She keeps on rolling

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(Matt Hamilton/The Daily Citizen) Dalton’s Essie Richey, 87, doesn’t just compete against men in one of her leagues at Retro Bowl — she regularly beats them. Richey earned a top-five finish recently in a league where she was the only female. She has been bowling for more than six decades, and the retiree has made her hobby quite a success.

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September 4, 2012

She keeps on rolling

Age no limit for talented Dalton senior bowler

By Devin Golden devingolden@daltoncitizen.com The Dalton Daily Citizen Tue Sep 04, 2012, 07:00 AM EDT

Essie Richey can knock down twice as many bowling pins as her age. That might not sound impressive until you learn it would be a score of 174.

And if that isn’t enough, her opponents in one league are all men.

The 87-year-old Murray County native and Dalton resident has bowled for 64 years and competes in leagues on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. She has an average of around 165, but on good days she can eclipse a score of 180 — or even 200.

“I think I had a 256, but it hasn’t been in the last three or four weeks,” she said last week.

Richey’s Wednesday league — a mixed singles group of 16 competitors at Retro Bowl — is where she gets the most recognition.

But it’s not really that mixed.

Richey is one of a kind, the only female competing against 15 men.

“It was open to anyone, but she was the only woman to do it,” said Judy Baumer, a friend of Richey and a fellow bowler.

The league is a 190-100 handicap, meaning any score 100 or lower gets a 90-pin handicap, and any score of 190 or higher gets no handicap. Richey had a 36-pin handicap.

“There are guys in the league with 40-plus-pin handicaps,” Baumer said.

Richey entered last week’s playoffs guaranteed of at least a top-five finish but with a chance to win the championship.

Each bowler could move up in the standings by defeating the person ranked above him or her, and Richey took on fourth-place Mitch Morisson in the first game knowing she had to win to keep climbing toward the title.

David Dunlap, a manager at Retro Bowl and one of the men who Richey finished ahead of in the league, described her talent before the competition.

“She rolled a 219 last week or the week before,” he said. “A 36 handicap with a 219 is a 255. You’ve got to really bowl to beat that.”

Then he summed up his wish while watching Richey practice.

“I want her to win tonight,” Dunlap said.

It didn’t work out that way this time, with Richey losing 211-149 with her handicap figured in.

“That’s her worst game I’ve seen her bowl in six weeks,” Morisson said.

Dunlap wasn’t the only one disappointed that the story didn’t wrap up a little more happily for Richey, whose three kids and many of her friends came out to cheer her on.

She is retired after working for many years at downtown Dalton’s Hackney Shoe Shop, which has since closed. Now, she just bowls, something she remembers starting more than six decades ago.

“Someone asked me to bowl, and I said, ‘Lord, I’ve never been in a bowling alley before,’” Richey said. “But I came here and beat everyone.”

Performances like Wednesday have become the exception to the rule in this league, where the men watch as the woman wipes the floor.

“She’s hard to beat, especially considering she starts out with 36 pins,” Dunlap said.

Richey did not know she was the only female when she joined earlier in the summer, but she didn’t mind, especially when she started winning.

“As the year kept going, she kept beating people,” Morisson said.

He would know how good, and tough, she can be. He bowls on a team with her and has “for years,” he said.

“She’s a sweet woman,” Morrison said. “A tough woman, but she loves her bowling.”

Russell Hackney, whose family owned the shoe shop where Richey worked, was among those who finished behind her in the league standings.

“Everybody knows with Essie’s handicap and her consistency, if you don’t bowl well, then you’ll lose,” he said.

Richey said she enjoys sharing high-fives, fist bumps and jokes with the guys, even if she isn’t one. But there is little, if any, gender separation on the mental side.

“You won’t intimidate her,” Hackney said. “She doesn’t care. She jokes around with everyone just like they do with each other.”

Despite beating her, Morisson has much lower goals for when he is Richey’s age.

“When I’m 87, I hope I’m just breathing, much less down here bowling,” he said.

But Richey has no plans to stop.

“If I can’t throw a ball anymore,” she said, “then I should stay at home.”

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She keeps on rolling

Age no limit for talented Dalton senior bowler

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