Given the circumstances that the outcome is really based on a bowlers performance in one frame or one ball, and the bowler had to work to get the circumstances lined up correctly for an award, it would be hard for me to call it sandbagging. Now if a bowler intentionally threw off for several frames or several games, definitely yes it is sandbagging.
There are those rare occurrences where it comes down to needing a specific pin count on one or two balls to pick up an award. Well, it can be a challenge to actually get the desired count needed! I still recall my first triplicate (meager 157)....I was up in the 10th frame of the third game, open frame in the 9th, and I needed 23 pins for the triplicate. Well, it just so happened that I had not thrown a double during the entire 3 games leading up to this final frame! Well, I got the first strike in the 10th. Then, by some miracle, I got my first double of the entire night in the 11th frame. Knowing that I needed a 3 count for the triplicate, I turned to the team captain of the team which I was subbing on that night and asked the captain "do you want me to go for the full count, or do you want me to go for 3?" The team captain answered back "don't worry about the full count, see about getting your 3 count for the patch". I took out the old trusty Blue Dot, lined up for picking up the 6-10 spare conversion, let the ball fly, and picked the 6-9-10 clean off the right corner for my third 157! The teammates that I was subbing with went extatic, since they realized that I got an award on that shot......and, the team went on to win the point, so no harm was done. I talked to the team captain afterwards and told her that I would have gone for max pin count on the last ball if the game was in jeopardy, but she said that she would have insisted that I try for the award instead and not to worry about the points!
I added a second triplicate award to my credit about a year ago....I got lucky one night and picked up a 227 Triplicate Series.
Edited on 6/9/2003 4:23 AM
