Well, I know most of you won't be interested, but I thought I'd post about my trip to the WIBC tournament this past week for anyone who may be going later.

THE CONVENTION -- This was my first (and last) WIBC convention.  Of course, there was no business to be conducted, so it was pretty much a tribute to the organization.  Since I've only been bowling for three years, I found the history to be quite interesting.  There was a moving video presentation that covered the WIBC from beginning to end.  Yes, I bought the DVD.  Most of the women on the stage were eloquent when they spoke.  A few seemed to want to stay at the mic forever, since this was their last chance.  The retiring of the WIBC flag was a special moment, and the awards presentations were for the most part wonderful.  Roger Dalkin was gracious in his award acceptance and hopeful for the new organization.  My husband also attended the closing meeting and commented afterwards that he can see why many of the women fought the merger.  He pointed out that the women as a group seem to have a personal connection that he's never seen with a large group of men.

RIVER LANES -- The house is quite nice, but with the bleachers set up for spectators, it's crowded and hard to maneuver with bowling equipment in tow.  The temperature hovers between your basic refrigerator setting and that of a meat locker.  Since I'm a hefty girl who gets quite warm while bowling, I appreciated the chill in the air, but many women were complaining.  If you're a spectator, bring a jacket.  The equipment in the lower end of the house seems to be in good repair, but the upper end has some problems.  The foul lights for the whole side had to be turned off at the beginning of doubles because they were randomly firing.  Our pairs for D/S had scoring monitors that wouldn't score properly and pin setters that dropped pins.  My brand new inserts were literally slashed to ribbons from the ball returns by the end of the set.  The pro shop is well-stocked, and the employees all seem to have the flick on the equipment available.  I had some work done on my spare ball and was pleased with the time the guy took with me and the job he did.  The snack bar area is huge, and the food was decent and reasonably priced.

THE TOURNAMENT -- Be prepared to wait!  We bowled the 10:30 p.m. squad for team and got on the lanes for practice around 11:15 p.m.  That was early, compared to  some squads.  One of our teams from New Mexico slated to bowl the 10:30 p.m. squad on a previous day took to the lanes at 12:30 a.m. and didn't finish until almost 4 a.m.  Some who had to be back for the 7 a.m. D/S squad actually slept on the floor of the center.  Our 2:30 p.m. D/S squad was only 30 minutes late.  Brackets are plentiful, but it takes about an hour an a half to two hours after the squad before they're ready for payouts.  I didn't mind the wait since I managed to win most of my brackets.

THE SHOT -- It's a modified sport shot, but not difficult by any stretch.  I shoot from the wrong (left) side, and I could pick a mark anywhere from the 3 to the 18 and put the ball in the pocket as long as I executed well.  For me, the best shot was definitely down and in.  If I tried to swing it, the ball wouldn't recover.  My husband was watching the right-handers and had the same impression.  If they threw down and in, they were successful, but a swing shot wasn't coming back.  I used a Power Charge Pearl in team and doubles and switched to my Depth Charge for singles.  Sadly, my Ravage was useless.  It's my favorite ball to throw right now, but I might as well have been tossing a marshmallow down the lanes, so it went back in the bag during practice both sessions.

THE APPROACHES -- I wouldn't normally separate this out, but it's worth its own mention here.  Be careful!  It seems that across the house the approaches are either extremely slick or very tacky.  There's no middle ground.  Several women took spills during both of our squads, and one of the best bowlers from our group had to withdraw after the team event.  I heard of a few other women who couldn't even finish the team event because they fell so hard, and an older woman from the other team on our pair had to withdraw during practice and ended up going to the hospital the next day.

MY BOWLING -- I won't cash, because I didn't do anything spectacular, but I'm happy with my effort.  This was only my second women's national tournament, and I bested last year's AE by 99 pins.  I shot just over my current average for AE, and that was my goal since my current average is a few pins higher than last year's book.  I made enough in brackets to more than cover my entry fee, so that's good.  My only frustrations were missing several single pin spares that I just don't miss and my inability to double.

I didn't bowl any of the side events, but my husband and I did practice at Broken Arrow where the BJ is being held.  What a sweet shot in that house!  I should have taken the time to bowl the event there.

If you've read this far, I hope I didn't bore you to tears and that some of the information was useful.  Good luck when you bowl!

Deb

I haven't bowled WIBC since '99 (due to the fact our Internet group expanded to include guys so we bowl ABC now) but this was an excellent read. Great job, Deb
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White Dot
Chocolate is cheaper than therapy and you don't need an appointment.
Card carrying member of Leafs Nation.  Remember the NHL?

Michelle, I bowled during the convention week squads, so we had a lot of (pardon the expression) little old ladies throwing about 5 mph.  They made my puny 14-15 mph ball look like it was blazing down the lanes.  During the team event there was only one "young gun" anywhere near my pair, and I couldn't really see what she was using.  She was trying to swing the shot out wide, throwing across 20 out to about 7, and it just wasn't recovering.  She left washout after washout, and whined instead of adjusting, so she just wasn't a good person to study.

My "swing" shot is very small since I'm only now learning to throw it, only 13 out to about 5.  I had some success with that during team with my Power Charge Pearl, but my Ravage rolled out early even when I knew I executed well.  It was, in fact, too much ball for the lane, I think.  Now that I've had time to puzzle over it, the problem may have been that the go-long-and-snap drilling wasn't a good match.  I didn't take my Bruiser, which is drilled to arc.  That probably would have been the ball to throw if I wanted to swing it out and back.

Sorry I can't give you better information.  I'm just getting to the point in my game where I'm consistent enough to play with drillings, surfaces, etc., so the learning curve is steep.  One thing I can tell you is that the backends weren't huge.  On a THS, I can hook my old rubber spare ball without even trying.  At RiverLanes, the freshly polished rubber ball went stick straight through 9 games.  Of course, we had second shift for both events.  Would have been interesting to see what a fresh shot was like.

Deb