Monthly-mini-tourney - I cashed

[boomer]

Our local proshop is putting on monthly tournaments. Not big ones, and they are pumping all the cash back into the winnings so they aren't making anything on the tourney itself, just the business they get from it, which I really like. 55 people participating.

For the most part, I've enjoyed bowling with the people - always the people on my lane, sometimes not so much with some of the ones on either side. You know the kinds. Meh.

Anyway - enjoyed them. They are mixing them up - this time was 4 game singles handicap. One pair to the right each game. Pattern was modified from the normal league shot - a bit wetter in the middle, enough dry outside to use and if you got mixed up out there it would kill the ball. Required SOME play. . .

As usual I started with Mr. Teal as benchmark. He was hitting the pocket but really dead. During practice I tossed the Zen but it didn't react well at all so back to the Teal. At least I can get to the pocket. After fighting that for about half a game, I thought, let's get out the Trouble Maker. On conditions like these in a practice squad he went a touch longer but when that big-arsed core moved, he MOVED. Yep - worked.

Game 1 - 183. Stone 9 - missed outside. Stone 8 - picked. Stone 9 again - picked. Missed a 4. Change to Trouble Maker - MUCH better reaction. Picked up a 10, a 7 and started rolling. Thought I was really low so wasn't worried about how I was doing. Time to just have fun with friends.

Game 2 - couple of 10s (made), couple of strikes, bad delivery left 2-8 which I WHIFFED (stupid me) then back on track for 222. Looking around, noticed there were only sporadic high scores and they didn't tend to be repeated. Hmmmmm. . .

Game 3 - going fine. I had figured let's just control the pocket. Leave makeable spares and just do the thing. I'm looking around and other people are making big jumps and getting in their own heads. About 3-4 frames in I find out that I'm up to 18th and . . . heck, maybe I can do something. Keep my head down - miss a 3-6 - but punch out for 224.

Game 4 - had to wait a bit to start as there was a mechanical issue farther down which delayed us. No big deal, just walk around and keep from stiffening up (long honey-do list at home. . . LOL) and find out that my 224 had jumped me up to 5th. Really? SWEET! Top ten pays so . . . let's see what we can do. Strike, miss a 2-5 (stupid) and then grind out pretty well until a big-4 in the 8th. Man that pissed me off but shook it off to punch out for 199. Thought - top ten should work.

Love the live scoring thing - as scores got reported, the web page got updated. Nice! I was up to 3rd for a bit, and as more people reported I dropped down to 5th with nobody left with a realistic shot at bumping me down further.

5th got me $115 ($40 entry)
Entered 4 brackets, won 1 and took 2nd for $35 ($20 entry)
Got a couple of side-pots for $40 ($10 each so $20 entry)

So, on $80, got back $190.

[Aslan]

Man...if I was still living in Yorba Linda AND the green river pass wasn't a total nightmare...I'd love to bowl in that tourney. Sounds like a lot of fun.

[boatman37]

Nice job!

[boomer]

On a Sunday morning, the 91 isn't too awfully bad. Heading back west in the afternoon? Ugh.

Saturday we went over to Anaheim to visit Stereo Brewing (visit with the brewer/owner for chat and beers) and the drive over was fine (both ways) but back was stupid. :/

But yeah, it is a bunch of fun.

Bunch of guys were complaining about how they couldn't win since it was handicap but I did a comparison of scratch vs. handicap scores (thank you tournamentbowl.com - such a great addition to bowling! ) . . .

Of the top ten bowlers, scratch, only three failed to cash.
Of the scratch-10hdcp bowlers, two did cash, but those that I looked at that did not cash missed out because they bowled UNDER their average. Thus - it's their own fault, not handicap's fault.

Me? I bowled avg 207 to cash at 5th. My book is 186 so I got 30 pins. I bowled ABOVE my average (which will go up when the new book averages come out in July) - in fact, the top scratch bowler (averages about 225) shot ONE game at average, the others were -34, -5, -5. The next one shot -3, -37, -33, +21. If they had bowled their average, they would have shot 880=900 and would have been right in the running.

There were only two "low" average bowlers who placed and neither had a really great game or anything - they just bowled steadily - both had high games at 190 but bowled solid.

Just bums me out that some of our most fun bowlers won't participate because it's handicap. Had they come, I think they could have done well and been in the running. To win? Maybe not. That's the point of a tournament, yes? To compete. But they could have competed.

[Aslan]

On a Sunday morning, the 91 isn't too awfully bad. Heading back west in the afternoon? Ugh.

Saturday we went over to Anaheim to visit Stereo Brewing (visit with the brewer/owner for chat and beers) and the drive over was fine (both ways) but back was stupid. :/

But yeah, it is a bunch of fun.

Yeah. I used to bowl at Brunswick Classic lanes (now I think it's Bowlero) in Norco. They had a sport shot league on Saturday mornings. If it wasn't on the weekend, I wouldn't even have bothered...because there's no point to sitting in I-91 traffic through the green river pass during rush hour. It was absolutely brutal. My daughter was also riding horses in Chino Hills on the weekend...same thing. I also used to go down to Pechanga once a month to play in a poker torunament...it got SO bad driving through the green river pass (they were doing construction around Riverside) that I stopped going.

Probably my biggest JOY of not living in Cali is no longer dealing with that traffic. A coworker buddy of mine worked in Santa Fe Springs and lived in Riverside. There were MANY evenings where he'd stop at a movie theatre on the way home because he could watch a 2.5 hour movie, then get back on the road and make it home at about the same time. He even went so far as to buy an electric car so he could get the sticker that let him use the carpool lane...and it was STILL brutal.

There were many times I'd try to go to the grocery store, mall, or movie theatre (on a weekend) and I'd end up wasting 1.5 hours and just driving home...fed up with the traffic. When I lived in Yorba Linda, I bowled in Anaheim Hills and Fullerton (west of green river pass). When I moved to Anaheim, I kept bowling in Anaheim Hills...but started doing the majority of my bowling at Linbrook...because it was a 1.5 minute walk from my apartment to the alley. I could sit on my balcony and hear the pin setters...I lived maybe 40 feet away from the lanes. Plus, it was open 24 hours! Even vegas bowling alleys didn't stay open 24 hours!

But I bowled all over LA and Orange County...as well as most of the citrus belt bowling centers. Concourse (Anaheim Hills) is really nice. I liked Tustin Lanes, Arlington Lanes, Irvine Lanes, Fountain Bowl, and Linbrook as well. I don't miss the traffic (or politics, homelessness, cost of living, etc...), but I DO miss the numerous centers to choose from (many areas in the Midwest and rural areas...you have ONE...maybe TWO centers to choose from) and the quality coaching that was available.

[boomer]

Oh I hear ya. I live in NE Riverside (Highgrove / Grand Terrace) and drive to Claremont every day. Sigh. I'd take a (small) pay cut to get a job local to me. My wife works downtown and her drive is maybe 10 minutes.

BTW - the 91 is NOT an Interstate, otherwise it just might get fixed. Federal funds. But noooooo, it's a Cali highway.

We bowl at Arlington. I think half the rest have become Bowlero, which is a bummer. No actual coaches anywhere really near here. I'm thinking of getting some virtual coaching. some good tournaments, but they tend to be really cutthroat and really competitive. It's nice to have one that's FUN and the number of ball-return-kickers is actually pretty low. Trash-talking, so far, is good natured and the number of people that I've seen and heard giving feedback to people is really nice.

but anyway . . .