The Missile's Lane: Clean Sets
I've posted several times about a particular bowling oddity or achievement. Certainly an 'honor score' is worth noting: a 'perfect game' 300 (12 strikes), an 800 series (266.7 average over 3 games), or a perfect 900 series (36 strikes).
These are all achievements recognized by our national sanctioning body (USBC: United States Bowling Congress... not the charging connector) with special awards, either a ring (for the first occurrence) or other similar merchandise (on repeat occurrences) presented by the League officials in the weeks following the actual event.
A 700 series (233.3 average over 3 games) or 250 / 275 individual games are also notable, and usually worthy of a smaller token from USBC: either 'bag tags' and magnets emblazoned with these scores or USBC-branded 'chip clips' and playing cards.
But a less-recognized yet still significant achievement is the 'clean set.' This is when a bowler rolls all 30 frames of a 3-game series without missing a single spare. It tends to be more achievable than the 'honor scores' listed above, but still is a challenge: one mental lapse or 'bad break' and you've left a split or missed a spare, causing an 'open frame,' thus spoiling an otherwise 'clean' performance.
Perhaps one reason is that you can have a 'clean set' and still have a (relatively) low score: stringing 9-spare frames across a 10-frame game (plus fill ball) gives you a final score of 190, which done for 3 games would be a 570 set (and likely innumerable colorful cuss words from never striking ONCE). Not an overly impressive score for an experienced league bowler... but noteworthy that you kept your composure and kept 'covering' those spares...
So I had a similar experience last night (thankfully a few more strikes than the example above): clean set, covering all my spares for a 646. Third time I've 'kept it clean' this season, contrasting with six 700 sets... which shows that multiple consecutive strikes can make up for one or two 'open frames' (missed spares), at least score-wise.
It all goes to prove one of my favorite bowling quips: "Spares keep you in it, 'til your Strikes gonna win it."
Have fun and keep striking (but cover those spares too!)...
