UPDATED 11-01-03 Here is my report of the second day of the 2003 Japan Cup held at Tokyo Port Bowl in Tokyo, Japan. I started the 3rd round about 550 pins behind 6th place. I figured that if I was able to win all 16 remaining matches and average a bit over 250 I might be able to make the top 6. This wasn't very likely. I decided to go with my original plan of throwing the ball firm and straight up around 5 or 6 using a reactive ball NO PHOTO (#2156). My first match of the 3rd round was against Hiroshi Ohhashi who is an older left hander who bowled a 300 in the very first game of the tournament. We both started with a turkey, but I left a rip 7-10 in the 4th frame while he struck in the 4th. I doubled and then went just a pinch high leaving a 4-7-10 for another open. Mr. Ohhashi in the mean time was missing the pocket and left the 7-9 when the 3 fell in the 8th frame. I ended up losing 199-213 when I was unable to get the pins to fall. I bowled a great game just barely missing the pocket on one shot and didn't even shoot 200! Match 2 was against Yasuyuki Sadamatsu who I beat for the title at the Dream Match tournament the week before. I bowled a much better score even though I had two shots which were very light, one struck as the 7 and 8 were the last pins to fall and I left the 4-8 on the other. Two solid 10's were my only other non strikes and one of them was on the fill ball for a 258. Mr. Sadamatsu struggled as he missed the 2-10 and 3-6-10, but made the 2-4-6-10 split after an opening double to shoot 176. I bowled Toshifumi Kojima in the 3rd match. He bowled a very good game as did I. I finished first leaving a solid 8 on my 2nd shot in the 10th to shoot 248. Mr. Kojima needed a strike in the 10th to beat me, but left the 3-6-9-10 instead to shoot 244. My next match was against Masayuki Koyama. I was having a little trouble getting the ball all the way up to flush in the pocket as I kept going light in the pocket. Mr. Koyama started with a double before having a 4-6-7 and a late 5 bagger to shoot 232. I had a chance to win the match, but went a pinch high leaving a solid 4 pin in the 10th to shoot 215 and lose. I bowled Robert Smith in the 5th match of the round and I started by missing the 2-4-5-8. Robert was having trouble hitting the pocket as the ball seemed to be hooking more than he expected. I managed a 4 bagger before leaving the 3-6-7-10 which I made. Robert finally had a couple of doubles at the end of the game, but opened when he left the 4-6-7-10 to shoot 195. I wasn't able to connect strikes at the end of the game but still won with a 214. In the 6th match I bowled one of the seeded Korean professionals, Tae-Seon Yang. He struggled as he left a rip 7-10, 2-8-10 and finally turkeyed in the 10th frame for a 183. I started with a 5 bagger thanks to a tripped 2 pin in the 4th and added a turkey in the 10th for a nice 245. Patrick Allen got a little bit of revenge from the weak before as he bowled a great game shooting 259 on the strength of a 7 bagger while I threw several bad shots including a cross over strike for one of my doubles to shoot 216. In the last game of the round, Tommy Delutz got the best of the me as he had a 5 bagger to shoot 237 while I had a double and a finishing 4 bagger to shoot 227. I bowled much better that round, but was still only able to win 4 matches despite averaging around 230. I jumped up 10 spots to 20th place but was still well over 500 pins behind 6th. In the 4th round I continued to play a similar line as to the one I played in the 3rd round with the same ball (#2156). I started with Hugh Miller and bowled a great game as I left 4 solid 10's for a 237. Hugh Miller Had a turkey and a double, but the 3-5-6 in the 9th frame gave me the edge to win the game as Hugh shot 233. I bowled lefty Teruyuki Obara in the 2nd game. He started with the 4-6-7-10 for an open while I started with another solid 10 and then a solid 9. Mr. Obara wasn't able to get things going as he missed the 3-9 and the 4-7 before striking out in the 10th for a 172. All of sudden I started striking and had a 9 bagger to shoot 277. Match 3 was against Korea's Tae-Hwa Jeong. Mr. Jeong bowled a very good game and when I gave him the opportunity to win when I finished with a 237 and a bad shot on my 2nd shot in the 10th I figured he would take advantage. But Mr. Jeong threw a wide shot on his fill ball leaving the 2-8-10 to lose with a 235. I bowled lefty Susumi Nakazawa in the 4th game of the day. I did a lot of striking and shot 266 while Mr. Nakazawa had a late 4 bagger to shoot 227. I bowled Norm Duke in game 5. I had a late 4 bagger, but Norm had a turkey and a finishing 5 bagger to beat me 225-248. In game 6 I bowled Yukio Yamazaki. We both bowled good games, but I was having trouble getting the ball to get all 10 pins down as I had a double and a turkey to shoot 225 as Mr. Yamazaki had a 5 bagger to shoot 236 in his win. Brian Voss bowled a another great game against me as he had only 2 non strikes in his 258. I had two doubles, but a 4-9 in the 10th kept my score down to a 200. In the position round I started with a double while Mr. Obara had an early double. We both started striking in the 6th frame, but he left a 10 pin in the 10th frame to give me a chance. I managed to kick the weak 10 out and struck out for a 257-237 win and jump up to 16th place. I averaged over 240 for the last round, won 5 matches and only moved up 4 spots despite it being the high score of the block. It is too bad I wasn't very smart at the start of the tournament, but that happens more than I would like to admit. In the last two rounds I had 113 strikes out of 182 shots with 4 missed pocket strikes, a very light strike with the 8 falling last, a tripped 4-10, a tripped 2 pin and cross over strike. I missed the pocket 24 times. My strike percentage on pocket shots was 109 of 158 or 69%. I had 4 opens, 3 splits (a rip 7-10, 4-7-10, 4-9) and 1 missed spare (2-4-5-8). I did manage to pick up 1 split (3-6-7-10) and the rest of my spares which included a 4-8, 2-4-5, 4-7, four 2-5's, 2-4-5-8, and four 6-10's. In the last two rounds my opponents had 105 strikes out of 178 shots with 3 missed pocket strikes, two cross over strikes, and a tripped 6-7-10 for a left hander. They missed the pocket 34 times. Their strike percentage on pocket shots was 101 of 144 or 70%. They had 10 opens, 7 splits (7-9, 2-10, 4-6-7, two 4-6-7-10's, a rip 7-10, and 2-8-10) and 3 missed spares (3-6-10, 3-9 L, 4-7 L). They I did manage to pick up 1 split (2-4-6-10 R) and the rest of their spares which included two 2-4's, two 2-8's, 3-6-9-10, two 3-6's, two 6-10's, 2-4-5, 4-7, 3-6-10, 1-2, 3-5-6, 2-4-7. I wish I had started the tournament the way I had intended to, but I didn't. At least I made a decent comeback. My carry percentage was only slightly better, but I was able to hit the pocket much more often and keep my opens down to a minimum. A few more wins would have been nice, but that is the way it goes sometimes. Hopefully I can throw the ball the way I need to in future tournaments instead of making bad decisions. But that is a big part of professional bowling and usually make better decisions that I did this weekend. Tommy Jones ended up qualifying in 6th, Robert Smith in 5th, Ryan Shafer in 4th, Brian Voss in 3rd, Norm Duke in 2nd, and Chris Barnes in 1st for the 2nd year in a row. On the TV show, Tommy won the first 4 games before running into trouble with three 2-10 splits on the left lane to help Chris Barnes win his first Japan Cup. Walter Ray