Bill Gleim, owner and operator of the Fox Bowling Center in Hancock in a Facebook statement dated March 17 issued a positive statement noting that, “The bowling center is closed for now” and that their 68th annual men's women's and mixed handicap tournament “is not cancelled and we will reassess the situation in two weeks,” and “it is my hope we will only have to delay the start of our Annual Tournament and I would like to finish the leagues in April.” He urged bowlers to “stay happy and healthy.”

We contacted several local bowlers to get their reaction to bowling being shut down by the virus. Liberty bowler Kyle Stevens who bowls at Tarsio Lanes in Newburgh and Quinnz Pinz lanes in Middletown said, “I miss bowling probably as much as anybody and I miss hanging out with my teammates and the competition....especially the tournaments that have been cancelled and will most likely be cancelled.”

“I highly doubt the leagues will start up again and if they do most of the missed weeks probably would not be made up and the best case scenario for me is my summer leagues starts on time in mid-May,” Stevens noted.

Pedro Agapito III of Monticello who bowls in several leagues at Kiamesha Lanes and one in Port Jervis said, “I'm missing bowling very much as I'm use to bowling everyday and now I can't even go bowl for fun." He added, "I miss bowling with my teammates and getting out of the house and I don't think there will be bowling for the rest of the season.”

Carena Collura who bowls in the Kiamesha Lanes Tuesday Mixed Firefighter league said, “I'm missing the time that we spend finding out what is going on with our friends ... winter is a time we all hibernate.”

In order to help you get your bowling fix while the coronavirus pandemic grips the nation, FloBowling will rebroadcast the 2019 PBA Tour season every Tuesday and Friday and roll out plenty of other content.

The action kicks off with a rebroadcast of the third round of qualifying (there were no match play rounds) and stepladder finals at the 2019 PBA Hall of Fame Classic.

Every Tuesday and Friday throughout the crisis, FloBowling will start broadcasting “live” at 9 a.m. Eastern through the conclusion of each event. For most events, the broadcasts will include all rounds of match play followed by the stepladder finals.

In addition to the rebroadcasts, FloBowling will have you covered throughout the week with coverage of the best bowlers in the world.

On Mondays, they will roll out a new series of slow motion release videos, while on Wednesdays we will bring you new podcasts and video interviews with the tour's biggest stars.

If you want to watch content to help you improve your game, check out Technique Thursdays, where you can get tips from the pros. On Fridays, it's FRYday, where you hear meltdown stories from the players.

Each Saturday they will bring you the Player's Perspective series where champions relive some of their big accomplishments. That series kicks off this Saturday with Kyle Troup and Jesper Svensson offering their perspective on the 2017 PBA Doubles Championship.

Finally, each Sunday night, they will post a story telling you what's ahead for the coming days on FloBowling so you can plan out your week.

So, hunker down, practice social distancing and enjoy FloBowling's coverage!

Ed's Outlook

Local League Stats

If local bowling leagues shut down for the remainder of the bowling season there are final stats which will tell the story on what took place in league bowling for the 2019-20 season.

Let's look first at the Monday night Villa Roma Women's league which would have completed their regular league season in three weeks.

League standings finds Barcone's Music in first place with 110 points followed by Jeff Garage with 102 points. Season high scratch scores finds Jeff Garage with team high game of 628, M. Puerschner team-high scratch series of 1,682, individual scratch game Pam Wayne with 217 and individual scratch series Lillian Zieres with 529 and the high league average of 150.

In the Monday Men's league at Kiamesha Lanes the 3S and 1P team holds down first place with 136 points while P.N. Alarm is in second place with 135 points.

Season high scores find P.N Alarm with team scratch series of 2823 and scratch game of 1029. Scratch individual series is Pedro Agapito III with 803 and there are four 300 scores recorded by Eddie Lake, Pedro Agapito III, Bill VanAken and J.J. Wilhelm Jr. Individual high averages in this league include Pedro Agapito with 239.71, Jaryl Scott with 227.33 and Eddie Lake with 217.63.

In the Tuesday Mixed Firefighter league at Kiamesha Lanes, Rock Hill F.D. #2 holds down first place with a 117-58 team record while second place goes to the White Lake F.D. #1 team with a 111-64 record.

Season-high scores include the Rock Hill F.D. #2 team with a 2732 scratch series and a 984 high scratch game, Kyle Giordano had the scratch individual series of 812 and the scratch game of 300. For the women Cara Nicholson had the high individual scratch series of 649 and individual high scratch game of 245. Individual high averages for the men were Kyle Giordano with 239.11, Shane Cunningham with 218.89 and Jon Wilhelm with 214. Women's high averages are Cara Nicholson with 179.35, Karen Martin with 170.19 and Mary Lee Williams with 170.09.

We Got Balls is the first place team in the Friday Mixed league at Kiamesha Lanes with a 130-59 record. Individual high men's average is Pedro Agapito with 240 and individual women's high average is Loretta VanAken with a 167.

At the Fox Bowling Center in Hancock we only have team standings when the leagues closed down and they are Double R Ranch with a 34-10 record in first place in the Wednesday Independent league, Cornwell Construction first place with a 62-26 record in the Thursday Night 3 league, Team Duh in first place in the Sunday Mixed Fun league with a 52-20 record and Bass & Son's Logging in first place with a 74-22 record in the Friday Couples league.

More Power Pro Shop holds down first place with a 123-59 record in the Port Jervis Women's Thursday league.

There is no Bowling Tip this week but Mike Luongo and I urge everyone to stay safe, practice social distancing, eat good nutritional food, drink plenty of water, take vitamin C everyday and place your faith in God.

Ed Townsend is Public Relations Consultant to the sport of bowling and golf and brings over 60 years of sports journalism experience in writing and compiling the information for this column. Due to no local bowling news and the fact that golf is fast approaching we will turn our focus to golf next week and ask anyone with local golf course news or golf league and tournament information to let me know at 845-439-8177, email at bght75@gmail.com or fax at 845-205-4474. Read our local blog for all kinds of news at http://bght.blogspot.com 023: