I was in the thick of the running in my most recent PBA tournament when I managed to commit professional bowling suicide in the last game of my 8-game set. Here's a link; I finished in 46th.
http://www.pba.com/regional/regionstory.asp?ID=1016The pattern was 42' of really heavy stuff. Early on, strong balls would hardly wrinkle. I started out throwing my Ebonite Savage, but soon switched to my Columbia 300 Formula. Here's the run down of the tournament:
Game 1:
81 s72 9/ X X X X 7/ X XX6 - 221 +21
Game 2
7/ 8/ 9/ 72 s81 X 8- 8/ w62 9/X - 142 -37
Game 3
9/ X 8/ X X 9/ X X 8/ X9/ - 217 -20
Game 4
9/ 8/ s7/ 7/ X X 8/ X 9/ X71 - 198 -22
Game 5
s81 X X X X X X X w7/ s72 - 232 +10
Game 6
8/ 9/ 7/ X X X 9/ 9/ 81 9/7 - 198 +8
Game 7
X 9/ X 8/ 72 X X 8/ 7/ 8/6 - 185 -7
Game 8
X 8/ s63 62 X 9- 9/ X X 81 - 157 -50
There were a couple of spare-shooting brain-farts in game 8. The 4th frame was a 1-3-6-10. The 6th was a 10 pin that I just completely flagged. the 10th was a double wood that I tried to hook the ball at (stupid) and came up short. Assume spares in all cases - the game now totals 191 with an assumed 9 count in the fill 11th. Instead of -50, I'm at -16. Any other spare shooting error notwithstanding and I'm in the money. Hindsight really sucks in bowling.
As you can see on the link, the cut ended up at -11. George Turner, the last guy to make the cut, bowls on my sport league. As you can see, with 1 game to go I was within the cut, but that one game during which I was lost cost me a check. In game 2, I forgot some valuable advice that Ron C (Magic Carpet) had given me; advice I remembered in the 10th frame of game 2 where I made it back to the pocket and was rewarded with a solid 7 and flush strike. Thanks Ron; dopey me. As you can see, the advice worked because in game 2 I was back over par for the game. Had I remembered his words earlier in the game, I would have been bowling on Sunday.
In retrospect, I should have moved to the gutter in game 8. I was playing inside around 4th arrow and tried to make it with that shot despite my miserable performance. Lesson learned, I suppose.
At one point in time I was out-pacing both WRW Jr. and PA. But, like the champions they are, they both managed to work their way out of a hole and, in Walter Ray's case, go on to match play (and the title). BTW, WRW Jr.'s 300 in the finals was a sight to behold. The only questionable shot was the 10th strike when the 10 was nudged over late by the 6 pin. The 11th was a little weak, but covered all 10. Every other shot was 10 in the pit. BTW, WRW was playing at about 5 straight up the ditch with a MoRich Weapon of Mass Bias with end-over-end roll - exactly where I
should have been in game 8.
I hope you enjoyed this little trip into my PBA world. If this thread is of any interest, I'll repeat the process after my tournament in Chesapeake in a few weeks. Later.
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Nut...
/|\None are more hopelessly enslaved, as those who falsely believe they are free.... 
