Bowler sets world record - Brief Article

Airman, Sept, 2001 by Tech. Sgt. Jim Brabenec

BEALE AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (ACCNS) -- Action Jackson, step aside. There's a new guy in town. Name's "Guinness" Jackson, and word has it he can bowl forever.

Lawrence "Guinness" Jackson began his quest for his 15 minutes of fame at 9 a.m. May 23 at the Beale Lanes Bowling Center. By the time he stopped at 9:02 p.m. May 24, Jackson had established a new standard for marathon 10-pin bowling in the Guinness World Records book. When the last pin finally dropped, 136.5 games, nearly 23,400 pins, and 36 hours and 2 minutes of bowling lay behind him.

Jackson bettered the previous mark of 31 hours, 5 minutes, set in England last year.

Rich Pringle, Beale Lanes manager, dreamed up the record attempt. "The idea was to do something at Beale Lanes that had never been done before, would increase interest in bowling and put us on the map. When I searched for an individual to complete the task, Staff Sgt. Jackson was the only one who really made me believe he could go the distance, and he far exceeded that," Pringle said. "To bowl that many games consecutively is amazing enough, but it's especially exciting because Jack [his old nickname] put a new twist into this record by maintaining a 171.33-pin average."

At times in the early morning hours, it was just Jackson bowling and a couple employees working the late shift.

"Sometime early Thursday morning I asked myself, 'Why am I here?'" Jackson said. "But I've never been a quitter. I knew that once I started I would break the record."

To make the attempt more enjoyable, Jackson began to bowl "Lawrence against Lawrence" games. He also would bowl the first ball right-handed and challenge himself to pick up the spare left-handed, then starting lefty and finishing righty.

Around the 28-hour mark, Jackson "turned up the heat" to build his average back up over 170.

"It was important to me to put up some good numbers, because it made the attempt that much more of a challenge," Jackson said.

"He had split and bleeding hands at the end and was tired, but he had that Air Force fiber that allowed him to go the extra mile," Pringle said. "Beale should have a star next to it on all future maps, thanks to Lawrence Jackson."