Local bowler rolls a perfect game

Jeff Carson said he was ``still on Cloud Nine'' after he rolled his first-ever perfect game during the New Hampshire Mixed Bowling Tournament at the Funspot Bowling Center on Saturday, November 15.

It took him a while to fall of the cloud. After rolling 12 straight strikes in 300 game, Carson followed up with seven more consecutive strikes in his next game before leaving the number 10 pin standing.

Carson, 29, has been an avid bowler for eight years and is so into the sport that he bowls in leagues four nights a week, two at Funspot, Wednesday and Friday, at Dover on Tuesday and in Merrimack on Thursday.

"I love this game so much that I do it all the time,'' said Carson, who grew up in Bristol, graduated from Newfound Memorial High School and works as a machine technician at the Molex plant next to the Laconia Airport in Gilford.

Carson's previous high in sanctioned competition was a 279 two years ago and his average is now a lofty 202, putting him into an elite class of bowlers.

He said that his game really started to pick up two years ago when he teamed up with Paul Blanchette to win the doubles event during a state tournament at Funspot.

During the tournament he rolled a 174, 300 and 220 for a 694 in one of his competitions and a 183, 197 and 256 for a 638 in another.

"I was starting to get real shaky around the eighth frame. But I just kept going. It didn't really hit me until some time after it was over. Man, it was like being in a different place for a while,'' said Carson.