City champs keep it in the family, but wins are bittersweet
If the family that plays together stays together, Rick and Linda Borns are definitely in it for the long haul.
The Huber Heights husband and wife are more than avid bowlers, they are also city champions. Linda recently won her first Greater Dayton United States Bowling Congress city title, clinching the women’s senior singles handicap.
Rick won both the men’s senior scratch and handicap singles. Rick, 51, won his last city title almost three decades ago.
“It’s been 27 years since the last one,” he said. “I’ve had 18 top-five finishes without winning — always the bridesmaid I guess.”
Rick edged Jerry Hicks 700-694 for the win. Linda posted 687, six pins better than Regina Richardson.
“The lanes were tough and scores were low,” Rick said. “I’ve never seen them play that way.”
The wins were bittersweet for the champions. The seniors’ tournaments were held at Century Lanes, the New Carlisle bowling center that recently closed for good. Rick was the longtime general manager. Knowing it was the end of an era made it a must-bowl event for the couple.
“Knowing the center was closing, we wanted to have one last time bowling there,” Linda said. “It was the last day of the tournament and we both bowled pretty well. We thought we might have both won and I remember thinking how cool it would be to win here.”
A couple of weeks later, they knew that the titles were theirs.
“It’s a storybook ending,” Rick said. “I haven’t won in forever and I got lucky and pulled it off and Linda had never won. It was pretty amazing.”
Bowling has been a part of their lives since before they were married 22 years ago.
“I actually had a 300 game eight days before we got married and I haven’t had another one since,” said Linda.
While they both continued to bowl after they got married, children and careers kept them from bowling together often.
“We’ve been saying forever that we need to bowl together,” Rick said.
“We did before the kids — two times a week — but we haven’t in years,” Linda, 50, said. “We definitely need to work on that.”
They would also like to defend their city titles.“We’re on the young end right now, so we need to take advantage of that,” said Linda.