Sharon Blount was dancing on the lanes Tuesday night.
Literally.
While she was bowling in the Viva Las Vegas league at AMF Woodlake Lanes in Woodland Hills, Blount demonstrated to a reporter how she celebrated her spectacular conversion of the seven-10 split in her first game.
“I did a got-it-going-on dance,” said Blount, showing her dance moves and laughing.
About an hour earlier, Blount tried to work up some confidence when she stared down the lane at the nearly-impossible-to-convert split commonly called the “railroad.”
“When I walked up, I said, ‘I’m going to get it. I’m going to get it.’
“But I didn’t really think I would,” said Blount, a Valley Village resident who carries a 135 average.
Describing the shot, Blount said, “I hit the seven [pin] right on the edge and it slid over and it hit the 10 down. It was awesome.”
It was the second time within a week that a woman had knocked down the 7-10 split at Woodlake Lanes. One week earlier, Gayle Aron of Agoura Hills had performed the trick by blasting the seven pin so hard that it tripped up the 10 on the rebound.
“The planets must have been aligned,” said Mike Weekley, a bowling expert and professional bowler. “For two women to pull it off within seven days is amazing. It’s awesome.”
This is the first year that Blount is bowling in an adult league, but she has bowling in her blood. Her father, Charles Edsel Cleveland, was a pro bowler and she bowled often as a youngster.
For Blount, converting the seven-10 represented a big highlight in her career, but she admitted that it didn’t rate as No. 1. She said scoring a certified 199 game in November was tops on her list.
Still, Blount said she enjoyed the attention after the Woodlake bowling center announced she knocked down the seven-10.
“I didn’t know what the hell I was doing [on the split attempt],” she said, smiling. “I just threw the ball and hoped for the best.”
Blount finished her first game with a 142, and bowled a 112 and 157 in her next two games.
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