BAKER Martin de la Haye has raised his tenpin game to perfect levels. The 22-year-old Warry’s worker has joined the very small band of local players to register a perfect 300 game, which takes 12 strikes.

De la Haye fulfilled every bowlers’ ambition in the Wednesday mixed doubles league.

A 300 game is often said to be bowling’s equivalent to the nine-dart finish or the 147 break in snooker and certainly had de la Haye smiling from ear to ear.

‘I’m still in a state of shock really,’ he said several days after the achievement.

‘I’d been pretty close before. I’d done 17 strikes back to back, but on this one [series] it was 18.’

De la Haye is a regular league bowler at the Island Bowl, playing in both the mixed doubles and the Sunday night trios.

He has been playing for about 10 years and has achieved regular league high games over that time.

‘In April he scored an average of 247 over four games, which is great bowling by any standard,’ said Island Bowl’s Harry O’Neill. ‘He has consistently hit these kinds of scores all season, so the perfect game was in his locker.’

The bowling ball he used was a Total Inferno from Brunswick and was bought only a few weeks ago from the Sarnia Pro Shop at the Bowl.

Mick Ward, the owner of the shop, was delighted because it was he who had recommended the ball to de la Haye and drilled it so it was just right.