BOULDER CITY CONTENDER: Master bowler

Local pin king Larry Frey to roll for $100,000 prize

With any luck, Boulder City bowler Larry Frey could be competing Sunday for $100,000 in first-prize money at the Miller High Life ABC Masters bowling tournament being held at the AMF Bolero Lanes in Milwaukee, Wis.

The 40-year-old electronic gaming machine technician is among a field of more than 500 professional and amateur bowlers who are starting three days of qualifying rounds today, which will end with 63 bowlers and last year's champion, Walter Ray Williams Jr. of Ocala, Fla., advancing to two days of match play, including Sunday's ESPN-televised finale.

If he makes the cut, Frey is assured of at least $1,000 out of the guaranteed $350,000 prize fund.

"I won't try to think about anything while I'm on the plane," he said. "It'll be bad enough to walk into the bowling alley and keep my cool."

Admittedly, Frey's 190 average is the minimum needed to enter the tournament and may not be up there with the rest of the field. But if something goes wrong with his throwing hand, he does have a secret weapon that could keep him in the hunt when most others would quit.

"I'm right-handed, but I can bowl left-handed too," he said. "I throw the ball better with my left hand, but I don't score as well as when I throw right-handed."

Frey doesn't have any 800 series or perfect games on his bowling resume, but he did come close once. He bowled a 299, one off a perfect game, on April Fool's Day in 1987 at the now-closed Showboat Lanes on Boulder Highway.

"I wasn't thinking about it and left the two pin when the ball hit the one pin head-on," he said. "It looked like I rushed the shot, but at least it wobbled."

Frey, who can remember game scores like paths on the circuit boards he handles, said that four-game series ended up with a 919 total of 196-299-197-227. His best three-game 800 series came in at 279-279-234, or 792 total pins.

Born in Tucson, Ariz., Frey has been bowling since he was 4 and entered league bowling before he was a teenager.

"I started in the leagues when I was 12," said the self-taught Saguaro High School graduate. "I still wasn't sure how bowling would be until I got out of high school."

In October 1984, Frey made the move from the Grand Canyon State to Nye County to work as a mine laborer.

"I lived outside Round Mountain and it was okay," he said. "Every Tuesday and Friday, we'd drive in to Tonopah to bowl."

Then, 15 months and nearly two winters later, Frey gravitated to Las Vegas, where he went to Nevada Gaming School to learn his trade. He moved to Boulder City in April 2003 and struck up an acquaintance and business relationship with Steve and Chris Osborne, owners of Boulder Bowl.

"I like working at the bowling alley because it's closer to home than Paradise and Sunset (roads)," he said in reference to the location of his employer, WMS Gaming. "In January, I became a first-level class instructor, but I haven't done a lot of instructing like I've wanted to do."

His one piece of advice for young or amateur bowlers is "for an individual to be consistent, which leads to higher scores, keep your eye on the mark and extend to it."

The ABC Masters tournament shouldn't make Frey uneasy since it's not the first tournament he's been in, but it has been 15 years since his last tournament at the Showboat Lanes. Frey has a number of good bowling years still ahead of him, but it won't be long before he'll start thinking about getting into another division.

"In 10 years, I can get into the Seniors PBA," he said. "One thing I know, though, is I'll keep doing it as long as I can."


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