A pivotal week five in the Scratch Draft Trios League separated the keglers from the bumper bowlers. Two teams at the top of the league made a push to break free from the pack, while a third was left standing in the dark. And sure enough, a week after the league began to worry about vision and dental coverage, nagging toothaches have hit more than a couple of teams.

A melody sung by a chorus of angels could be heard coming from the lounge at Harvest Park Bowl on Monday night. Or was that just the nightly karaoke competitors belting out slightly off-key versions of “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Margaritaville”? In any case, it was enough for two teams, Kinder’s Meats and Discovery Bay Dental, to find the light at the end of the lane. Unfortunately, The Visually Impaired were not as lucky, as they were left in the dark after both of the aforementioned teams beat them up and took their lunch money.

Kinder’s Meats entered Monday’s action looking to expand on its 18-point lead over the second-place team, The Visually Impaired. After shooting 664 in its second game of the position round match-up, Kinder’s did exactly this by taking the series 18-10. The leaders then proceeded to take 17 points from Team 6 in the second set of the night. Despite its 35-point night, Kinder’s lead shrunk at the hands of Discovery Bay Dental, which turned away HansonRealEstate.com 15-13 before completely turning out the lights on The Visually Impaired 26-2. The 41-point effort was second fiddle to only Cimentar Corp, which won a league-best 48 points on the night.

Despite the first-match setback for HansonRealEstate.com, the team broke even on the night thanks to some high rollin’ from captain and anchor Darrell Hanson. Hanson fired games of 211, 211, 253 and 256 for a 931 four-game set, tops in the league. On the women’s side, Xan Halog, leadoff bowler for Team 4, paced the better half of the league with an 825 series that included a 236 high game.

On a somber note, the league would like to send out its collective thoughts and prayers to the friends and family of former team captain Al Dodson, who passed away last week. Al was a friend to all in the league and will be dearly missed. He was an avid bowler who always welcomed a challenge and was always good for a laugh. May all your ten-pins fall in the afterlife, Al.