New Record for a Female Using Sip-and-Puff!

My friend and fellow Quad Squad member Rhonda Reese set a new record for dynamic wheelchair bowling by a female driving her chair by sip-and-puff. After not being able to bowl for about six months, Rhonda shook the rust off her bowling game and bowled an impressive 170 -- beating her previous best by a sizable margin -- nine pins!

Whenever we bowl, we have a friendly competition to try to have the top game of the day, and after game one, Rhonda was in the lead with a 142, ahead of both Lilian and me (the only Quad Squad Bowlers who could bowl that day). I managed to take the lead with a 170 in game two, despite my chair still being squirrelly (bowling a turkey, a.k.a. three consecutive strikes, really helps:).

Rhonda is a bit of a deliberate bowler, and I finished three games by the time she finished two. She was thinking of stopping, but I said, "Rhonda, you haven't bowled in six months -- enjoy yourself and bowl another game!" We were all rooting for Rhonda (we all cheer for everyone to do well, but we especially wanted to see Rhonda bowl well because she hadn't been able to bowl for a long time). To keep her company, I bowled a fourth game alongside her. But I finished faster than Rhonda, and she wound up being the ONLY person in Spanish Springs bowling!

It was too quiet, so I wanted to try to keep her from being nervous (she already was, because she knew she had a good game going -- and it's her nature to be nervous:). I was on lane one, she was on lane two, and Lilian was also finished bowling on lane three. So I asked Rhonda if I could distract her from being nervous if I crossed over in front of her and went to cheer for her by Lilian. She said "go for it" so I did, and I led the cheer, "Let's-go, Rhon-da" (clap clap, clap clap clap; the "clapping" I did vocally, of course:) from lane 4, but nobody was doing it with me (Jackie later said they didn't want to make Rhonda nervous:). I was trying to break the silence and tension and get Rhonda to relax a little.

It looked like Rhonda would fall a little short of her previous record (161) until the 10th frame. She had 122 in the 8th frame and a spare in the 9th (i.e. the potential to have 142 in the 9th and a chance to break her record, if she rolled a strike with her first ball in the 10th). So I said, "No pressure Rhonda, just three strikes -- just start with one!" :-)

Boom, STRIKE! :-)

And ANOTHER! :-)

After the double, she had 162 and another ball. I said, "Rhonda, there's REALLY no pressure now, because you already have a new record!" :-)

Rhonda replied, "Yeah, but I want to set it as high as I can -- so there's still pressure!" (She was killing me with all the pressure talk!:)

Anyway, she got 8 with her last ball for a 170 and her entrance into THE 170 CLUB! WOOHOO! Way to go Rhonda! :-)

Afterward, she was pleased with her new record, but lamented, "But now I have to break 170 to get a new record."

Dale, who caddied for Rhonda, was like, "Quit trying to find the dark side of a silver cloud!" It was funny.

Good times. Here's her scoresheet (at the below link, scroll down):

http://www.wheelchairbowlingrecords.com/Rhonda_Reese_Record_170.htm

CONGRATULATIONS RHONDA! :-)

Bill Miller :-)
C1-2 Quadriplegic with a 206 High Bowling Game
Co-founder of Manufacturing Genuine Thrills Inc. d/b/a MGT
My blog: http://powerwheelchairusers.blogspot.com/
Business website: http://www.ikanbowler.com/
Personal website: http://www.lookmomnohands.net/