Rolling to perfection

As a police officer by profession, Chris Ormiston spends one night weekly at Central City Lanes to unwind from a job that provides its own special level of stress and anxiety.

On the evening of February 9, however, those feelings came to Ormiston at the bowling alley, with the prospect of the sport's biggest individual thrill staring at him in the form of the 10 pins 60 feet away from the foul line, spread in width just under 42 inches.

The third ball of the 10th frame spun down the polished hardwood, and the ball connected.

Ormiston had just rolled his 12th and final consecutive strike for a perfect 300 game, and the tension that had gripped him for the previous few frames released.

"It was a totally euphoric moment," he said.

Previous to that, his personal mark for strikes in succession was just seven.

The Casselton native has been bowling for most of his life, starting "since about first grade," and did league bowling until graduating from Central Cass High School in 2008.

As a member of the Randy's Pro Shop team in the Ten Pins League, Week 17 of play started well for Ormiston.

"I bowled a 192 in the first game, which is above my average, and that kind of got me going," he said. "Once that second game started, I hit that first strike, then the second came, and then the third."

A few more frames in, with the pocket [gap between the head pin and 3-pin for a right-handed bowler] looking bigger and bigger, Ormiston admitted to himself that it might just be his night.

"That intrusive thought came to me," he recalled. "What if this is the game I get a 300?"

His first sign of being rattled came in the eighth frame, when his ball missed the pocket entirely, crossing just in front of the head pin and hitting the left-hand pocket. That kind of strike is known in the sport as a "Brooklyn."

"When I got that one, I said to myself, 'Okay, the bowling gods are with me,'" he said with a laugh.

The ninth went by with another X on the scoreboard, and the three-ball final frame loomed.

"On that one, I had to back off a little bit because the nerves were really starting to get to me," he admitted.

His 10th roll was good, though he said the 11th felt a bit off. Into the 12th ball, Ormiston said, "I felt like I could barely stand up."

"I just kept telling myself, 'Don't drop it behind you," he said, "and just let it roll."

Even a few feet from the pins, he knew his aim was true.

Bingo.

"It just felt awesome," Ormiston said.

Bowling on the same team as local sport standout Randy Peterson also helped, in a way, to focus Ormiston on the task at hand.

He admitted that with Peterson's extensive resume of 300 games (19 at last count), it gives him a bit more respect for the accomplishment.

"It's almost like just another game [to Peterson] sometimes, the way he handles them," said Ormiston.

With a few weeks to reflect on it, he says he has a new bucket list item to pursue.

"I was talking to my dad about it, and I said my next goal is to hit a hole-in-one," he said.

Ormiston has been employed with the Carrington City Police since August, 2019, and served as the city's interim chief between the tenures of Chiefs Nathan Kruse and the late Brandon Sola.