The Tuesday Men's Merchants League at Bowl East continues to produce some big numbers.

For the second straight week, a bowler in the 28-team league had 11 strikes in a row before misfiring on the 12th ball.

The latest: Randy Roberts of the Four-State Homes team.

“I dropped the last ball and it didn't reach the head pin, leaving the 1, 2 and 4 pins,” said Roberts.

The 297 was Randy's biggest game ever in league competition, but he has rolled a 300 in practice. Randy lives in Neosho with wife Sandy and their four children. He bowls in three leagues — two in Neosho — and competes once a month on a traveling team.

While Randy was cranking out his big game, Kyle Birkinsha was doing some fancy bowling of his own. Kyle put together games of 268, 245 and 289 for an 802 series, second only to Mark Howerton's 845 this season.

Brian Wecker, bowling for the Tiger Wannabees in the Thursday Elwin Magers Classic League at Bowl East, posted the city's seventh 300 game of the season. Wecker, who took a 206 average into the night's action, finished with a 674 series after rolling 197 and 177 in his other games.

David Fort just missed an 800 set at the Fourth Street Bowl, totaling 792 with games of 279, 289 and 224.

Carol Dutton topped the city's women bowlers again with a 747 series constructed on games of 259, 259 and 229. Carol also had a 631 series during the week.

Other highlights:

CROWN LANES: Proprietor Robbie Goheen enjoyed a big week at his pin-pounding center near Galena with series of 683, 671 and 616 and a high line of 277. Jared Lightle totaled 668, Bill Walkenshaw 658, Dave Lightle Jr. 279-654, and Dave Lightle 647. Janesse Vickers paced the women with 236, 242 and 634 and Tina Lightle had a 600 series. Jason Evans led the youth with a 221-222-615. Alexis White had a 440 series to lead the girls.

FOURTH STREET BOWL: Bill Dutton logged the week's high line of 290. William Lisle Jr., shot 288-705 while Chuck Roach had 722, Chris Misner 721, and Bill Murphy 707. Michelle Arwood had a 604 series to trail Carol Dutton on the women's charts. Casie Walker had the week's high line of 269, but Heidi Burggraf had a 262, Carol Dutton a 237, Renee Lisle 235 and Denese Stephens 232. Bill Bush led the senior men with a 615 series and Bill Rowe had the high game of 224. Bev Zerkel's 586 series paced the senior women but Taukia Reynolds shot 566. Jessica Burgess (223-226-599) and Kenny Phillips (218-237-606) led the youth bowlers.

BOWL EAST: David Brisco rode games of 277 and 268 to a 759 series, one of seven 700-plus sets in addition to Birkinsha's 802. Smooth lefty Rex Millsap totaled 279-750, Chuck Horner 267-268-749, David Dalton 244-245-248-737, Jonathan White 270-719, Larry Oxendine 257-713 and Brandon Derrick 258-245-710. Jake Dean had games of 279 and 278 and Joey Thomas rolled a 278. Heather Wilson paced the women with series of 608 and 629. Candy Brown had a 602 set and Suzan Vanderbol rolled the high line of 227.. Tom Fortson logged games of 235 and 222 en route to a 650 series to top the senior men's charts. Bill Byrd totaled 622 on games of 204, 203 and 215 and Steve Wiles shot 221-211-605. Bev Cochran paced the senior women with 210-573.

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Dates have been set for the Joplin United States Bowling Congress (USBC) city tournaments.

The women's tournament will be held the weekends of February 2-3 and 9-10 at Crown Lanes.

The Joplin Open, which is open to both men and women, will be held Feb. 16-17 and 23-24 at the Fourth Street Bowl.

Bowl East will host the tourney for junior bowlers on April 5-6 and 12-13.

Entry blanks should be available soon.

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After struggling this past week with a timing problem, this bowler turned to one of my two “bibles” for southpaws: Mike Aulby's bowling tips provided by bowling buddy and fellow lefty, Bill Byrd.

Aulby writes that most men tend to release the ball early. The result is that an early release doesn't take full advantage of the power in the sliding leg and that causes a bowler to sacrifice leverage. The end product, Aulby writes, is "weak" hits such as soft 7s (for lefties) and soft 10s (for right-handers) and/or 5-pins.

Late timing, according to Aulby, occurs when the slide ends before the ball is released. Often, the ball is dropped downward into the lane, resulting in lost power. A late release could cause a bowler to be light or miss the entire headpin. Aulby recommends practice, practice, practice to cure timing problems.

Mike must have had me in mind when he penned “the bowler who really struggles is the one who is in time on one shot, early the next, and then late the shot after that.”