Andrew Patterson reached the mecca of bowling recently when he rolled a perfect 300 game.
The 29-year-old accomplished the feat during the Jan. 16 Thursday Night Mixed bowling league at Country Lanes.
He bowls for the Country Lanes team.
“I’d bowled nine strikes in a row before, scored a couple of 279s, but I never could finish it,” Patterson said.
That changed in the second game of Patterson’s three-game series.
About halfway through his game, Patterson’s teammates, opponents and others in the alley started taking note as he piled up strike after strike.
“I’m not really superstitious. I’d just step up, line up and throw it,” he joked. “Then I’d drink another beer.”
The tension became palpable as Patterson reached the 10th frame, needing three more strikes to finish his feat.
“That’s when the nerves started,” he admitted. “I was shaking.”
By his final role, most of his fellow competitors were taking note.
Patterson felt a wave of relief and jubilation as he released his 12th and final roll.
“I knew as soon as I let it go it was good,” he said.
The perfect game was part of Patterson’s 695 series. In his first game, he rolled a 213, well above his 190 average.
“I usually average in the upper 190s, but I’d been slumping a bit,” he said.
His final game of the evening — immediately following his perfecto — didn’t go as smoothly.
“I bowled a 182,” he said with a laugh. “I couldn’t buy a strike in that one.”
Patterson’s was the first perfect game at Country Lanes since Richard Parks’ feat in 2011.
“There haven’t been many here,” said Jim Valentine, who owns the alley. He said fewer than eight have been rolled at the bowling alley since it opened in 1961.
Local bowler rolls perfect 300 game
