Southern Lanes
Cleveland, Ga
We used pattern #1 for this tournament. This pattern seemed to play a little easier for the right on this surface. Although 8 of about 20 lefties cashed, 2 of the top left handers in the world did not find anything on this pattern, on this surface. This pattern played good for all styles. The straighter players hit it early and the big benders hit it late.On all 3 squads, left handers had to either play the gutter or in about 15. This pattern would not play good for these guys if you tried to cover a lot of boards, left to right.
A & B squads played the lanes very close to the same. These 2 squads had the most National Tour players on it. The breakdown at 15 feet (blue line) is almost identical. At 30 feet (yellow line), B squad had 2 defined areas (R9 to R13) and (R6 and out). This is because there was a few more straighter players on this squad that played outside of 5. At 35 feet(red line), the pattern for A squad is still there, but the pattern for B squad has some depletion. (there was also a few more bowlers on this squad) This indicates that A squad had more big benders on it and there ball was outside 8 at 35 feet. If they had played a little straighter, their scores might have been a little higher.
After A & B were complete, there were 9 from B squad and 7 from A squad in the top 16. 6 of the top 7 scores were from B squad, but only 69 pins separated the first 16 spots. Very Close!!!
C squad, in my opinion, was the weakest and least experienced of the 3 squads. They played the lanes a little deeper than the other 2 squads, which created the 'out of bounds' to the right, which is indicated by the blue line and the yellow line.
5 guys had an opportunity to make the finals from this squad, which would have made it, 5 from A, 6 from B and 5 from C. But, 2 of these guys backed out the last game and the final breakdown was, A - 6, B - 7 and C - 3.
In match play, most guys played out early (R6 and out), and moved in on the second block(blue line, C20 to R12). There was a nice hold area that developed at 30 feet(yellow line, R14 to R10) and 35 feet(red line, R12 to R10). Norm Duke was throwing his slow loop and dominated the second block. The only left hander, Chris Hayden played in about L15 but it is hard to tell from the graphs.
Norman Simard
Laneman for the Southern Region
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A Squad before bowling
A Squad after bowling
B Squad before bowling
B Squad after bowling
C Squad before bowling
C Squad after bowling
Championship Squad before bowling
Championship Squad after bowling