Bowling Tournaments

[fortheloveofbowling]

Well, I guess those two last minute training sessions with my coach paid off....I ended up winning the tournament this weekend . I finished the 12 game qualification in 3rd place, and then on Sunday played really well in the first 4 game session to move into 1st with a decent sized lead. The second 4 game session Sunday didn't go so well, but it seemed a lot of people were struggling with the lanes (with a few exceptions); I entered the step-ladder final in first place.

Finishing first ended up being a pretty big advantage, it was REALLY hot in the center and most people were sweating and tired from playing 20 games in 2 days in those conditions. I got to relax and kind of regroup after struggling the previous 4 games while the other guys had to keep playing. I also had a little luck in the final, the guy who finished 3rd bowls thumbless, and he advanced to play the guy in 2nd place (who is a pretty great bowler and the only one in the final I was worried about at all). The second place guy had a bad game though so the thumbless player advanced to play me in the 1st place game. I think he started to cramp up a little bit (a lot of strain on your forearm with no thumb, and like I said it was really hot), and he just couldn't get anything going against me. I felt pretty good after the 30 minute break, and started off really strong 9/, turkey, 9/, and already had a 57 point lead after 5 frames. From there it was just a simple coast to the finish line.

It was my first Swiss tournament win, and I didn't feel too bad about getting "lucky" in the final, since that's the kind of "luck" you earn after winning the first 20 games .

Congrats on your win Hampe!!

[mc_runner]

Congrats! Sounds like you've been doing pretty well on the tournament circuit recently!

[Hampe]

Thanks for the congrats everybody! (and also the good luck wishes before)

Congrats! Sounds like you've been doing pretty well on the tournament circuit recently!

Yea....2013-14 has been my most successful season by far. If our local official's calculation is correct, I've raised my official Swiss average this season from 173 to 190, which will just barely put me in Category "A" next year (I was in "C" the last 2 years).

I wish I had been able to do even more tournaments though....this year I made a huge improvement and my handicap hadn't quite caught up yet. Should have taken better advantage of that than I did . At the start of the season my handicap was still 17, and probably when it gets re-calculated on June 30th it will be around 6 for next season.

[MICHAEL]

Well, I guess those two last minute training sessions with my coach paid off....I ended up winning the tournament this weekend . I finished the 12 game qualification in 3rd place, and then on Sunday played really well in the first 4 game session to move into 1st with a decent sized lead. The second 4 game session Sunday didn't go so well, but it seemed a lot of people were struggling with the lanes (with a few exceptions); I entered the step-ladder final in first place.

Finishing first ended up being a pretty big advantage, it was REALLY hot in the center and most people were sweating and tired from playing 20 games in 2 days in those conditions. I got to relax and kind of regroup after struggling the previous 4 games while the other guys had to keep playing. I also had a little luck in the final, the guy who finished 3rd bowls thumbless, and he advanced to play the guy in 2nd place (who is a pretty great bowler and the only one in the final I was worried about at all). The second place guy had a bad game though so the thumbless player advanced to play me in the 1st place game. I think he started to cramp up a little bit (a lot of strain on your forearm with no thumb, and like I said it was really hot), and he just couldn't get anything going against me. I felt pretty good after the 30 minute break, and started off really strong 9/, turkey, 9/, and already had a 57 point lead after 5 frames. From there it was just a simple coast to the finish line.

It was my first Swiss tournament win, and I didn't feel too bad about getting "lucky" in the final, since that's the kind of "luck" you earn after winning the first 20 games .

NICE,,,,, VERY nice,,,, soon you will be READY for ICEMAN!! LOL Great job bud!!

[Bunny]

Yea, this weekend .

I had a training session with my coach yesterday and Tuesday, so I'm feeling pretty ready to go. It's a singles tournament here in Basel with 12 game qualification, which can feel like a marathon towards the end of the block. There's usually about 80-100 people signed up, but for some reason only about 50-60 this year .

I also got a company sport tournament in Mannheim, Germany coming up next weekend which will be my wife's first ever tournament . That tournament has trios and doubles, and your individual score during the trio is used as qualification for a singles final (which is separated into divisions based on average). I'm doing two double starts with my wife, one with my normal doubles partner, and a trio with my doubles partner and his wife.

Nice bowling! You're on a "roll" lately.

Have fun with the wife! Let us know how you do.

We're looking into going to The USBC Mixed Open in Reno next year.

[Hampe]

Well, as anyone who competes at something regularly knows, "You can't win 'em all" . I played pretty good for the most part this weekend, just had some bad shots or bad breaks at the wrong time (i.e. 9th or 10th frame). I was very consistent though, I did 4 4 game series, and they were all between 757 and 769 (about 191 avg.). In a different format I probably would have made at least the first cut, but in these company sport tournaments you have about 30-50 people per category playing multiple starts and only the top 6 make the final, so a "good" series isn't going to make the cut.

My buddy and his wife didn't have such a great series during our trio (both played between 170-180 avg), and we only ended up 14th (top ten trios made the trio final). My wife and I didn't really have a chance to win either, since it was scratch and she averages about 110 at the moment. But in our second double start we made an agreement that since we couldn't make the top ten, we'd at least make sure we'd get out of the bottom 10, which we accomplished (39th out of 52 ).

It was a fun time up until the awards ceremony, where after giving out the awards to the top 7 doubles, they gave out an award for the worst double, which was my wife and my buddy's wife and she had to go up to the front and get a prize (she was NOT happy about it). But she was a good sport about it at least, I was proud of her for that. I was also proud of how she played....our second double she had 129 avg. and was playing well enough that she could have had a lot more (she had a lot of solid pocket hits that only got 9 pins). You can tell she's getting better and getting the ball to go where she wants it to more and more (I think she might even be starting to enjoy herself while bowling ).

[Bunny]

Well, as anyone who competes at something regularly knows, "You can't win 'em all" . I played pretty good for the most part this weekend, just had some bad shots or bad breaks at the wrong time (i.e. 9th or 10th frame). I was very consistent though, I did 4 4 game series, and they were all between 757 and 769 (about 191 avg.). In a different format I probably would have made at least the first cut, but in these company sport tournaments you have about 30-50 people per category playing multiple starts and only the top 6 make the final, so a "good" series isn't going to make the cut.

My buddy and his wife didn't have such a great series during our trio (both played between 170-180 avg), and we only ended up 14th (top ten trios made the trio final). My wife and I didn't really have a chance to win either, since it was scratch and she averages about 110 at the moment. But in our second double start we made an agreement that since we couldn't make the top ten, we'd at least make sure we'd get out of the bottom 10, which we accomplished (39th out of 52 ).

It was a fun time up until the awards ceremony, where after giving out the awards to the top 7 doubles, they gave out an award for the worst double, which was my wife and my buddy's wife and she had to go up to the front and get a prize (she was NOT happy about it). But she was a good sport about it at least, I was proud of her for that. I was also proud of how she played....our second double she had 129 avg. and was playing well enough that she could have had a lot more (she had a lot of solid pocket hits that only got 9 pins). You can tell she's getting better and getting the ball to go where she wants it to more and more (I think she might even be starting to enjoy herself while bowling ).

It sounds like you all had a good time. Great idea to have an attainable goal. Mission accomplished!

That sucks about making the girls go up and take a prize for last place. I don't blame her for not being happy about it. Thumbs up for being a good sport though!!