All hail, 2011! With the new year we have a new season upon us...and it's time to fill that roster. While we'll settle for a 32-person league we'd love to return to a full ten teams with a total of 40 bowlers. Whaddya say?The league will start back on Tuesday, January 25th. For those of you that don't know, we bowl at the NKC Pro Bowl located at 505 E. 18th Avenue in North Kansas City. Same bat time, same bat channel.Bowlers already signed up for the next season include: (more...)  Read More →

The Fall 2010 bowling season officially came to a conclusion Tuesday night with the disbursement of the prize fund and individual awards.Here's a recap of the season's awards:Women’s High Series Scratch: Freda Schroeder (511)Men’s High Series Scratch: Carl Goetz (680)Women’s High Game Scratch: Jessica Thomas (188)Men’s High Game Scratch: Ken M. Wilson (240)Women’s High Series Handicap: Alison Radke (648)Men’s High Series Handicap: Aubrey Moren (691)Women’s High Game Handicap: Sarah... (more...)

The 22nd season of the VML Bowling League came to a close Tuesday night with four teams swapping places in the standings after all was said and done. Only three teams ended with a record above .500, each managing to compile records strong enough to move into the top ten best win records in the league's 11-year history. Congratulations to the members of Pin Pricks (49-15), Ground Zero Mosque (45-19) and No Pinheads (43.5-20.5). As it is league tradition, please take a few moments out to vote for... (more...)

Week 15 is now in the books and it turned out to be a historical one for the Pin Pricks. Not only did they clinch the league title but they propelled themselves to have the second best record in league history! Congrats to this season's champs Ian Goetz, Carl Goetz, David Codding and Ken M. Wilson. Ready to hear the results from Tuesday night? Let's get this party started.Having come a long way since their initial debut in the league, the members of Feed the Monkey added another four wins to... (more...)

On the week of Thanksgiving, the VML Bowling League gathered together to do battle on the second to last week before the Finals. As has been the case throughout the season, most teams stayed put in their respective spots in the standings with the exception of another flip-flop in 4th and 5th place. With eight games left to be played by each team in the league, it's a race to the finish line as teams try to overcome gaps between themselves and the team ahead of them. Ready to hear how Week #14... (more...)

Week 13 is now in the books and with it came the largest shakeup in the league standings in quite a long time. Almost half the league swapped places while the top three teams remained firmly in their respective spots. The big winner this week was a team that, until last week, had been on a massive tear and climbed from 6th to 4th place. Want to know the specifics? Read on...With their eyes on climbing into second place, Ground Zero Mosque stared down the most surprising opponent all season --... (more...)

One month from today, the seven teams of the VML Bowling League will square off one last time in the Finals. While there has not been any real movement in the standings for several weeks now, time is starting to truly run out as the distances between win records continue to shift. Three teams appear to have put themselves out of reach as the season winds down...with one of those teams gaining ground each week.The last time that the current league leaders Pin Pricks met up against opponents Kitten... (more...)

Week 11 is now in the books and with it comes what appears to be very little change. As has been the case many times this season, not a single team has swapped places in the league standings. However, the distance between teams has narrowed quite a bit in some places and made vast improvements in others. The first place team now enjoys its largest lead to date this season while a game and a half separates 2nd and 3rd place. With a mere five weeks until the Finals, it's anyone's guess as to which... (more...)

The Finals are officially a month and a half away. Week 10 had the potential of providing quite a shakeup in the league standings as the top four teams faced off against one another. While both of these matchups ended in a tie, another team's big move has them a mere one game back out of 4th place. With a mere 1.5 games separating first and second place, the teams in 3rd through 5th place find themselves just a short distance from one another with win records of 24, 22 and 21 respectively. A... (more...)

As the second half of the league officially kicked off, each team faced the same opponent they met on Week #1. With more games under their belts, the teams that took it on the chin the last time they met up in August mounted their own turnarounds on Tuesday night. Week #9 also had its share of controversy with a contested outcome against the blind team. After reviewing the league rules, discussing the situation with two employees of the bowling alley, polling various members of the league and... (more...)

The 2010 Fall League is now officially half over and the standings do not look that much different than they did after Week #1. The top two teams have the same record, 3rd and 4th place share the same record and the rest of the league is knotted up on through 8th place, each with a chance to quickly move up...or down. As mentioned last week, the position round gives teams the optimal chance to improve their record against their closest competition but only two teams truly cashed in on the moment.... (more...)

Historically, the weeks of the position round and the Finals have the biggest potential for a shake-up in the league standings. A distant third (and fourth) are the weeks preceding those showdowns. For those of you that are new to the league, we'll explain how the position round works.After each team has bowled one another once, the following week is handled a little differently. Rather than starting the schedule over again, teams are pitted against their standings counterpart. So, next week,... (more...)

Six weeks ago, seven teams embarked on a journey to take the title in the VML Bowling League. With the midway point quickly approaching, four of those teams seem to be distancing themselves from the rest of the pack en route to what should be an exciting position round on October 12th. While there was no change whatsoever in the top four spots on the standings, the gap between first place has been narrowed even more. Want to know how everyone did? Well, read on...When will someone be nice to... (more...)

If historians ever study the 22nd season of the VML Bowling League and look for the week in which the tables turned the most, we predict that it will be Week #5. Of course, we'd all wonder why the hell they are studying our bowling league in the first place but one never truly knows. Regardless, Week #5 was the week in which the first place teams massive win streak was ended and when the standings were tightened quite a bit. A mere five games now separate six of the eight teams in the league.... (more...)

Week #4 is now just a memory as the 28 members of the VML Bowling League have logged their scores into the history books. While the bowlers of No Pinheads continue to add to their impressive record, the rest of the league continues to beat up on one another in an effort to topple the current league leaders. How did your favorite team fare this week? Read on, my good friend, and find out...They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder. Such may be the case for Ground Zero Mosque who welcomed... (more...)

Week #3 of 17 is officially history now and with it came some surprises. While more than half the league changed places in the standings, No Pinheads continues to rack up victories and mow down anyone they face. How long can they remain at the top of the heap? Only time will tell. With the newly launched Power Rankings feature in place, one bowler has taken both MVB and the #1 Power Ranking for the week. Here's how the night went down...After completing their post-bowling on Friday afternoon,... (more...)

When we last heard from the abandoned mascot of Feed the Monkey, he had taken a job as a men's room attendant on the advice of a less-than-reputable psychic.The new career began well, but on the second night a bar brawl in the men' room nearly killed Monkey.Unfortunately for Monkey, the fight erupted because the bathroom had not been adequately stocked with toiletpaper, as this photo proved. Monkey was immediately fired.Homeless, alone, and destitute, Monkey wandered the streets throughout the... (more...)

Power Rankings have officially made their way onto GutterAlley. "What in the hell are Power Rankings?" you ask? Well, we're glad you asked.For years now, people have enjoyed earning the title of being the week's Most Valuable Bowler. The MVB selection, based entirely on a mathematical equation that takes into consideration a number of factors, would point out the one bowler that had put on the best win-producing performance. Sometimes, however, this wasn't necessarily the best bowling performance... (more...)

Forgotten and abandoned by his teammates from Feed the Monkey, poor Monkey began wandering the lonely streets of North Kansas City.   However, before being forced to turn to a life of prostitution to survive, he was found and picked up by a member of an opposing team.The joy of being rescued could not erase the pain of abandonment, so Monkey asked to be taken away to the nearest bar so he could drink away his sorrows.After a binge lasting well into the night. Monkey learned that hitting the bottle... (more...)

With nearly every bowler having six games under their belt after two weeks, the VML Bowling League is off and running. Historically, the second week of every league is each individual bowler's moment to shine – they are either dealing with an over-inflated average from the previous week and on a mission to prove that they can maintain it or they are on the opposite side, and facing an opportunity to really bring the heat after a sub-par performance seven days prior. The teams that found themselves... (more...)