For Wilson, necessity the father of invention

Old-fashioned ingenuity is a great thing.

Proof of such is Rich Wilson.

During the NEO high school district tournament at Twin-Star Lanes in Kent on Feb. 26, Rich Wilson and his wife, Angie, were spotted looking into a strange vertically elongated tube while sitting atop the back row of bleachers.

The homemade periscope was the Wilsons’ way of viewing the Fitch girls bowling team and especially their daughter, Laura, on the lanes in front of them.

Wilson had seen similar contraptions elsewhere, such as other bowling tournaments and golf tournaments where crowds obstruct line-of-sight.

Wilson, of Austintown, doesn’t claim to hold a patent on the thing, but he can lay claim to duplicating the instrument at minimal cost.

“A lot of times, especially if you don’t have bleachers, it helps you to see while sitting without getting in people’s way,” Wilson said of the periscope, made of an empty vending machine-cup cardboard box, two small mirrors at 45-degree angles and duct tape — for about $4-$5.

Wilson said he saw periscopes being sold as an Ohio State bowling team fund-raiser during a preseason kickoff classic for high school teams.

“They sold for about $25,” he said.

The periscope seems to be a more sensible alternative to the stepladder, a stack of biology books or perching atop soda machines.

Chalk one up for the Wilsonator.

Incidentally, Wilson is co-proprietor of Boardman Lanes with Rob Theis.

Their fathers — Dick Wilson and Ed Theis — built Boardman Lanes in 1960 and its 50th anniversary was held a few years ago.

“They built the place from the ground up,” Rich Wilson said of the founding partners, who were contractors by trade.

“My father used to tell the story about sending truckloads of wood back,” Rich Wilson said of materials that were rejected as the lanes were being installed.

“Instead of light wood, they brought in dark wood, which had to be sent back,” Wilson said of deliveries that didn’t meet the builders’ specifications.

He said the first 15 feet of the lanes are rock maple and the rest — until the pin deck — is pine.

“A lot of places have darker pieces, but light is preferred because it’s less grainy and puts a little different roll on the ball — back in the day, anyhow.”

“There’s not too much on the lanes,” Wilson said of the dark wood. “It’s on the first 15 feet — the heads where the ball impacts hardest and rock, then there’s a splice after the arrows, where the pine is soft. It’s less expensive, but the ball just rolls over it. Then there’s maple again at the back of the pin deck.”

Tenney has 703

Michelle Tenney’s 258-703 led Tuesday Ladies at McKinley on March 27 and, in Good Times at Bell-Wick on April 12, Barb Walker had five-in-a-row en route to a 230-590.

In a preliminary roll-off of the Sanko Photography Studio Classic League at Holiday on April 9, Sanko defeated wild-card Jugenheimer Industrial Supply and Yanek Chiropractic Center beat Youngstown Orthopaedic Associates. The championship roll-off is April 16.