The Big Raybouldski

Herts Baseball legend, Paul Raybould, was crowned as Herts Baseball’s bowling supremo at the 2011 awards event for the three Herts adult league teams. It was also Raybould’s team, the Brewers, that won the team contest. 

These days Paul Raybould plays for the Old Timers team in the British Single-A League so it was a great pleasure for members of Herts Baseball Club to see him back with the Herts teams.  

It was highly suspicious when Raybould arrived at the Hollywood Bowl in Watford wheeling a large suitcase containing his bowling ball, bowling shoes and other performance-enhancing gizmos.  Numerous contestants submitted official complaints requesting Paul Raybould’s expulsion from the competition, but the Bowling Commissioner confirmed that his equipment met international regulations. 

It took a few frames for him to warm up, which he attributed to the lanes being ‘very dry’ but by the fifth frame Raybould showed why he is the most feared opponent on the bowling circuit and why his bowling average is higher than his baseball batting average.  He had strikes in the next five frames to complete his first game with a score of 177.  This was a new record beating the previous record of 152 set by Tim Elkins at last year’s tournament. 

The chasing pack were given a glimmer of hope as Raybould took his foot of the pedal with a score of 111 in the second game.  Greg Bochan, Dave Smith, Paul Auchterlounie and Bobby Gould gave it a real go in a desperate attempt to catch up, but it wasn’t enough.  Gould ended the day as the runner-up with an average score of 130 over the two games and Bochan was close behind him in third place with 129. 

The Brewers won the team competition with an average of 106.6 followed by the Astros, a team featuring many of the Herts Under-17 All Stars who finished the day with 100.4 overall average. The Rockies were third (96.5) while the Expos finished in last place (91.5).  

The most improved second round score was that of Andrew Slater. He scored 134 which was a massive 50 points higher than his first round score of 84.