Friday, February 3, 2012

Special Olympian scores perfect five-pin bowling game Jan. 17

Story courtesy Nathaniel Flynn - The Guardian PEI


Only a few people on Prince Edward Island have ever scored a perfect bowling game.

Well, add Jamie Trowsdale to the list.

Trowsdale, 36, scored 450 in five-pin bowling at Murphy’s Community Centre earlier this month. The closest he had before was 439.

Trowsdale, one of P.E.I.’s top Special Olympians, has won a national gold medal in softball, and was in track-and-field and swimming before taking up bowling.

“It’s something to do, pass the time and all that,” Trowsdale said in an interview.

He was a member of the Canada East team which won a medal in the world Special Olympics softball championships in Athens, Greece last June but was unable to go because his mother was seriously ill.

On his big bowling day this month, Trowsdale was rolling a game on his own, and started with a strike. He kept getting strikes one after another.

Coach Ricky Burns arrived after Trowsdale’s game while Burns’s daughter verified the score. Burns shook Trowsdale’s hand.

The regular bowling team on Thursdays rarely reaches scores of 400, Burns said in an interview this week.

“To roll a 450, that’s something else.”

In his 50 years of bowling, Burns said he has only seen six or seven perfect games.

Charity Sheehan, director of Special Olympics P.E.I., said she saw Trowsdale get close before.
Trowsdale’s score showcases the ability of their athletes, Sheehan said.

“We’re pretty excited that it was one of our athletes that scored the perfect game.”

Trowsdale will be playing in a qualifier in 2013 for a chance to be in the nationals in 2014.

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