Good Morning Bowlers. This is the last weekend in October and fast approaching the last week of the month. Don’t forget those trick or treaters on Wednesday.

Daylight savings time will end on Saturday, November 3, 2007, wherein you will turn your clocks back an hour to pick up that hour that you lost in the Spring when you turned your clocks ahead. Take advantage of this extra time to catch up on what’s happening in the world of bowling.

Bowlers - you pay a certification fee to the local association, the national association and the state association (where applicable). What does that money go for you ask? The money at the national level is anyone’s guess. They will tell you that they give you $12 worth of service and only charge you $10. Feel free to contact them and ask for an explanation.

First things first. An apology to Bobbi Jo Blind for the "mis quote" in the last article that she had decided to leave AMF when she stepped down from the position of Manager at AMF East to Assistant Manager at AMF Ocala. Seems that my source at AMF East was either incorrect in their information or they were assuming (and we all know what that does) that she left or just wanted to give poor or inaccurate information to see if it would be printed and what the consequences would be. Again, to Bobbi Jo Blind, I do apologize.

Moving on to more positive things - another milestone for Ocala. We have a web site dedicated to Ocala Bowling. The site is www.ocalausbcbowling.com. The front page or Home is the last blog article that appears at

Another week in the life and times of Ocala bowlers has passed.

Due to not having a quorum the Ocala Men’s 600 Club was not able to hold their annual meeting and election of officers. The Club Championship Tournament is being held on Saturday, October 13, 2007, at AMF East at 1:00 p.m. The turn out is small. Out of a possible 150 individuals who are eligible to participate only 49 signed up to bowl. Will advise who the Club Champion is next week. More information about the rescheduling of the annual meeting will be forthcoming.

Seems that bowling in general is down all over. Leagues lost bowlers and whole teams; people that bowled in more than one league have cut back. There are many factors to consider when looking at the decline in bowlers: cost of bowling; cost of food at the center; cost of gas to get to the center and the inconsistent condition ...

Good Morning Ocala. Here we are in October - that only leaves 2 months till we will be celebrating a new year. Where has the time gone? Seems like yesterday we were worrying about the new millennium and whether or not the computers would crash or food would become scarce or that the world would end. Look at us now.

As the old saying goes "change is the only constant." AMF is constantly changing. Vince Jaquin has returned from Arizona and has taken over the helm at AMF East as General Manager. Bobbi Jo Blind requested to step down and be assistant manager and when AMF advised her that she would be transferred to AMF Ocala to work under Brian Yawn she decided to leave AMF. Josh Davis, who was assistant manager at AMF Ocala has been moved to AMF East to work under Vince. Not sure who will be where by next week but for now this is where we are at.

Boo - did that scare you? Yes Halloween will be here before you know it. Hard to believe that another month has come and gone and that the Holidays are near upon us.

Reminder that Daylight Savings Time will not end the last weekend of October as it has for the past many years but will end the first weekend in November. Part of legislation’s move to increase the beginning and ending of this time period. They are trying to get it year round - but that has not passed the House and Senate.

On the bowling scene unfortunately the State Open Championship is NOT final after all. There is another appeal that has been filed which will hold up the finalization of the tournament until early October (almost there I realize) but this is the longest that the tournament has been held up in a very long time. Situations such as these not only affect the individuals i ...

Free bowling - Free bowling - Free bowling - Free bowling. You would think a statement such as that would draw in the bowlers. However it did not seem to catch the attention of the bowlers that were eligible to participate in the Bowler Of The Year Roll Off.

The Bowler Of The Year Roll Off for both the Men’s and Women’s Associations was held on Saturday, September 15, 2007, at AMF West at 1:00 p.m. Out of the possible 40 women and 40 men that were eligible to participate only 12 women and 14 men participated. This is disheartening because this is a service that the two associations provide to the bowlers. Apparently this is a service that the bowlers are not interested in. The associations will be discussing continuing this service due to the lack of participation on the part of the bowlers. True you will never find a date and time that will be convenient to everyone but you would think that more than 12 women and 14 men would be availa ...

Hello, are you there?  Yes, but you are not - where are you?  If you look around at the various leagues that have started this season you have noticed the "V" on the monitors - this means there is a vacancy on that team, which equates to a missing bowler.  Many leagues are missing bowlers from teams or whole teams are missing and being replaced by those hard to beat bowlers called "BYE." 

Many factors are contributing to the decline in the number of bowlers:  price of gas, cost of bowling, cost of food at the bowling center and a general lack of enthusiasm for the game of bowling.  USBC is also contributing to the decline by taking away awards and recognition that the local bowler used to look forward to receiving as their reward for a job well done (good scores).  On top of paying a fee to ...

Well bowlers here we are completing the first week for some leagues while others are into week 2 or 3 of league competition.  Looking around the centers at the various leagues you will notice that not all the teams are full and that the leagues do not have as many teams as last year. 

There are many factors that are contributing to leagues and teams not being full - the cost of gas, the cost of league fees (due to the increase, again), the increase in the cost of food at the snack bar and lack of interest in the sport of bowling. 

So if you did not make the organizational meeting or even the first week of bowling it is not to late.  Stop by any of the centers and check out what is available and get on a team.  There is still fun in bowling, even though in the near future there ma ...

Ready, set, bowl. League competition has started at some of the centers and by next week most of the Fall leagues will start competition bowling. The certification of the lanes is complete so any USBC Honor Score that is bowled is eligible for recognition. And speaking of Honor Scores congratulations to Marlayne King on reaching the ultimate high "300" on August 26, 2007, in the Sunday Sunset Invitational League at AMF Ocala. Marlayne managed to finish out the night with games of 213 and 148 for a 661 series and +142 pins over her average.

Reminder: Youth Leagues hit the lanes on Saturday, September 8, 2007. If you did not register previously it is not to late. Come in on Saturday, sign up, join a team and start bowling!! There are several youth leagues to chose from and not all of them are on Saturday morning. Contact AMF Ocala or AMF East for a listing of the Youth leagues being offere ...

Hello Ocala bowlers.  The Florida State USBC Women’s Bowling Association, Inc.’s Annual Tournament Results are official and Ocala Women were among the winners.  Division 4 Team - 19^th Place Ocala Beach Bunnies: Sarah Hogue, Robin Rumans, Gabriela Trombley, Nancy Crews; Division 4 Team - 21^st Place Ocala’s Silver Ladies: Prudy Waite, Lillian Maxwell, Glenna Burns, Evelyn Simcox; Division 5 Team - 7^th Place Lola’s Girls: Lisa Thomas, Patti Styles, Kerri Roy, Laura Burgoon; Division 5 Team - 10^th Place Alley Gators: Fair Cox, Shirley Pritchard, Irene Kish, Mimi Kish; Division 3 Doubles - 48^th Place Heather Moody/Shannon Drivas; Division 4 Doubles - 67^th Place Prudy Waite/Glenna Burns; Division 5 Doubles -  Sandra Griffin/Penny Lumpkin 20^th Place; Irene Kis ...

My how time flies.  Seems that we were getting ready for Fall leagues to end and Summer leagues to form and get on the lanes and now here we are back to the beginning of a new Fall season.  School will be starting on August 20, 2007, and most Fall leagues will be scheduling organizational meeting that week or the next and hitting the lanes shortly after the Labor Day Holiday.  We have come full circle. 

Reminder - League Officers - Workshop on Saturday, August 11, 2007, at 9:00 a.m. at AMF East - there are rule changes and other tidbits that will be revealed at the workshop so make plans to attend.  Ask questions if you are unsure of a rule change, or an association change or if you are new to the area and need general information - this is the place to be. 

One of the biggest changes is that USBC is pushing for everything to be "downloaded" from their web site.&am ...

Good Morning Bowlers.  Hard to believe that the summer is almost over and fall leagues will be starting up.  Seems like we just were ending fall and working on summer and now we have come full circle.

Reminder that the Annual Meeting of the Marion County USBC Youth Association will be held on Monday, July 30, 2007, at AMF East in the conference room at 7:00 p.m.  Election of officers for the coming year; voting on change to by-laws and discussion of where the youth program is going are some of the topics.  Make plans to attend. 

Very shortly the results from the USBC Women's Championship will be available and I will be updating the blog with the results from the State and National Tournaments for both the Open and the Women. 

Again please feel free to post your comments and/or feedback to this site.  I will strive to do the bes ...

Hello Ocala Bowlers.  WOW we have our own blog on the world wide web.  We have certainly moved up in the bowling world.  This is the site where I will post information about upcoming local, state and national events.  I will post reminders of deadlines for tournaments.  I will post results from tournaments, leagues, and other bowling news that needs to be shared with Ocala and the world. 

I would like to thank the Ocala Star Banner for their assistance in making this site possible. With this new blog I can include much more information that might otherwise have been cut out due to space availability. 

The first reminder will be of the upcoming League Officer Workshop set for Saturday, April 11, 2007, at 9:30 a.m. at AMF East in the conference room.  USBC has instituted changes to the league rules and other areas of ...