Bowling With The Fef!

Nearly everyone who becomes immersed in competitive or even social bowling for a long time ends up hearing about the “Varipapa 300.”

It was even mentioned on the telecast of the 2025 PBA Tour Finals.

A strike string at the end of one game and another at the beginning of the following game that add up to twelve total strikes: thats a "Varipapa 300."

Dig deeper into the eponym, and you may discover Glenn Gerstner’s biography “Andy Va...

The Madison Area Scratch Tour (madisonareascratchtour.com) brings in bowlers from all over Wisconsin for its events. 

And those who have competed for titles in the past few decades have likely run into Jeff Richgels, the tour’s career championship leader.

But it may not be that way going forward, as Richgels mentioned when i stopped at the year end event in April. 

Jeff owns and runs 11thframe.com, which is a fantastic resource for...

When Jason Belmonte shoes up for the 2025 PBA Tour Finals this weekend, he’ll do so as the number three seed.

It’s the last national tour event he plans to bowl this season.

Recently, I had the opportunity to speak with Belmo while he was at home in Australia. 

He discussed a noticeable change in his demeanor on television over the years, winning a title with Bill O’Neill and witnessing his PBA Hall of Fame induction, and the contr...

The 2025 PWBA Tour is off and running with three events in the rearview mirror and a crop of young stars emerging before our eyes.

A Wisconsin native is among those rising stars, and she's received a boost from Bowl Forward to help her along the way!

Kelly Whipple of Sheboygan was recently named Bowl Forward's Future Stars Award winner to the tune of $1,500, the richest prize of the three awarded in late April.

Whipple has plenty o...

In a part of New York that's a lot closer to Canada than it is to Manhattan, a teenage bowler often turns heads. The thing is, it's not just for what he does on the lanes, but back behind the masking units as well!

Joey Dayer, the fedora-wearing, Buffalo area YouTuber who has grown a huge following on his youtube.com/@Joethepro181  channel, doesn't just fix out-of-range calls and continuous cycles. He has disassembled and reassembl...

After working in some of the highest profile positions in the bowling industry and having one of the most successful college careers as a bowler…ever, Roger Dalkin has taken his rightful places in the sport.

First, in the USBC hall of fame, and last month in the USBC Collegiate Hall of Fame.

You’ll hear me discuss a giveaway in this episode, which was only av...

Just before starting this interview at Wagner's Lanes in Eau Claire, WI, Payton Schwetz announced on his Instagram page that he has committed to UW-Whitewater.

The Eau Claire native and North High School senior goes on to thank his family, friends and others who have helped to get him this far in bowling.

Several of them were at Wagner's during the interview and put in their two cents about this big step in Payton's journey!

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The latest of more than 2,200 videos to be uploaded to the Irishpogi YouTube channel was originally recorded in January 1982.

Despite not including the end of the championship match, it has a lot of traction, like many others on the channel. 

At the time of this recording, it had north of 900 views. 

That’s the kind of thing that keeps John McLaughlin of Staten Island, New York posting classic PBA Tour telecasts to his channel cons...

As he said before starting up the show and proved in the middle of it, John Knight of New Hartford, New York does not have much to say about his own bowling.

His USBC member stats show a high average of 192. They don’t show a record of him bowling in a sanctioned league in several years .

But you don’t have to throw 'em really well to drill 'em really well.

Ten years ago, Knight founded John Knight’s Bowlers' Shoppe inside King Pin...

Seriously, what would the Wisconsin Vintage Alleys Tour be without Yvonne Bennett?

Fortunately, nobody has to find out just yet. The retired Executive Director of the Bowling Centers Association of Wisconsin who created the tour will be leading it. BCAW has taken her on in a consultant role for the event, as well as another vintage alleys tour in Wisconsin later in 2025.

WI Vintage Alleys Tour: https://www.bowlwi.com/bcaw-eve...

After the PWBA made some changes that impacted the players earlier this year, BowlForward made some changes too.

BowlForward is an organization led by Chris Pulliam of Las Vegas. It will award cash to certain PWBA athletes that apply, meet certain criteria and are selected by a volunteer committee. 

Chris recently joined the livestream to explain how BowlForward will look moving forward.

BowlForward online: bowlforward.org

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It won't be a long road trip to Intercollegiate Sectionals for this coach and her relatively new women's program next month.

Melanie McDaniel of Joliet, IL and her Governors State University Jaguars learned they are headed to Addison, IL on Feb. 19, as their watch party was featured on the USBC's 2025 Sectionals Assignment Show. The school's bowling program is finishing up its first full season of competition.

When she's not coachi...

The last time we caught up with Patrick Martinez, we were literally talking about South Point hot dogs.

Back then, and I say that in air quotes because it wasn’t even a year ago, Patrick may have been best known for his Patty Cam on BowlTV.

At the beginning of 2025 he announced that he was starting a video production company. The Cloud Media Productions Inc. took a lot of time and a lot of thought to get off the ground, pardon the...

The 2025 PBA Tour has lots of talented stars and players looking to make their mark for the first time.

What it doesn't have is Joe Grondin.

The San Pedro, CA native who is now living near Lansing, MI announced at the end of last year that he was trading tour life for the working world...and mentioned some great personal things that have him excited for A New Path Forward!

You may remember Grondin from his televised finals appearan...

At the time this is distributed to your favorite podcast platform, Eau Claire area USBC adult members have a little more than a week to register for their association tournament.

And they should! There are incentives upon incentives to bowl this tournament in Eau Claire, WI, and you don’t have to bowl like a champion to walk away a winner. 

Go to bit.ly/2025ecusbc (all lower case letters...it is case-sensitive) to find a registrati...

Sometimes things just come into our lives for whatever reason and have a big, honkin' impact.

For Brian Hirsch of Salem, WI that was bowling.

Nowadays, he’s passing on all his knowledge to his son, who is a regular at youth tournaments across Wisconsin. 

It’s Masen and me…the bowling story of Brian Hirsch.

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What’s YOUR bowling story all about? Tell us!

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It goes without saying that EJ Tackett is leading Team MOTIV at the upcoming PBA Elite League: Battle of the Brands.

In a social media prank that was well executed, MOTIV guys Ronnie Russell and Brett Spangler claimed that Ronnie’s brother in law would be replacing EJ on the team.

EJ took that joke like a champ, and a discussion about the real Team MOTIV is w...

I’m a big fan of finding and trying new social media platforms. 

When I first heard about Bluesky several weeks ago, I didn’t see it as a substitute for any other platform or away to signal my political leaning. The former would probably fly in the face of what I’m trying to do with the marketing of Bowling With The Fef!, and the latter is something that almost always has nothing to do with Bowling With The Fef! 

At that point ther...

Did Nate Purches just have his best week EVER?

Maybe for now...but, if his current trajectory in bowling continues into 2025 and beyond, he will probably top it soon!

Purches, of Fond du Lac, WI, combined a runner-up finish at the PBA Regional Players Invitational in Reno, NV on Sunday (Dec. 15, 2024) with receiving the 2024 Harry Golden PBA Rookie of the Year award a few days prior.

And Purches is also exempt for the 2025 PBA Tour...