Warsaw resident John Doyle sets city mark with 879 series
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Dale Hubler-dhubler@timesuniononline.com
Warsaw resident John Doyle descibes himself as quiet. The 57-year-old’s performance at The Bowling Alley in Warsaw Wednesday night, however, certainly spoke for itself. With an injured thumb on his bowling hand, and despite not bowling for nearly a month-and-a-half, Doyle went out and performed like no other kegler in city history. Doyle, who said he’s been bowling since he was 5, broke the city record with a three-game series of 879. Jeff Sims had the previous record of 856. Bowling for the Farmers Insurance-sponsored team in the Sportsman League, Doyle opened his series with back-to-back perfect games, and then rolled a 279 in the third game. “It was one of those things where you just get in the zone,” said Doyle, whose previous personal best was a 797 series. “It was just one shot at a time. I was just repeating shots.” Doyle, who injured his thumb at work, opened with 25-straight strikes before leaving the 10-pin in the second frame of the third game. He picked up the spare, and then rolled nine consecutive strikes before leaving 7-pin standing on his very last attempt. Putting it in perspective – over three games, Doyle rolled his ball down the lane 37 times, finishing with 34 strikes. Andy Kiser witnessed the spectacular performance and was impressed. “Back-to-back 300s is an achievement in itself, but to throw 34 of 36 (frames) in the pocket and actually carrying all of them is what’s more impressive to me,” said Kiser, who has 13 perfect games to his credit. “I thought I’d seen it all with what Glen shot, but this is just as good.” Glen Ransbottom, who bowled back-to-back 300s in the state tournament in 2009, is Doyle’s teammate and is well aware of how special Wednesday’s performance was. “It was exciting to watch,” said Ransbottom. “He was repeating shots. It’s what you work for as a bowler. He got as close to shooting a 900 as I’ve ever seen.” The Farmers Insurance team, which also includes Bob Clark, Gary Hochstedler, Kirk Wyman and Troy Miller bowled a 3565 series as a team.
