Scoring All round
I was on 'B' squad of the 2 squad tournament. The lanes were oiled using the 'E' pattern. This is one of the easier patterns that we bowl on. 'A' squad had plenty of high scores with Bob Learn Jr leading at over a 256 average for the 9 games. I had a couple of different ways to get to the pocket. I started using a particle ball (#0183)
playing around 7 to 4 with some decent speed. I started with a solid 10, strike, rip 7-10 and almost another rip 7-10 with the 10 falling late. I moved into 12 hooking it out to 2-3 with medium to slow speed and got a double. I then left a weak 10 and then another solid 10 in the 9th followed by a double to shoot 206.
The next game was also very frustrating as I left 5 solid 10's, 1 weak 10 and a 4 pin for a 205. I finally missed the pocket on my first shot of the 3rd game and of course got a 4-7-10 split which I missed. I did manage a 5 bagger thanks to a tripped 4-7-10 in the 6th frame. I followed that with a 4 pin, a weak 10 and a gutter ball. I made the spare, but barely as the ball hit flush and the 9 pin being the last to fall. I doubled in the 10th for a 226.
I left a couple more 10 pins in game 4 and missed the pocket twice, picking up the 3-6-9-10 and the 3-6 to shoot 233. In the 5th game I decided to try a slightly different line and moved out to about 10 with a bit more speed and still a fair amount of side rotation for me. I actually got some strikes as I only left a 4 pin, a weak 10, and a solid 8 pin to shoot 258.
I was now in the hunt for the top 64. I threw a couple of bad shots and the right lane ended up playing 3 boards right of the left lane. I missed the 3-6-7-10 but made the bucket (2-4-5-8). A finishing 6 bagger helped the double I started with to shoot 230. I had an early 4 bagger in game 7 before leaving the 4-6-7 in the 7th frame I doubled thanks to a light 8 pin that fell, but a high shot in the 10th didn't help as I shot 223. I started to have trouble with my reaction in the 8th game and was fortunate to have no opens to go along with my 2 doubles for 212.
I figured that I would need at least a 200 game as 32nd on the 'A' squad was +193 and that is what I had going into the last game. I started the game playing about where I was but with a little more speed to keep my line a little better. I ended up needing to move right to around 7-8 as I had several light shots. I managed a couple of strikes around a light 10 pin in frames 4-6, but a rip 5-7 in the 7th frame where the 5 pin spun around a couple of times caused me problems as I missed the spare. I went light in the 8th frame and ripped a 4 pin. Things weren't looking to good. I managed to throw the next 3 strikes before leaving a 10 pin on my fill ball to shoot 204.
I thought that might be enough, but if 4 players on our squad went around me, then I wouldn't make the top 64 and that is exactly what happened. I ended up finishing in 65th place, missing the cut by 5 pins. I obviously wasn't happy. I felt like I needed to make a big move in the last game, but wasn't sure how much I should move so I went with a more direct line between the 1st and 2nd arrow. It took me a few too many shots to hit the pocket well enough to get strikes. My carry was horrible the first couple of games when I couldn't miss the pocket and then when my carry got better, I was missing the pocket. Oh well, I guess I will have a little more time off than I planned.
In the 1st round of match play I had 60 strikes out of 105 shots. I had 2 strikes when I missed the pocket, a tripped 4-7-10 in the 3rd game, and a light toppled 8 pin in game 7. I missed the pocket 17 times.
My strike % on pocket shots was 58 out of 88 pocket shots or 66%.
I had 5 opens, all 5 were splits (rip 7-10, 4-7-10, 3-6-7-10, 4-6-7, 5-7). I made the gutter ball I had which was on a spare, the 3-6-9-10, and the 2-4-5-8.
It looks like I spaced my strikes out a little to well either by getting tapped or throwing a bad shot. I did do a good job of striking out as I doubled in the 10th 6 of the 9 games.
Walter Ray