Local Association Tournament

[jab5325]

I ended up bowling in the local association tournament for the first time on Saturday--singles and doubles. Team slots were all filled and we were late entering our team due to several members' illness and surgery.

Saturday was the last day of the event for singles/doubles, and we had the morning slot with several afternoon slots still scheduled. Never saw or bowled in this house before, but it was an interesting place. Old, beat up wood lanes with very new Brunswick machines--a strange juxtaposition.

I did well enough for 4th overall for singles (with handicap) after the morning round, but I doubt that stood because I only shot 564.

In doubles though, my partner and I bowled extremely well and shot 1428 (with handicap) and had a 50+ pin lead over second place. Someone would've had to do real well to beat us! Hopefully we'll at least cash. We should find out fairly soon.

It was a fantastic experience. The approaches were EXTREMELY slick, and I forgot my other bunch of slide pads below Dexter's S8. Haven't bowled on real wood lanes in years, so it made for some interesting play. Both the Rocket and BI got through the heads and midlane just fine, but had too much snap on the back end. I didn't bring the Saw Blade (I'm probably going to sell it), so I went to the urethane throwing at/standing on 13 and it worked. When that started coming up heavy, I went to the Rocket, standing at 20 while throwing over 10 out to 5.

Shooting 564 (singles) and 621 (doubles) was okay, but, I was frustrated. I was in the 150s for my second singles game, featuring 4 impossible splits. In doubles, a 675 was ruined by two missed 7 pins, a missed 4 pin, and a missed 8 pin. For each of them, I was literally a board off--the pins wagged and waved, but didn't fall. But, you know what they say--close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and nuclear warfare.

My average currently stands a couple tenths shy of 188, and I hope to get to 190 by the end of the season. If not for missed spares, I'd be near 200. My cumulative first ball average is 8.87, and 9.19 since the beginning of February. Last year, I ended league with 1 174 average.....so a 13 pin increase isn't bad for my second season back in the sport. The problem is I need to "let things go" and not be so technical with spare shooting. When I just up and roll it, I do fine.....but when I miss one I over analyze and tend to miss in bunches.

[Amyers]

Congrats on some good bowling especially in the doubles. I know what your talking about with the spares I do the same thing

[manke]

Good job!!