Richardson: 'I was in the zone'

FRIDAY, AUGUST 19: As birthdays go, it doesn’t get much better than how Lamar Richardson celebrated on Sunday.

Competing in the American Airlines Bowling Tournament at Warwick Lanes, Richardson had a trifecta of good.

He rolled the third perfect game of his career. Richardson then proceeded to set the new series record at Warwick Lanes with an 813, which won him the tournament and saw him pick up a pair of roundtrip airline tickets from American.

It wasn’t Damien Matthews birthday, so the rewards weren’t as great, but they were close.

Matthews finished his 811 series shortly after his good friend Richardson rolled the 813.

Both of them eclipsed Kevin Swan’s 799, becoming the first two people to roll an 800 series at Warwick Lanes.

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While Matthews didn’t win the AA Tournament, he too won tickets from American.

Richardson rolled a 258, 300 and 255 for his 813 while Matthews had a 252, 279 and 280 on his way to 811.

Richardson said: “I felt confident I was going to bowl well. It was my birthday so I felt like there was something special was there. It was the finals and I was bowling for a ticket.

Richardson said only in the ninth frame of his perfect game was there even a hint of a doubt he would get his 300.

“It came across the deck and I hit it. It went ‘bam’ and then I knew I was going to go all the way.”

That helped set him for up for his 800 series.

“I was telling myself stay focused and execute on the last game so I could be the first person to bowl an 800 and still finish first in the tournament and win the ticket.

“It wasn’t overwhelming… I was so much in the zone. I was concentrating on executing my shots and the pins will fall, and they did.”

Both Matthews and Richardson had a huge crowd behind them as they approached their 800, the sort of atmosphere usually recorded for 300 games.

“After I bowled the 300 in the second game, most of the people that weren’t bowling, were standing behind me and Damian.

“They were pretty much running between the lanes to see who was going to break the record.”

Richardson rolled six strikes to start off the third game before going nine-spare for frames seven through nine.

“I needed a strike or a spare in the tenth to assure it and when I got the strike they congratulated me and then ran down to Damien’s lane because he needed to strike out.”

Matthews, who won a bronze medal at the CAC Games, is no stranger to pressure situations either.

He too has represented Bermuda in a multitude of international competitions.

In his three games, he was close to perfection too with only four frames without a strike.

His second game he missed his 300 when in the tenth frame one pin wobbled, but didn’t go down.

“There was more pressure when I was going for the 800 rather than the 300 as I had rolled a 300 a couple of weeks ago. An 800 is rare enough to get so I was feeling the pressure.

“I knew I needed to strike out from the second game in order to get it so there was a lot of pressure going on for each frame.”

Matthews said he made sure to take a few more seconds before rolling each ball.

“I told myself to ‘relax’ and stayed calm and it should happen. I felt elated when I got it. I was jumping all over the approach. All the crowd came and gave me high fives and a couple of hugs.”