The Texas Womens Bowling Association conducted the annual Bluebonnet Queens event this weekend.  Basic format is two squads, each of which bowls two blocks of four games.  No re-oil between blocks and the order is A-B-A-B.  Some of the higher scores came off of A this year, but it does not always work out that way.  

The event was in Austin this year (and, BTW Justin...what is up with that funky paint scheme Showplace has outside the building), in a center with wood lanes that could use some work.  Lane conditions seemed to be the house shot and the event turned into a carry contest...the 9 pin was my enemy yesterday.

I bowled B squad this year, in part because I like knowing the numbers I have to shoot before I enter the last block.  I try not to think too much, but I hate posting good numbers only to have to sweat out a cut announcement...sort of a pick your poison thing I guess.  Two years ago I opted for A squad and then had to withdraw last year because of the broken hand.

I finished the first block at +2...games of 193, 218, 203 and 188.  The 193 was frustrating because the only open came on a whiffed 7 pin in the 10th.  Fortunately I stayed alive in 6 of my brackets.  The 218 was clean.  The 203 was a scramble after I started out big-4 and then a washout, so I was sitting at 15 in the 2nd frame.  Got money back in four of my brackets.  The 4th game had us rotating back to the middle of the house...world of difference in the way the track had broken down, and I had a split in the middle of the game followed by a washout in the 10th (wrapped the headpin around the 10 on the spare attempt)...the washout was simply a case of amping the speed up enough to try and get around the burned track and back to the pocket, just that the shot didn't recover like I had expected.  C'est la vie.  24th after the first 4 games of both squads was something like +76.

Came back during the 3rd game of A squad's 2nd block and saw the lanes being played enough different to where I decided to go get the tote out of the car that had the Silver Streak.  I had used the Pearl Assault during all of the 1st block and flattened out the Sonic X for all spare shots.  During our warm-up block, I did not get the reaction I was looking for and pulled out the Retro Blue which happened to be in the tote with the Silver Streak Solid...put my right foot on 28 and spotted 5 at the breakpoint and had a nice look.  That ball was what I used all of the second block...meanwhile, numbers were getting posted from A-squad through 8 and the cut looked to be in the +130 range- I definitely had some work to do.

247 the first game (one 9 pin stuck in there)...second game spare shooting woes hurt immensely- chopped a 3-6-10 (same way Mika did on the show today) and I chopped a 2-5.  Also had a split on the fill ball in the 10th and was happy to move to the next pair with a 187.  I had a good enough look to where I really believed that 250-250 was possible, and started the 3rd game with a 4 pin in the 1st and a 7 pin in the 3rd followed by 5 in a row...missed on a 1-2-4 in the 9th (pulled the ball while throwing straight, pure and simple...left the headpin), finished the game with 224.  The last game saw me leave the 9-pin on three shots and the 4-9 in the 10th frame...the 2nd 9 pin officially eliminated me from the top-24, which wound up being +126 for the 8 games.  I still get a check for my +64.

The positives coming out of the day...only the one missed single pin (I had struggled with them the past few weeks), good choices on equipment and the big move for the line in the 2nd block, and the run I tried to make in the second block.  Trying to cover 120+ pins in 4 games is not always the easiest task in the world, and actually as I looked at the numbers, there were alot of the top 24 that were also in the +60 range for the last 4.  Another positive was the consistency I generally had with swinging the ball in the last block...of late, I decided I would spend time in league trying to post numbers and had gotten away from my A and B games.  And, hey, at least I covered expenses for the event between the place money and bracket money...

I also got to meet one of our lurkers from the site, who was actually two lanes to my right and who I followed in the crossing pattern.  I tried to convince Megan that she needs to spend a little more time posting than lurking...so who knows.  Considering she had just recently made the jump from youth events to the adult competition, I thought she held her own relatively well, and she finished the day strong.  On longer formats, I have seen frustration set in and some of the ladies have red numbers that just get larger and larger as the afternoon progresses.  Seems to me Megan finished with the last two games around deuce, so she has the focus to be contended with at a later date.

Now I just have to gear up for WIBC Queens in a few months...