Crescent City man achieves rare 7-10 bowling split at Tsunami Lanes

Al Young poses with his bowling ball in front of the Tsunami Lanes bowling alley. On Friday, Young achieved a rare 7-10 split. The Daily Triplicate/Rick Postal

The split occurs when all that is remaining for a bowler to hit is  the leftmost and the rightmost pin in the back row and is able to knock them down with a single ball to achieve a spare.

Young, 77, was able to make the 7-10 split Friday night at the Tsunami Lanes bowling alley.

“I don’t really know what all the excitement about the 7-10 split is except that you don’t see it very often,” Young said. The 7-10 split occurs less frequently than bowling a 300 game. Young was playing in the Friday MatchUps League as a member of the ‘Whatever’ squad when the split occurred.

Young, who considers himself an average bowler that normally bowls in the 130 to 200 range, said he was quite calm when the chance presented itself to make the split and told himself that he was going to make it and to be positive.

Young recalled that he hit the  seven pin “just right” and it struck the 10 pin, which started to lean. “Everyone was looking and it just fell over,” he said. “It was amazing.”

She added that during her time playing at Tsunami Lanes there has been has been at least three to four 300 games.

“It’s an extremely rare thing,” she said about making a 7-10 split. “We’re all just so proud of him. It’s unbelievable.”

Young, who has lived in the area for 63 years, first started bowling around 50 years ago but after a few years stopped playing.

Around three years ago Young recalled that he still had his bowling shoes and ball from all those years ago and figured he would try the sport again.

After taking another break, Young started bowling again earlier this year.

While glad to have made a 7-10 split he said the most important thing for him in bowling is to have fun and meet new people.

“There’s a lot of nice people I get to  bowl with,” he said. “I go down there to have fun. If I don’t bowl a good game I don’t get too upset. The main thing is having a good time.”