Brothers Morgan (Mike and his late brother Tom - two great bowlers who were also quite comical together!)

Craig Holbrook

John "Urbie" Kafalas (the only Rhode Islander I ever got to watch bowl candlepins on TV, although there was another guy who lived in Massachusetts but worked in Rhode Island - his name eludes me at the moment!)

Steve Renaud

Peter Flynn

Charlie Jutras

Dick Smus

Fred Spintig, Jr.

Scott Williams

Steve Popuolo (who had an interesting wind-up, but managed to tear up the lanes)

Brian Fuller

Jack Quinn

Rich "Hawk" Hallas

Jim Barber

Dave Barber (Jim's son, who shot a record 192 on the short-lived Candlepins for Dollars show on Channel 56)

Bob Kelly

Don Richmond

Joe Tavernese

Tom Surette

Peter Surette (Tom's brother)

Jeff Surette (Tom's son)

Anyone wanna run some other names by me?
Peace,

BMP

DON GILLIS, 1922-2008

A Christus Vincit Sports Obituary

I've mentioned a few times before that I am a longtime fan of candlepin bowling. Longtime Boston sportscaster and host of WCVB-TV Channel 5's Candlepin Bowling Don Gillis died last night after suffering a series of strokes within the last three weeks. He's also had Alzheimer's in recent years. He was 85.

Candlepin Bowling aired on Channel 5 in Boston from 1958-1996. Don replaced Jim Britt as host until 1967 and stayed on until the show's finale.

Fellow YouTuber Wolfman posted this montage of some of Don's highlights. Enjoy!



Peace,
BMP

CANDLEPIN FOR KIDS

Candlepin for Kids is a TV show that airs on a small cable channel in Central Massachusetts. Hosted by two candlepin pros who have made many TV appearances on shows like Candlepin Bowling and Candlepin Challenge over the years (and still do), Steve Renaud (pronounced "Reno", like in "Reno, Nevada") and Dan "Shoebag" Gauthier do a great job promoting the sport and encouraging kids to keep it going. It's a show that involves kids of ALL age groups. If all goes right, many will continue to bowl with the adults once they come of age.

Here's an idea of what they're all about (I can't get their cable channel from here, but someone's been putting the latest shows up on YouTube and I subscribed). BTW, one of the bowlers here, Steven Renaud (son of Steve Renaud), has appeared on the Candlepin Challenge as well (four weeks of their shows are kids shows - mainly teens, though).



Peace,
BMP

UPDATE 2/2/08 9:30 PM: If anyone tried to view it, the person who had uploaded it took it down, but then put it back up. It's running again.

HOW MUCH DO YOU KNOW ABOUT CANDLEPIN BOWLING?

It's no secret that though I live in Rhode Island (where at one time the big game was duckpins), I'm a big fan of candlepin bowling. I just found this quiz and here's the result.

You got 75% right!

A great effort! There's a lot of tough questions on this quiz, and you got most of them! You know a lot about Candlepin Bowling!

How much do you know about Candlepin Bowling?
Make a Quiz

Peace,
BMP

OFF-TOPIC: CANDLEPIN BOWLING

Picture this - rolling a ball that's a little bit bigger in diameter than a baseball, but a little bit smaller than a softball, aiming at really skinny pins. That's candlepin bowling, and I'm taking my wife and kids to do that one day next week. It's something we haven't done in years. My son Chris (he's going on 22) will be doing his first PBA gig some time in June (non-televised). But that's "normal bowling", the conventional "tenpin bowling". It's funny how they call the normal mode of bowling (with the big ball, up to 16 pounds) "tenpin", considering duckpin bowling (which used to be big in Rhode Island, there are only a handful of duckpin houses left) and candlepin bowling (none in Rhode Island, but big in Massachusetts and New Hampshire) both use ten (10) pins.

The house we're going to is called Fun Spot, up in the middle of New Hampshire, and has a huge arcade, indoor golf, bingo, and twenty lanes of bowling - ten candlepin and ten tenpin. You can bet I'm in it for the candlepins. Heck, I can go tenpins anywhere! There's a tenpin house less than ten minutes from my home. I want the real challenge.

For those who have never seen candlepin bowling before (mostly those who don't live in MA, ME, NH, or Nova Scotia, Canada), the idea is the same --- roll the ball and knock down ten pins. BUT--- you get three balls to do it instead of two. If you knock them all down on the third ball, it's scored simply as a "ten" - no more, no less. No waiting for the next frame to determine your score like in a spare or strike. Same applies to duckpins. Also, candlepin bowling is the only bowling where you DO NOT clear the deadwood. You must play it. That has its ups and downs. With deadwood played correctly, 7-10 split conversions are more common. However, a piece of deadwood in a certain spot can prevent you from picking up that single pin for a spare.

A typical male pro candlepin bowler averages somewhere around 120-130 (a typical PBA tenpin bowler averages about 100 pins more than that). Here's a YouTube video of the first five frames of a match where the champion, Paul Berger, shot a rare three-game total of 500 (158-149-193). Enjoy!

Peace,
BMP