Feb 17, 2003 By Gary George For The 4 min read

A couple of months back I put my list of the five best bowlers in the county in this column. Of course I’ve taken some good-natured ribbing from area players who feel that some other fellows should have been listed (Al D’Andrea and Steve Grzesiak most often). Take one off here-put another one on there. You know.

Out of it though, no one has ever argued the point that I had Dave Show on that list. But, if anyone ever had a doubt, last week took care of it.

During our early evening Trio League at Manor Lanes last Monday, Dave rolled games of 259, 300, and 280 for an 839 series. Yes, you did read that correctly – 839.

That is a sanctioned high series for Manor and it replaces an 837 (unsanctioned) house high that Dave had posted f years before.

And, just in case you might have overlooked it, there was a 300 perfect game in the middle of his 839.

The Dave Show of “new” is a bit different than the Dave Show of “old”.

He is still just as tough on the lanes as he ever was, but a little bit of age has made him more laid back about such things as 800s and 300s. I’m not sure that he really said much except “thank you” to all the guys who came up to congratulate him-first for the 300 and then for that fabulous 839.

So, that’s a great story. Right? A fellow rolls 300 and 800.

That does happen occasionally – just not too often.

But wait-there is more.

Less than 2 hours later during the late night Manor Majors league, Dave took it to the lanes again and during the second game of this league, he rolled another 300 game.

That means two perfect games within 2 hours of each other.

Now, I know there are a lot of great bowlers in this country and there are a lot of 300 games thrown. But for one man to throw two of them in two different leagues on the same night-well that is beyond description or explanation.

And quite frankly, that pushes the whole thing from a local to a national level.

A different place or different time, and ESPN would be at Dave’s door asking for an interview. But this is Uniontown not New York or L.A. or Chicago.

So suffice it to say that those of us who were there to see him do it know that we were given the opportunity to see something really outstanding and most likely a “once in a lifetime event”.

Even if someone had the slightest morsel of doubt about Dave and my list of the best bowlers in the county-it has been removed. He has moved to the head-of-the-class.

CHAMPIONSHIP DOUBLES: Don’t forget that Championship Bowling puts on a different face these next two weeks. We are going down to the Mt. Vernon Bowl and we will be doing Doubles.

The format is simple: Any “190 or over average” bowler may team up with any “under 190” to roll as doubles.

Also, two “under 190” average players may team up as a doubles team.

Obviously, it could be two men, two women, or one man and one woman.

There will be one guaranteed spot for the “under/under” team with the highest team total.

Here is Lenny’s schedule for the next two weeks: Tuesday (Feb. 18) at 8 and 10 p.m.; Wednesday (Feb. 19) at 10 p.m.; Saturday (Feb. 22) at 10 a.m.; Sunday (Feb. 23) at 10 a.m., 12 p.m., and 2 p.m.; Tuesday (Feb. 25) at 8 and 10 p.m.; and finally Wednesday at 10 p.m.

The Saturday squad has a guarantee along with Sunday (10 a.m. only) and the last Wednesday.

Since you can’t make TV with two different partners, we will ask that if you roll 1,200, you can roll again with the same partner to better your score, but you can’t change partners until your score is knocked off the board.

Other than that, good rollin’ and let’s see what happens.

LADIES TOURNAMENT: The time has arrived. The Ladies Championship Bowling qualifiers are starting this week at Fairbank.

They will be this week: Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 10 p.m.; then Saturday and Sunday at 9 a.m.; and finally next Tuesday, Feb. 25 at 10 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 26) at 8 and 10 p.m. and then Thursday, Feb. 27 at 10 p.m.

There certainly are plenty of times available, and the cost of entry is only $20.

As always, you may bowl twice within a squad and you may enter as many squads as you want. The top eight (8) spots make the TV show which will be taped at 10 a.m. on Saturday, March 1.

Go get’em ladies!

I’ll see you on the lanes

Gary George is the Herald-Standard bowling correspondent.