Perfection no longer rare at Freeze Frame Bowl

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

GREENE — Until a little more than a year ago, perfect games were not only rare at Freeze Frame Bowl, remotely located off Highway 14, but non-existent.

“This bowling alley has been here since 1965,” said Clark Freesemann — that’s more than 50 years for those keeping score, “and there was never ever a 300 bowled here.”

That changed February of last year when Richard Bates rolled the first sanctioned 300 game amid the Tuesday Night Road Warriors League.

Then this past bowling season, there were two more 300 games bowled in Road Warriors League action — Dusty Elston in February and Larry Wentz two nights ago in the season finale.

“I have a whole bunch of 279s,” Freesemann said of his high game(s), “so I’m still trying to get mine.”

Nine years ago, Freeseman and his wife, Shayne, purchased the abandoned six-lane bowling alley and rechristened it “Freeze Frame Bowl”.

“We had to pretty much gut this place,” said Freeseman, who also purchased equipment from an abandoned bowling alley in Chicago to help refit “Freeze Frame.”

“About five years ago, we tore out the old lanes and put in synthetic lanes,” Freesemann said. “The scores have went up since then, and that’s probably the reason we’re finally getting some perfect games.”

On Wednesday, Freeze Frame held its annual Awards Banquet for its Wednesday Night Mixed Hot Shots and Thursday Night Pin Buster leagues.

“We do it for them because most of the bowlers are from around here,” Freeseman said. “The Road Warriors League has bowlers from as far as Minnesota. Most of them come from the Rose Bowl (in Mason City) which was destroyed by a fire two years ago.”

As tradition, after the banquet there was a 9-pin (no-tap) “King of the Hill” tournament.

The winner of the tournament will receive a laser-etched trophy with lettering and graphics that glow with help from a LED light base.

It was designed by Star Graphics owner Jerry Platter, who’s been bowling at the house since it opened in 1965.

“Of course I had to bowl way out in Dumont when the place was closed for awhile,” said Platter, a former newspaper owner. “I like what they’ve done with the place.”

With the Pin Busters, Platter only bowls one night a week.

“One night is usually enough for me,” said Platter, who is a terminal 160-average bowler. “Still, I love bowling … I just never been very good at it.”

Though Freeze Frame is getting more acquainted with perfect games, the place has known the value of “perfect steaks.”

“That’s what keeps us busy in the summer,” Freesemann said of cuisine of Splitz Bar and Grill, which occupies the other half of the building.

“We’re known for our ‘Tuscan Sirloin’, and our pork tenderloin,” said Freesemann, who credits cook Vicky Malfero, who also puts together the weekly bowling report which is distributed to local media.

“And when we’re not around, she’s our operations manager,” Freesemann said of Malfero, who did much of the cooking at the banquet.