
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 29, 1995                   TAG: 9503290081
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

MEN BOWL 300 GAMES; SAME NIGHT AND LEAGUE

On a night when many folks were watching the Virginia Tech men's basketball team advance to the NIT championship game for the first time in 22 years, two avid bowlers were making history of their own Monday night at Hilltop Lanes.

Richard Casey and Tim Lisk each bowled a 300 game, which is not uncommon for one of them, but what is surprising is that they bowled them at the same time - the second game of a three-game set in the men's Major Scratch League, the only scratch league in Roanoke.

"It may be the first time in the Roanoke Valley that two 300 games have been bowled in the same league on the same night in the same set," said Lisk, who has been bowling for 30 years. "I can't recall it ever happening."

Lisk's first perfect game was March 16, 1994, also at Hilltop. He hardly expected such results after he had bowled a "paltry" 190 in the first game.

"I made a little adjustment in the eighth frame of my first game," Lisk said. "I was trying to force it a little bit. In the second game, I was nervous once I got to the ninth frame because I had carried 300 games into the eighth frame many times and then lost them. I had no idea he [Casey] was on his way to a 300 game."

Casey is certainly not a newcomer to 300 games. This is his 27th perfect game, but his first this year. He rolled a 299 a couple of weeks ago.

Casey, who has been bowling more than 30 years, travels around the country to compete in tournaments that award $10,000 to the winner. Casey averages 215 and won a Professional Bowlers Association regional tournament in 1993.

"I think he was a little nervous once he got past the eighth frame," said Lisk, who was speaking for Casey because the latter was suffering from laryngitis. "You always get a little nervous, even someone like him. He is probably one of the top five bowlers in the Roanoke Valley."

Casey followed his 300 game with a 269, while Lisk cooled off considerably, following his with a 209.

"I was too nervous to play in that last game," said Lisk, whose team won by only five pins. "I'd been happy to quit after the second game."

by CNB