From what I've been hearing, the shots both at Travis and at the house in Vacaville, have NOT been producing very good scores. I've never been to the house at Travis AFB, but if it's like any of the other military houses that I've bowled at, they most likely have a really flat shot that doesn't lend itself to huge scoring. From what some of the locals have been telling me, it almost seems that the only way to get any type of scores on what's being laid out for state is to play a fallback type of shot, leaving makable spares, then covering them.

I cannot believe I'm bowling this tournament again this year after what happened last year.  The shot in Orange County in the singles and doubles at Carter Lanes was changed halfway through the tournament, because the scores were too high.  Why I'm doing this again after that is beyond me.  I found it to be one of the poorest run tournaments of this level I've ever seen.  I'm just going to try to focus on my bowling this year, do as well as I possibly can, and then be done with state after that.

This tournament is a joke. The people running it are obviously not serious bowlers or aren't good bowlers. Check in 4 balls and only allowed to bring 2 to the lanes? So basically a first/strike ball and a spare ball. What kind of crap is that? At the beginning of the tourney they make you walk out across the lanes on the approaches. They play some corny music and make all the spectators clap. If bowling alone didn't make me feel like a dork walking to that corny music did it for me. Once we started we found out they didn't re-oil the lanes like they were supposed to so the lanes were practically toast. This was ok for me since I like drier lanes but for Pchee since he puts on the manly revs his ball would turn before it hit the pins. Team was a good shot. We were the only squad so we got to see fresh oil. The shot had OB 15 out so I had to play inside. The shot dried out quick and the ball was checking up quick. Since we only were allowed 2 balls I was reluctant to change balls, scared that it will not do well and have to go back and chase down another ball. Where we stored our equipment wasn't even convenient for bowlers. Good thing Saw Mill was there to help us out if we needed a ball change. Travis bowl just put in brand new lanes and Quibica system so the lanes were fresh and no grooves. The fun part of bowling at Travis was trying to beat the speed mark on the quibica. I managed to get my spare ball up to 25.73mph and Pchee got his up to 25.98mph. Getting to 26mph was a very difficult task. Anyways, I ended up shooting 647 for singles, 617 for doubles and 5 something for team. Enough of the ranting about how horrible this tourney was..

The fun part of bowling this tourney was hanging out with my teamates Saw Mill, Mrs. Saw Mill, CB and Pchee. I would like to thank them for bowling with me and sharing some good laughs. I wont go into detail on how fun our dining experiences were but if you know Pchee and Saw Mill you can imagine all the clowning that was done. Hopefully we will get to do it again.

Well this is my take on the California State Tournament. If anyone is bowling this in the near future bring someone along who is not bowling who can grab equipment for you. It will sure save you a lot of grief. Thanks again Saw Mill for all of your help and cheering for our team!


Mike

Edited on 6/16/2003 7:47 PM