Scoring
round scoresheets
My match on TV was against Chris Barnes. We were the 2nd match with the wildcard match being Steve Jaros against Doug Kent. Doug beat in Steve by having a great finish. We were bowling in an arena with over thousand spectators. There is always more distractions in these telecasts. Unfortunately I had a couple with me which didn't help me any. The right lane was hooking a bit more than the left lane and after leaving a solid 8 pin, I didn't throw a very good shot in the 2nd going a bit high leaving the 4-7-10. There is a big boom camera which they use to get good shots of the bowlers and it was moving around while I was bowling. Normally I have pretty good concentration, but I did notice it. I threw some good shots in the 4th and 5th frames for a double. Chris Barnes was having a bit of trouble of his own except that he tripped the 4-7-10 on his first frame and left 4 pins on the left lane on his first 3 attempts, one being a light ripper.
After the commercial break I threw my now infamous shot on the right lane. A fan took a flash picture of me right when I was letting go of the ball. I reacted very quickly yelling some not so nice words. Unfortunately for me the shot went right threw the nose for a 4-6-7 split. The PBA used to have a visual distraction rule, but they don't any more. I guess it is kind of ironic that I am one of the main proponents of the current rule. I don't know of any other sport where they get shots over and I don't think it would be good for bowling if we got shots over. It was a very unfortunate thing to happen and I hope it never happens to another player in the future, but something similar to that probably will.
Anyway, Chris made an adjustment which I wouldn't have thought to be the correct move, hard and straight, to strike out and lock me out with a 240 game. I left a couple of 10 pins after a double to shoot 198. I went over to the man who took the picture and told him that I knew that he didn't do it on purpose. He apologized to me and he probably feels worse about that incident than I do. So remember the next time you are at some sort of event where they ask you to turn your beepers and cell phones off and no flash cameras to do so.
Chris again wasn't able to get that win as he was runner-up for the 4th time this year. I kind of know how he feels as I went through many years where I had trouble winning on TV. I felt like he may have been playing the lanes incorrectly, but he did finish the game against me very well. Congrats to Doug Kent on winning another tournament. Hopefully I can do really well this next week at the Tournament of Champions.
Walter Ray