This could get long...so bare with me, this was one interesting but great time.
Got to go to my first gateway classic tournament at Arnold bowl. Old wooden house, flying backends, good carry though, but no gimmes if you go high. I was in the classics divisions...which was + or - 170 for the first day of qualifying. I was in A squad, and of course things got ugly right when I first arrived. I was almost not accepted in because my temporary card had expired and the update on it was not valid, but they allowed me to bowl, knowing it was not my fault the card was not done correctly. Got to the lanes, good amount of head oil, FLYING backends. Started with a 189 playing straight up 10. Moved over a pair, and decided to go straight down to my weakest ball, my hex drilled label. Good move, considering I threw that bowl for the rest of the Entire tournament. Next games were 206,203,177(started game with 3 splits), and 212, moving in small increments of 2 boards left every game except the last. Going into the break I was +137 and in good shape.
While the B squad was bowling their first 5 I went over to get some Steak N Shake...Mmmm....Steak N shake....yum.
Anyway, got back for my last 5. Surprisingly there was not too much transition. Came out weak, 192, survived off single pin spares. Next 3, jumped 4 left and raised my hand to lengthen my backswing for more speed. I got locked onto the pocket, just had to deal with some average carry, 203,212,222. Finished with a 197 trying to find some better carry. Finished the first day +313, exceptional for me considering it was my first tournament, I really did not know what to expect. Needed to finish in the top ten for day 2, I finished in 3rd. Funny thing was while all my friends/teammates left with sore and blistered thumbs mine was just fine, thanks to some of the great advice from the BR guys here.
Back for the second day, there was a blind draw, and the classics youth were paired with the classic adults for doubles match play. Classics were + or - 370 each game, plus bonus 30 pins if you won your match vs your opponent. Let me just say me and my partner did not start off hot. I went 189,201,158 my first 3, and we lost all three games, we were down -43 after 3. Made a small push the next two, I went 204,218. Back to +39 but lost all matches. Finally after the oil started to carry down I could control my breakpoint and we started to turn it on. We ended up winning the next two, I went 222,258. The 8th game killed us, despite me throwing a 218 and us putting up a 474 together, we lost to a 482. My 9th I threw a 259, and we finished +473 going into the position round. Doing as poorly as we did we battled for 7th place out of 10. Absolute awesome match, me and my partner started out with nothing 2 opens for me while the adult for them had 6 in a row from the 3rd to 9th frames. However in the sixth I made a 3 board move left and found it, struck out from the 6th while my there adult threw 8/X in his tenth leaving it up to my partner. Going into the last ball it was 417 them 409 us. My partner threw it dead flush and we won 419 to 417 for a very disappointing 7th place finish.
After that I decided to stay and watch the position rounds, and a friend of mine's father introduced me to someone he used to know. It was a good man named John Wonders, the creator of the original Hammer, the current owner of Visionary. I shook hands with him and I even got a little sneak peak into the thoughts of Visionary on the USBC proposals. We were talking about it and he mentioned to my friends father that changing equipment was not going to help but rather, by taking away the lively kickboards some of the crazy flying messengers and trip shots we are all too used to would go away and scores would settle down some. I have to say, he's got a great point. That was a real treat for me, especially considering my next ball is most likely to be the slate blue gargoyle.
Anyway the last thing worth mentioning was in the finals an older gentleman, the winner of the masters division was very impressive. His last game was a 289, which could have been 300 but he fell a 9 pin short and a strike short. While everyone else was either swinging it real deep or throwing the heat right at the 1-3 he was playing a smooth little arc and Crushing the rack. Apparently Chris Barnes showed this man at a pro-am a drilling he used for dry lanes that creates a hook/set or a weaker backend type of reaction. I must say, I am really itching now to try something like this type of drilling on one of my new balls. Too bad I don't know exactly what it was.
All in all I walked out with 50 dollars in scholarship money, and 20 games of practice, and learned a whole lot from this experience. It's a shame I did not perform better but, there are still 3 of these gateways left, and I will not be shy to try even harder in the next one. Any comments are welcome.
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-If you're not willing to change, you're not willing to improve.
-Life is like a coin, you can spend it any way you want, but you can only spend it once.
-I will forever love this great game, I love the people and the competition, I only wish the best would get the recognition of an ATHLETE that they deserve.
