The weather was perfect, and I couldn’t have been any more excited to play bocce. And what happened once I did play bocce? Well, lets just say it would it be an accurate statement to say that I was freaking brothers every way like M.J. Also, I don’t recall having to use my A.K. so you know what that means . . .
That’s right it was a good day all around. A good day for me, a good day for Turbo Bocce, and if you happened to be playing bocce on Wednesday I sure hope it was a good day for you too.
While its possible to have lots of fun no matter whether you win, lose or draw, its not possible for everybody to have a good day on the field. Half the teams have to lose, and this bocce season guess how many holds will be barred? No not three. The answer is none. There will be no holds barred. I know, that’s not very many holds at all!
This is the place to come every week and get some random insight onto which teams won, which teams lost, who had particularly interesting games, and who succeeded individually. With so many new players participating, most of the league is playing with a clean slate, but not the following two teams:
Balls of Fury are the defending champions, and keeping them from winning again is going to be a tall task, think of it as your personal challenge for the year (unless you happen to be John Bauman or Robb Jones, the two members of Balls of Fury, obviously).
Bring the Green was the first to take on Balls of Fury. They are a good team and they made it a good game, but Balls of Fury is a tough team to play in week 1. Balls of Fury won the first game big, 11-4. In the second, Bring the Green made it close, but ultimately fell 12-8. The third took overtime to settle, with Balls of Fury accomplishing the 3-0 sweep, but just barely, 12-10.
Another established top team going into the season is Thunderballz, who made the final four last year. They took on one of our promising new teams, Bocce Beasts, and also managed to win all three games.
While both Balls of Fury and Thunderballz had a good week, neither of them had as good a week as the Expert Ball Handlers, who got ahead of the game by playing twice and winning all six games! Mark Avery Claridge lead the way against Tiny But Mighty with 20 points, and Ken Brenner lead the way against the Belles of the Ball, with 21 points. Ken had two great games and finished the day with an impressive 39 points.
Of all the new teams to join the league, my personal favorite team name goes to Why I Come . . . Beer and Balls, who played Our Bocce and managed to win two games despite Tom scoring 19 big points.
Michala and John took on The Wing Ladies in a really interesting game where a couple of season high’s might have been established right off the bat. Most notably, Amy Figger had 7 . . . that’s 7 . . . aces in the game, and I’d put money on that being the high total for the season. To put it in perspective, nobody else had more than 2 aces on the day. John Roche had 10 bocces which also has a great chance to be a season high. The crazy thing is Kathy Parker matched him (almost) bocce for bocce, finishing with 9. While Michala did not set a a season high in any category, she had a great overall day with 16 points, 4 bocces, 2 aces, and a Turbo Round Win. Apart from the individual stats, Michala and John won 2-1 in a series where all three games were close.
Finally, moving onto the bounty game. If you don’t already know, Turbo Bocce (or more specifically the random number generator on my phone) selects one team every week at random to serve as the bounty team. Beat them and you win a prize. This week Murphy’s Law, and We Came In Like a Bocce Ball played in the bounty game. We Came In Like a Bocce Ball took away a lot of the drama by winning the first two games and claiming the bounty prize, but Our Bocce got a pretty nice redemption prize by winning the third game 12-1.
Onto the top individual performers. The first week of Turbo Bocce really was a top flight event attended by “A list” stars such as Batman and John Bauman. . . and if you have any doubt’s as to whether he’s real, I can assure you that John Bauman is VERY real.
20 Point Club (season record – 196)
John Bauman – Balls of Fury – 24 (only two shy of the all time single day record)
Ken Brenner- Expert Ball Handlers – 21 (also scored 18 in a second game, for a total of 39 on the day)
Matt Taranto – Blowing 8 Balls – 21
Mark Avery Claridge – Expert Ball Handlers – 20
Honorable mention to Joe Pascarella, Vince, Tom, and Sarah Tully who scored 19 a piece.
5 Bocce Club (season record – 42)
John Roche – Michala & John – 10 (6 shy of the all time single day record)
Kathy Parker – The Wing Ladies – 9
Meg Dyer – De-Boccery – 5
Multiple Ace Club (season record – 14)
Amy Figger – The Wing Ladies – 7 (4 shy of the all time single day record)
Mark Avery Claridge, Joe Murphy, Michala Clark, Tim Tramontana, Sarah Tully – 2 each
Multiple Turbo Round Wins (season record – 10)
Paige Hoffman – We Came In Like A Bocce Ball – 2
One quick bit of advice to tide you over until next week; the biggest myth in bocce is that winning requires strong arms. In bocce all your power comes from your legs . . . like a kangaroo or a rapist. And one more thing, print your full name (both first and last) on your scorecard, it will allow me to keep accurate stats. If you need some help coming up with a team name, HERE are some suggestions to inspire you.
Also, thanks to our week 1 photographer Steve Miller, we have many more pics than we can include on this recap. If you want to see them all, check out our Facebook page HERE.
