WOMAN BOWLS FLAWLESS GAME :WINDSOR RESIDENT LOGS JUST SECOND 300 IN 40 YEARS AT DOUBLE DECKER LANES

For only the second time in nearly 40 years, a female league bowler has rolled a perfect 300 game at Double Decker Lanes, earning a spot in the U.S. Bowling Congress records.

Windsor resident Jacquelynn Farris, 29, bowled her first perfect game Aug. 11 at the Rohnert Park facility. As she threw the last few balls of the game, a crowd formed behind her to watch history in the making.

Double Decker had a full house that evening, including Farris's husband. She said she thinks he brought her luck.

"I was definitely extremely nervous," she said. "I didn't know if I could throw that last ball. Everybody stopped and waited for me to bowl. It's more nerve wracking when everybody gets quiet and stops and watches."

Farris has been bowling since she was 3 and has been in tournaments throughout the country. That evening she brought four bowling balls and in the 10th frame chose the purple Ebonite 15-pounder appropriately named "The One." She focused on her approach, took a few steps and sent The One down the lane for her final strike of the game. The crowd erupted in cheers.

"I couldn't believe I did it," Farris said. "Finally!"

Only a handful of Sonoma County women are on record as bowling perfect games, said Dennis Ganduglia, Double Decker's general manager. In 1997, Bonnie Rolandelli reportedly bowled two 300 games in one night on a Petaluma lane. In 2006, Diane Wurz was the first of only two in Double Decker's 40-year history.

Male bowlers roll about 15 perfect games a year in Sonoma County and outnumber females by a ratio of 6-to-1 on the West Coast, Ganduglia said. That may be because women tend to bowl more recreationally than competitively, he said. Women bowlers in local leagues maintain averages of about 200. Ganduglia was on hand on Farris's big night to watch the woman he describes as a very good bowler. "She just bowled perfectly," he said. "It was amazing."

In the weeks leading up to her 300 game, Farris had been bowling well, ending many league evenings with a three-game total of more than 700.

"I just felt like it was getting better and better," she said. The closest she had ever come to a perfect score was the 298 she bowled in 2005 on a Southern California league. She moved to Windsor for work about a year ago.

On that momentous evening, she struggled through the first

game without breaking 200. Her team, which calls itself "No Balls," lost that game.

They won the second game by just nine pins, but Farris said everything felt great. Her team lost the third game and the series, but she walked away with a few once-in-a-lifetime awards.

She earned a bowling pin displaying her name and game information and a gold "300" ring she plans to wear with pride.

With one perfect game under her belt, she said, "I'm going to keep going, and hopefully I'll get plenty more."