This column was scheduled to run last Sunday, but health problems had me hospitalized for nine days and I was unable to access the information needed to complete the story.
Hopefully, not everyone who reads this column has heard about the bowling accomplishments of Sonya and David Fort a couple of Saturdays ago.
After checking with the USBC’s web site, Bowl.com, last week, I learned that David and Sonya joined some very exclusive company on the national bowling stage.
While bowling for the Kiss My Average team in the Wolfpack League at Carl Richard Fourth Street Bowl, Sonya and David combined for a 599 game during the second line of their three-game series.
Sonya rolled her first 300 game and David, after the celebration had subsided following Sonya’s game, followed with a 299, leaving the nine pin on a solid pocket hit on his 12th ball.
Sonya was unaware she had a perfect game going.
“I thought I had spared in the first frame,” she admitted. “So, I really didn’t feel any pressure in the 10th. If I thought I had a perfect game going, I might have been really nervous.”
Sonya, whose previous high game was a 284 in the Missouri Men’s state tournament in Cape Girardeau, finished with a 775 series. She opened with a 236 and closed with a 239 and she did it with a brand new, 15-pound Morich Levrg Response ball drilled by husband David.
David, who has had a 300, said the 299 was his first and added, “hopefully my last.” After stepping back and waiting while other bowlers congratulated Sonya, David had solid strike hits on his first two balls in the 10th.
“The last ball hit the pocket pretty solid, but it may have been a little high,” David said. “A messenger pin tapped the nine, but not hard enough to knock it over.”
Asked if he felt undue pressure in the 10th, David answered, “I felt the pressure when it got real quiet as everyone stopped to watch.”
David, who has a 208 average in the league, totaled 741 with other games of 213 and 229. That gave the husband-and-wife duo a whopping 1516 total.
After checking Bowl.com, the Forts unofficially are the first husband and wife to roll a game that high. There are two other 599 games listed in the mixed two-player category: Allison Johnson-Rob Grimmett, Oklahoma City, 1994, and Melissa Cole-Julian Herradon, Miami, Fla., 2007.
There have been three 600 games in the mixed two-player game category, the most recent Melanie Fugua-Joey MacPhee, Albuquerque, N.M., 2008.
The Forts’ series total of 1516 is far down the list. Patti Cacioppo and Joe Biscardi of Plainview, N.J., rolled 1630 in 1998 for the all-time high. Fifth place is 1581 by Cindy Coburn-Carroll and Mike Neumann of Buffalo, N.Y., in 1995.
Globe sports editor Jim Fryar sent me an e-mail with a story about two brothers, Ed and Tom Shircel of Sheboygan, Wis., who rolled perfect games for the same team and in the same game during a recent league outing
The Shircels have combined for 10 perfect games during their careers. They combined for a 1529 series, with Ed topping the charts with a 777.
Hopefully, this column will continue uninterrupted throughout the rest of the bowling season. I’d like to wish all the bowlers, and other readers of this column, a very merry CHRISTmas, a Happy New Year and great bowling in 2009.
Address correspondence to Wendell Redden, c/o The Joplin Globe, P.O. Box 7, Joplin, Mo. 64802, or e-mail sports@joplinglobe.com.
