World Series of Bowling thoughts

[Graaille]

I may be in the minority (usually am), but for all the naysaying that's gone on around this particular event - I've actually enjoyed the named pattern final matches so far - both men's and women's. Fortunately all the spoilers went out so long ago that for the most part I'd forgotten who had won - and honestly (even though I had an idea about the outcome) - the Chameleon finals and the Shark finals were extremely enjoyable. I also thought the Cheetah and Scorpion finals were very good for an educational standpoint.

I've been impressed by the way Kelly Kulick and Shannon Pluhowski (sp?) have each won 2 of the women's championships. I thought there might be more faces out there in the running (Michelle Feldman, Clara Guerrero, Shannon O'Keefe, etc..) but these two have stood out as being the two to beat at the WSOB - dunno if it's been the lane surface or the grinding schedule (perhaps both).

So far I've not been disappointed - being a student of the game. I don't care about blowouts or a 290 to 270 final scores - I want it to be decided by the last shot of the game - even if it's 177 to 176. I've gotten a lot of info on various releases the pros use, and although the ingame ability to ask questions might be a bit distracting to the bowlers, it does allow them to suspend the shot clock and perhaps collect a bit more time to think about what to do next.

That's my .02.

[Stormed1]

I also enjoyed the WSOB as it reminded me of the "old days" when you needed to be a shotmaker to do well. the fact that the surface in that bay was so worn was a huge advantage to the lefties that made the show, The fact that of all the bowlers in leage only 10% or less the left side had far less wear. This was show by Shannon P. being able to miss left and still get the ball back and strike.The negative i saw were the delay between qualifying and the finals. Many players lost the "feel" they had during qualififying by the time the finals were taped. A perfect example was Steve Jaros. e dominated Viper qualidying but by the telecast was not bowling well and missed match play for the world championships. Or Amletto's and Smallwoods injuries which affected their tv performances. I understand the needs of the PBA to do all thetelecasts over one weekend but it would have been nice to see them bowl while they were "fresh" on the pattern. It was also good to see people other than the big names win. O'Neal,Devanry and Jurek bowld "great" on what was there and were deserving of their wins. They made thee shot they had to when needed. The only other negative from the seriws was the horrendous spare shooting. Look how much it cost Rash,Russelland Amletto (although his injury excuses him).

[NoTapNorm]

I have watched the last 2 (viper & shark) and thoroughly enjoyed the shows, even though I knew they were done in August. Like previous posts, it showed that shot-making still wins. Hopefully, I learned something from the named patterns to carry it to a PBX league.

[Stormed1]

The problem with trying to learn from the shows was that the lane beds in those bayse was very worn and had a lot more friction than normal. It forced bowlers into balls,releases and layouts they would not normally use on that pattern.A perfect example would be Rhino throwing the trick layout Natural and having to loft the heads as much as he did