Have you got guts to spare?

A four-week tournament will start Thursday.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Those aren't just bowling balls heading down the alleys at Parkstown Lanes -- some have people in them.
Parkstown owner Richard Bardash calls it "human bowling," a sport -- `for lack of a better description -- that puts the bowler inside a three-foot high steel ball that three teammates push down a u-shaped alley toward six oversize white pins.
"It was really fun," proclaimed Lance Ferrell of Volant after several rolls in the steel ball. "You do get a little dizzy, but you can almost steer the ball."
How it began: Bardash said he was looking for something to bring in weeknight crowds to his bowling alley bar and had originally wanted oversize sumo wrestler suits for fighting.
But an amusement company owner from Florida dissuaded him from the idea.
"He told me after the two guys are done fighting, they usually end up taking the suits off and they go into the parking lot to finish it off," he said.
Instead, the company owner offered human bowling -- an anomaly that has had Parkstown's telephones ringing every day for the last few months, Bardash said.
"I probably get eight to 10 calls a day. People asking what it is. There's a lot of interest. A lot of questions. People don't understand it," he said.
Not body bowling: Most mistake if for body bowling -- another variation of the sport -- that has helmet-wearing "bowlers" sliding down the alley head first into the pins.
The "human bowling" alternative is a little less dangerous, if not more dizzying experience, he said. The human bowler is strapped into a seat in the steel ball, and three others push it toward the pins.
"You sort of feel green afterwards," said Marguerite Fusco of New Castle, who was bowling with her co-workers from The Haven, a local nursing home.
And closing your eyes as you roll down the lane doesn't help, said her teammates Teddie Stephenson of Shenango Township and Kathy Smith of Neshannock Township.
But they say it's a great stress reliever.
"It's nice to get away from work and have some fun," Smith said.
Tournament planned: For the past week, human bowlers have been practicing for a four-week tournament that will test their skills. It starts Thursday.
There are about 22 teams signed up so far for the free tournament. Several prizes have been donated by local businesses, he said.