Who said, "Never look back"? Not James Cripps of Clarksville, Tenn., a unigue bowler who bowled backwards in the Bowling Proprietors' Association of America's Cadillac Shootout Tournament at the Orleans Bowling Center in Las Vegas, June 16-17.
Cripps, a 25-year-old right-hander, stands upright on the approach, facing the opposite direction of the pins and then releases a powerful hook ball from the left side of the lanes. His unusual way of bowling started two years ago when he won a bet from a friend that he couldn't bowl a 150 game backwards. He won the bet and has been bowling backwards in American Bowling Congress-sanctioned league competition since.
Cripps, who finished third in the Cadillac Tournament, used a 13-pound ball drilled for a left-hander. He carries a 2001-2002 book average of 148 for 96 games and is the unofficial Guinness world record-holder for highest backward bowling average with a 139. He has a career high game of 231 and 610 series.
Cripps actually was barred from bowling backwards in one center, being told, "It's an unsanctionable way to bowl." The center management relented when informed that Cripps qualified bowling backwards for the Cadillac event in the ABC-sanctioned Tennessee State Tournament at Bartlett Lanes in Memphis.
Cripps, a sales manager at Cricket Communications in Clarksville, Tenn., currently bowls in two summer leagues and averages 178 and 168.
Cripps enjoys the way he bowls and never has to look back—at the pins, that is.