Frame by Frame Scoring
all rounds
all rounds
The wild card match had Michael Machuga against Tom Baker. Michael had a little bit of trouble on the right lane and struggled to a 175 while Tom Baker bowled a solid 223 to win the game. The 1st semi final game had Eugene McCune against Norm Duke. Eugene started the game playing inside and hooking the ball, but had trouble with 2 opens and moved outside throwing the ball up 7 or 8 very hard. Norm Duke played the match just right of the 2nd arrow going fairly direct. Norm bowled a pretty good game, but a couple of taps kept his score down to a 206 while Eugene's move outside proved to be the right thing to do as he had 6 strikes in a row to win the game with a 222.
The 3rd match was the other semi final match which pitted me against Tom Baker who won the wild card match. Tom was playing around 17 and 16 on the pair out to around 10. I was started the match trying to play around 13 at the arrows out to around 7 with a dull particle ball. I thought I had a pretty decent reaction, but the left lane had a pretty good hook spot on it just left of where I was trying to play. After starting with a 3 bagger I got my 4th shot a pinch left and it took off leaving me with the 3-6-7-10 split which I missed. Tom managed a turkey at this time to get a nice lead. I moved left on the hooking lane (left lane) and the ball again hooked through the beak leaving me a make able spare. Tom then went wide on his next 2 shots leaving the 1-2-4-6-10 washout which he missed in the 7th frame. This made the match even as I was tapped on the next 2 shots. Tom struck and went a pinch high leaving the fast 8 (4-7) in the 9th frame. I could win the match outright with a turkey. I had switched balls on the left lane in the 8th leaving a weak 10, but struck in the 9th frame and first shot in the 10th. I got my 2nd shot in the 10th a bit left and it also hooked quite a bit going right through the nose, but left only the 10 pin. Tom needed all 3 strikes to beat me by one pin, but went light on his first shot leaving just the 2 pin, so I won 211-201.
In the title match I was paired against Eugene McCune. Eugene came out fast with 3 strikes and throwing the ball very hard. I moved in a few boards and was trying to play 17 on the left lane and 16 on the right lane with the duller ball. I went a bit light in the first frame leaving a very light 10 pin and struck on my next 2 shots. My strike in the 2nd frame was a pinch high pushing the 4 pin back. So I moved another board left in the 4th frame and thought it was going to be good when the bucket was left. I don't think I had shot at it all week and I ended up chopping the spare leaving the 5 pin. Eugene went high leaving the 3-6-10 which he converted. We both had doubles with him leaving a light 7 pin in the 7th frame and I left a weak 10 in the 8th frame. Eugene had a strike in the 8th frame and missed the head pin in the 9th frame, but made the spare (1-2-8). I needed some strikes to force Eugene to throw good shots in the 10th. During the 9th frame someone knocked down something behind me which I heard. I could have stopped, but figured I knew what I was doing. I got the ball a bit right and left the 2 pin. I don't know if the noise helped me throw it wide, but it didn't help me throw a good shot. After going light in the 8th frame I made a ½ board move right with my feet and the ball hooked early going high leaving the 4-6-7-10. That was the end of the tournament for me as Eugene cruised to a 224-186 win. It was Eugene's first win after 15 years on tour. He was definitely happy. The shot for the TV show was a bit more difficult than I had during the week and I was just a bit off with a couple of poor shots. I probably should have played the lanes much straighter, but I played the lanes similar to how I had played them all week. I bowled really well for 3 days, but the 4th day could have been better.
In the TV matches, I had 10 strikes out of 21 shots. I had no strikes while missing the pocket. I missed the pocket 6 times.
My strike % on pocket shots was 10 strikes out of 15 pocket shots for 63%.
I had 3 opens. 2 were splits (3-6-7-10 and the 4-6-7-10) with the other being the chopped 2-4-5-8.
In the TV matches against me, my opponents had 12 strikes out of 22 shots. I don't think that they had any strikes when missing the pocket. They missed the pocket 7 times with 2 of those when Eugene threw the ball down the middle.
Their strike % on pocket shots was 12 strikes out of 15 pocket shots for 80%.
They had 1 open. A missed washout, 1-2-4-6-10. Eugene picked up the 3-6-10 and the 1-2-8.
Walter Ray