Decided to do an all-900 Global arsenal for state tournament this year. That includes balls from 900 Global, AMF, Lane #1 and Seismic (although I own no Seismic). I also took an old Columbia ball that was made in San Antonio. And because I like to write, I''m going to share all of this with the rest of you guys. First, here''s what''s in the bag, from most aggressive to least:

1) Columbia 300 Reaction Roll
2) 900Global The Break S75
3) AMF Nkryption Code
4) Lane #1 BuzzBomb/R
5) AMF Clutch Pearl
6) AMF The Heist Pearl
7) Lane #1 Chainsaw
Lane #1 XXXL Starburst

First day: (Saturday, April 10 at Leland Lanes, Tuscaloosa, Ala., Lanes 11-12, fresh oil, doubles and singles)
Lanes: Natural wood, very old and beaten-up heads, length approximately 40 feet, heavy concentration between the 15s, medium-light distribution from 5-15 on both sides, dry outside 5.
Others on pair: 1 high-rev tweener, 1 medium-rev tweener, 1 medium-rev stroker, 2 low-rev strokers (one of them throwing plastic from the start)
Characteristics: This is the hardest major bowling center in Alabama, always has been. Highest averages in the house didn''t top 200 until circa 2006. House is 40+ years old and there are only 20-30 honor scores in its history. Dead side boards, deep flat gutters. Averages are typically anywhere from 20-30 pins lower on average on THS. On a tournament shot, who knows.
Starting notes: We took about 20 bowlers with us, a wide range of styles. In practice, I noticed that aggressive pearlized equipment was going too hard off the spot, not just for me but also for anyone with decent revs or more. (Note: XXL Starburst used on most all spares)

Doubles
Game one: 201
Balls used: Break S75
Notes: Came out of the gate hot with spare and then a 3-bagger, but the look went away fairly quickly. I was playing straight up around 10 and straight up behind the ball. Anything inside was dead because the concentration of oil between the third and fifth arrow was just horribly deep. Lots of downlane friction but it wasn''t a drastic kick left off the end of the pattern. The surface on this ball is a matte that I got by using a Scotch-Brite gray pad. That allowed me to smooth out the transition at the end by letting the ball burn off some energy before it got there. Unfortunately, that plan had an expiration date, which was somewhere around the 7th frame. The ball stopped turning the corner and began rolling out early. I went split (miss), spare, spare in the 7th-9th, then in the 10th I said hello to a blower 7-10.

Game two: 207
Balls used: Chainsaw
Notes: I knew I needed to make a big move, and by watching the others in our group (and from what I saw in practice, I knew my pearl stuff would probably be too much). So I shifted all the way down to my least aggressive piece, a Lane #1 Chainsaw, and started strike-spare-3-bagger. Then, in the sixth frame, someone switched off a light, and the backends went away. I couldn''t tell whether it was the person on our pair throwing plastic and pushing oil down, or burn-up in the track, or both. The problem was that nothing inside 10 was turning the corner, but if you got it outside 5, it came peeling back so hard you couldn''t control it. I fought through the 7th-9th and then decided to move out a little, and BAM, Greek church in the 10th. So now I was open in both 10th frames and had just given away 20-30 pins. Great.

Game three: 157
Balls used: Chainsaw, BuzzBomb/R, Clutch Pearl
Notes: What a big mess. The outside didn''t look promising, and the Chainsaw wouldn''t corner inside, so I pulled out the Clutch Pearl, which I figured would be clean enough through the front. Turns out it was too clean. The Chainsaw left a light 2-4-8 in the first, which I missed high and left the 8. I switched to the Clutch Pearl, left the same thing from a deeper angle, and again crossed up too high and left the 2. Changed to the BuzzBomb/R for one frame due to its stronger midlane read, and promptly went 6-7-10. Moved out, straightened up the angles a little, went back to the Clutch Pearl and left a 10-pin, and of course missed it. Came back to double, then left a shaker 4 and got to the 10th, where I doubled and then left the Big 4 on the fill. My partner also fell off in the third game and out of the money we went.

Singles
Game one: 197
Balls used: Clutch Pearl, Chainsaw
Notes: This one started out like the last game. Went strike-Big 4-strike to start, then blasted a 10-pin and whiffed it. In the fifth frame, I lucked out to leave just the 4 on a terribly high hit, then in the sixth left a 3-7 which I missed on the low side. I changed back to the Chainsaw in a fit of desperation, and suddenly found the outside to be playable if I forced the ball through the heads a little and remembered to increase my axis rotation a little at release. Struck 7th-10th before I rang a 10-pin hard on the 11th ball and picked it up.

Game two: 203
Balls used: Chainsaw
Notes: Opened with a spare and then a 3-bagger playing straight up 6, and was feeling pretty good about things until the breakpoint finally blew up. I spent the second half of the game fighting over-under -- throw it up 6, and it would cross over. Move inside, and the ball wouldn''t finish. The lanes/sideboards were giving me no help. I decided to just wait out the inside and hope it opened up a little for the last game, and by sitting at 400 after two games in these conditions, I thought I might actually have a chance at cashing if I had a strong third game. And then...

Game three: 151
Balls used: Chainsaw, XXXL Starburst
Notes: This one was over early. Left a flat 10 in the first, which I missed. Left a 3-6 in the second (continuing the flat-high over-under reaction I was getting) and chopped it. Then I went light again and left a 5-count bucket in the third, which I picked up. Decided to look at the Starburst out of desperation, and actually went strike-spare-strike in the 4th-6th. But in the 7th, I missed on the low side and washed out. I switched back to the Chainsaw and finished out with spares and another split.

Summary
Went 565 in block one and 551 in block two. Essentially, my tournament is over in regards to all events. Tomorrow we switch to a different house on new HPLs, and the scoring pace at that house figures to be a good bit higher. Overall, I still had fun today. This is a house I used to struggle to break 500 in on a regular basis, and the general pace today was low enough that I basically missed my average by less than most did. Of our group, I probably placed about midway. No honor scores in our block, and no one really tore it up. I''m anticipating throwing either the Break S75 or Clutch Pearl most of the day tomorrow.

Jess

Edited on 4/13/2010 0:21 AM

Just got back from Tuscaloosa...here's the report from the team blocks.

Second Day (Sunday, April 11 at Bama Bowl, Lanes 5-6, fresh oil)
Lanes: 4-year-old AMF HPL synthetics, oil length 36 feet, oiled 10-10 in top hat block style, heads doubled, no front-to-back taper, more overall head oil than yesterday but more of a drastic wet/dry feel at the pattern edges.
Others on pair: I was among the lower-rev guys during first block, then mid-pack during the second block. Wide variety of styles. All but one bowler was right-handed.
Characteristics: Never in my life have I seen this much friction. Bama is typically a higher-scoring house than Leland, thanks to livelier side boards, shallower flat gutters and a more forgiving shot. But this was definitely the hardest I've ever seen this place.

Team Block A
Game one: 236
Balls used: Clutch Pearl
Notes: In practice, we were getting a ton more friction early than yesterday, owing to the shorter pattern. Looked at the Break S75 in practice but that was almost laughable. Even my Heist Pearl was starting up too early. Decided on the Clutch Pearl due to its weaker drilling. My original plan was to play third arrow out to around 8, which I was told was the preferred line for most of the league bowlers similar to my style, but I could see in practice it was going to take a fair amount of precision to get that to work. Started out strike, then a 7-pin that I flagged, then a spare and then the Greek church. Got up in the fifth and missed the ball at the bottom, but a funny thing happened -- it ran out to the gutter, then took a big jump left and creamed the pocket. So I figured, what the heck, I'll throw it like that. Went sheet for 8 in a row and a 236. The pattern was almost playing like Cheetah.

Game two: 200
Balls used: Clutch Pearl
Notes: This one boiled down to the fact that I couldn't double. From the outset, we were having problems with the rack on the right lane with both the headpin (coming down a couple of inches too far to the left) and the 6 (a couple of inches too far to the right, and back a little). As the pattern started to break down, our margin for error decreased. I doubled in the 5th-6th and had also struck in the 9th, but on the first ball of the 10th, dialed up a nice pocket 7-10.

Game three: 204
Balls used: Chainsaw, Clutch Pearl
Notes: Looked at the Chainsaw in the first frame, but it came in too light (7-pin, which I missed), so I went back to the Clutch Pearl. By now, I was going over 4th arrow out to around 5, sometimes out to 3, and was pretty much just spinning the ball. There were a lot of Storm Naturals in use around us, and the top scorer on our pair for this block was using an old Purple Rhino Pro and a polished-up Black Hammer. I doubled 5th-6th again and also 9th-10th. Threw probably my best shot of the block in the 11th but rang the crap out of a 10-pin. I finished with 640, which was plus for me but not enough to overcome my poor singles showing from the day before, so I was mid-pack at best in all-events.

Team Block B
Game One: 201
Balls used: Chainsaw
Notes: They double-stripped and then re-oiled between shifts, which was nice. We stayed on lanes 5-6 for B-block, which wasn't much of an advantage given the problems we continued to have getting a good rack on Lane 6. I wanted to use the Clutch Pearl again but the lanes weren't having it. I couldn't get the Clutch Pearl to feather out beyond 8, as there seemed to be more early friction than before. Decided to start out with the Chainsaw playing over 12 out to 5. Missed my only 10-pin of the second day in the first frame, then went split-split in the second and third to really put myself in a hole. The ball was coming in a bit light, so I adjusted to going over 10 out to just 8 and that was the adjustment I needed. Struck 4th-7th before I lost my look a little bit. Doubled in the 10th to get over 200 again.

Game Two: 220
Balls used: Chainsaw
Notes: This was by far my best game of the tournament. It was the only real "fair" game I bowled -- I got exactly what I deserved, both good and bad, on every shot. No trash strikes but no screw jobs, either. The over-10-out-to-8 strategy was my best look from the outset and I never really had to move until late in the game. Doubled 1st-2nd, 5th-6th and again 9th-10th, didn't miss any spares. The team overall had had a nice first couple of games, and we thought we might have a shot at some money, but that would soon change.

Game Three: 165
Balls used: Chainsaw, Clutch Pearl, Heist Pearl
Notes: Among the 10 bowlers on this pair for this game, we threw somewhere around 15 pocket 7-10s. I had two of them. One of the bowlers on our pair for B-block was throwing plastic up the track, and I guess there was finally enough oil pushed down that we got a little carrydown to go along with the burn-up in the heads. Started out with the Chainsaw and went strike-pocket 7-10-spare-split (3-4-6-7-10, which I came within an eyelash of converting), and decided to put it up in favor of the Clutch Pearl and make a big jump left and try to go around the carrydown. Struck in the fifth, spared 6th and 7th before leaving a 2-10 in the 8th and making it. After another weak hit in the 9th, I switched to the Heist Pearl for the 10th, knowing its stronger drill would make it read earlier. Well, it did, crossing all the way over for a Brooklyn strike to start the 10th. I fittingly left my other pocket 7-10 on the next shot to close out the tournament.

Summary
The 640 I booked in A-block left me with an all-events score of 1756, which means I donated this year. Still, this was my best performance at Leland Lanes in any tournament, we had fun and this was the first time I've ever been able to build an arsenal, take it somewhere and not be surprised by some of the reactions I got. Pretty  much what I saw at my home house during practice and setup was repeated in Tuscaloosa. Tip o' the hat to 900Global for that.

I also think I took the right stuff. There's a chance I could have used my Break Point Pearl Saturday if I'd taken it, but I don't think I would have been able to throw it for long. There was just too much friction at this tournament. I polled some others who were there from across the state and people's opinions varied from frustrated to amused at the amount of hook we had. I guess the only ball I wish I'd brought was my Visionary Slate Blue Gargoyle, a urethane pearl.

As an example of the friction and the shot in general: I said after Day One's post that no one in our group had put up big numbers. Well, I guess I was wrong. One of my teammates left Sunday leading all events scratch -- with a 2120. That won't hold up, but the gist of the matter was that if you could shoot 1400 at Leland, you probably guaranteed yourself a check. Two of our other bowlers were sitting 7th in doubles scratch despite not hitting their averages.

And for those who just can't get enough tournament blogging, I'll probably do this again in a couple of months at the Southeastern in Montgomery. I know you'll all be holding your breath.

Jess