Diamondhead man breaks Mississippi bowling record
By
Feb 22, 2013, 21:19
This past Monday, Feb. 18, at Park Ten Lanes in Diamondhead, everyone in the center focused on Sean English’s state record scratch series of 899. Every shot was a solid hit with a lot of pin action.
Sean English, a 27-year-old bartender for Park Ten Lanes, rolled a high scratch series of 899 with league sanctioned games of 299, 300 and 300. He is from Diamondhead and a member of the Mississippi Gulf Coast USBC (United States Bowling Congress).
He made the shots with, his favorite bowling ball, the Hammer Jet Black Taboo. His brother, Cory English, who is the Park Ten Lanes’ Pro Shop manager/operator drilled the ball for him.
“Everyone’s buzzing about his 899 scratch series across the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Louisiana, Florida, and Texas along with other states via Facebook,” Cory said. "To be that close and leave a 10-pin in his first game is heartbreaking. Everybody wanted it for him but he kept his composure and finished out with back-to-back perfect games.”
There were four members on his Monday Budweiser team, the Bitchin’ Dudes; his father, Gene English, Tim Bourgeois and Cliff Vix.
It was the highest three-game scratch series in the state of Mississippi. He is tied with only one other bowler who in the surrounding southern states scored an 899 scratch series back in 2010 – that happened in Texas.
English, a right-hander, has received awards for a few 299 games, about a dozen perfect 300 games and now will be receiving his second 800 series award from Mississippi Gulf Coast USBC. His previous high-scratch series was 805. His high average has increased over the years into the 230s.
English has been bowling for 18 years. In 1995, at age nine, his paternal grandfather built Park Ten Lanes in Diamondhead. Since it was a family business, he was able to bowl every single day and – young as he was – many quickly took notice of his talent.
“There was always someone sitting and watching him in amazement,” his mother Margaret Armstrong-Bond said. “People he didn’t know would stop and say, ‘Who is that kid whipping out that ball? He’s really good!’”
In January 1998, at age 12, English was Southern Region Minors Division Champion as a member of the Southern Scratch Junior Bowling Association (SSJBA). At 12 years old, his heroes were bowling pros: Guppy Troup and Walter Ray Williams, Jr. Now his role models are Ricky Miller, Jimmy Braun, Mike Daniels and Greg Walters, Jr. who are all highly-accomplished local competitors.
His parents, Margaret Armstrong-Bond and Gene English, have always been very supportive of him since he started bowling; driving him to different centers all along the Gulf Coast and other southern states for various leagues and tournaments. As an adult bowler, he travels with his brother, Cory, along with other coastal bowlers to Reno to bowl in their yearly U. S. Open Championship, while still trying to compete in other tournaments all along the coastal states.
What Sean English did was set the Mississippi state individual record for bowling on February 18th on his Monday night league scoring 299, 300, 300 for an 899 scratch series. It was near perfection (a solid 10 pin on the last ball in the first game). He broke Dakota Jordan’s (another Park Ten Lanes regular) state record of 875 which was set in October 2012 in Starkville, Mississippi.
According to the U.S. Bowling Congress (http://bowl.com) there have been only 21 sanctioned 900 series in history.
