St. Paul Team Challenge

The St. Paul Team Challenge was fun!

When practice started, I got to see about 15 guys miss the headpin to the right, with about half of them not even getting the ball to the 3 pin. Oil, Oil, Oil.

The result? Everyone and their mother grabbed the most hooking sponge they had and moved right (righthanders). It got to the point where some people were throwing equipment so dull, that the ball actually got into a roll the moment it hit the lane (partially rolling out but not expending all of it's energy), then skidding when it got a few feet down the lane, then attempting to hook with it's remaining energy, resulting in an awful ball reaction. Because this was happening so close to the foul line, some bowlers wouldn't see it (two of the 5 people on my team had this reaction).

Our Bogart's teams ended up 2nd and 6th (5th?), not a bad showing.

On a personal level, I was pretty disappointed in myself. I bowled about average in qualifying and didn't miss a spare (3 splits total). I never had a great look but nobody really did. I spent most of qualifying between 3 and 6 at the laydown point, using a smooth T-Road, 4 3/8 pin to PAP, pin in palm, and later in qualifying, a 4 1/2" pin to PAP vapor zone, light polish.

When match play started, a strip between 5-8 burned out completely, and I couldn't get anything down the lane if I started the ball there. Moving inside of the strip got me a massive over/under reaction, and outside of 5 got me split/washout.

In hindsight, it wasn't until I ran into this condition that I noticed how big of a gap I had in equipment. Quite a few balls fit in between the vapor zone and the Power Groove, and being the genius that I am, I left one of them at home--something that should just never happen.

I spent all of match play trying to find a stable ball reaction and ending up with open frames due to massive splits, and that's about when my spare game went into the tank. Overall it was a pretty poor performance.

It's amazing how frustrating it is to perform poorly when you're well practiced and sharp, because you have to chalk up your losses to poor strategy. Hopefully I see that pattern again.

Introduction

Greetings Bowlers!

This is my second of two attempts (the first being about 15 minutes ago) at writing a blog. The purpose of this blog is to just offer a recap of recent bowling tournaments. Content will range from humorous incidences with the Bogart's team, to nerdy bowling details about lane breakdown/etc.

Hope you enjoy!
Patrick