Just like to be the first to say that this was one of the best ran tournaments ive bowled in.  Results and bracket information was up to date very quickly.  Not to mention the great prize fund.  I ended up 14th and got $525, for a $140 entry fee, thats pretty good.  I hope Tony posts the prize list on here so people can see just how good it was.  

Now if we can somehow fix that left side problem for the finals next year.  Good thing they didn't have that look on saturday or I might have dropped a buck or two lol

Once again just like to say thanks for a well ran tournament guys!
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"Typical House Bowler"

Why not try and run 5 or 6 of these a year instead of a membership club thing every 3 or 4 weeks.

Sounds like every 2 months could draw the interest that everyone is looking for and allows for a much better prize fund.

12 VMSBT tournaments is way too much each year with the decline in bowlings interest and the economy.

Golf Is Better

VMSBT only runs Jan-May and September-October. We haven't run 12 events in the last 2 years.
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Tony Walton
Columbia 300 Regional/Amateur Staff Member
VMSBT Tournament Director
http://www.vmsbt.com

Bill - I know you did not bowl the tournament so I'll share with you on BR about the Broadway. I bowled on it at Perry Hall and at the Kegel Training Center. The pattern allows players to hit the pocket "IF" they are lined up no different then the PBA patterns that everyone loves in spite of the HIGH scoring pace they yield.

When you have a field of good bowlers bowling on something they can identify, you will see some striking going on. Ask the many bowlers who did not strike how easy they were. They were so easy that you had bowlers going more then minus 200 during qualifying. Those bowlers who actually bowl tournaments realize this tournament was far from a shootout.

Golf is Better - I love your viewpoint to run "bigger" events and scrap the monthly tournaments but that would absolutely kill what just happened. VMSBT is $80 to bowl each month and it gives "bowlers" something competitive to bowl. Not to mention, the $3K came from some sponsors so paying $3K every other month is not as easy as it sounds. People always say there is no money at local events, to give you all an idea, it's nothing in a year for an tournament organization to pay $100,000 to it's competitors.

Hopefully you have been supporting the local tournament scene and helping it grow by either bowling or spreading the word about tournaments.
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Baker...Why doesn't my ball hk?
40 Boards & A Ball Tournament Director
www.40boards.com
The left sucks & the right is wide open! R.I.P. Brizmo 6/15/08

Jeff,  in my case, it wasn't that I couldn't get strikes, it was a few too many splits and 4 or 5 very makeable spares that I missed.  As for the scores being high, I was expecting something around 215 to cash, so +155 was close to what I thought.  I just made too many mistakes.

Colin

BR Readers and VMSBT Followers,

I took some time thinking about what to say before writing this reply.  First, thank you Tony for running this tournament.  It is unfortunate that the final standings ended the way they did with 7 out of the top 11 being lefties, but it is what it is and everyone had to throw the ball.

I will put my perspective on how I feel I should've played the lanes differently from Day 1 and hopefully the righties will see what I saw.

The Broadway pattern is 37' - that is only 2 feet longer than the Cheetah which to me means you have to get the ball to the gutter to score well.  I took that mindset with me on Day 1, used a ball that was a little stronger than what I would use on the Cheetah and shot 1976 for the day.

Day 2 - the shot was reacting a little stronger than on Day 1.  So I did what most righties would do, either play with a weaker piece or move left and play the shot a little deeper.  WRONG ANSWER! This is what I found myself doing and saw most of the righties doing, throwing something longer (PIN to PAP) or weaker (COVERSTOCK).  Everyone seemed to forget that this was only 37' and 2 feet longer than the Cheetah, you still needed to get the ball to the gutter!

The point I'm trying to make is that the lefties are accumstomed to playing the track and left of the track, they rarely have to play the patterns deep so in my mind they took full advantage of the free hook that was to the left for them which was there for the righties we just didn't see it because we're so accustomed to moving left and playing drier patterns deep.

At the end of game 3, I woke up and moved my breakpoint back out to 3/4, I shot 120 over for the next 4 and had I done that games 1-3 I might have been able to win a couple more matches.

The goal of this post is by far NOT to give lefties more credit than they deserve , but to hopefully give the righties that were bowling some information for thought the next time we are up against a condition/situation like this so we maybe can turn the standing around and have it the way it should be, 7 out of the top 11 being right-handers!!

Congratulations to all the bowlers who made it to match play.  I'm sure at one point there was some adversity that all of us had to overcome in order to get to the finals, so be proud of yourselves for getting through that and making it as far as you did in a field of 140 bowlers.

Hats off to Troy and Mike for bascially running away with the 1/2 spots.  Those gentlemen bowled extremely well.

To all the lefties - we'll meet again!


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Stephen Hahn

http://www.bowl4money.com (Personal Site)

http://www.sparesproshop.com (Staff)

For those of you that don't know this, the final match between Troy and Mike was 265 - 264.
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Stephen Hahn

http://www.bowl4money.com (Personal Site)

http://www.sparesproshop.com (Staff)

Tony,

Here is the other observation.  On Sunday, there were obviously less bowlers.  Therefore, all the people during qualifying squads that were playing deep created hold for the guys like me who were playing right.

Because there were less righties doing that, the hold area didn't get created til late game 4 early game 5, whereas on Saturday it was there by game 3.

The only thing I can say is that nothing was awarded to me for being the overall leader after qualifying.  I know you gave balls out to the squad leaders but in my opinion, I would've given the balls out to the top two non-cashers and given a monetary award to the squad leaders.

Maybe splitting up that HIGH GAME OF THE DAY prize between the squad leaders - because you're already paying out a HIGH Game Pot.

Just my thoughts....
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Stephen Hahn

http://www.bowl4money.com (Personal Site)

http://www.sparesproshop.com (Staff)