Well heres the first day report.

73rd Annual Florida State Championships-Team Event

AMF Galaxy West has 32 lanes, they are synthetics with wood approaches.
AMF ball returns and a old AMF Silver Bullet lane conditioner. Automatic scoring is the old Brunswick 2000 units with B&W monitors.

The lane area is well lit and the equipment seemed to work pretty good. The only problems I saw was on our lanes (17-18). At the start of warm-up the balls got hung up in back. The problem was fixed quickly. Also the lane machine seemed to fishtail somewhat going down the lanes.

Staff was friendly and the place was clean/maintained pretty well. The restrooms are kind of small. The cafe food was good,they push lot's of combos. Prices not overly high considering their combo's.

The "Brian Brazeau Pro Shop" is a small tight operation. A Haus machine, a Determinator etc. A little too pricey for me, $13 for a roll of green Turbo tape is a little high. A FURY for $229, Black Widow for $189. Hes pushing Morich balls right now (Awesome HOOK,FLIP,REV & FINISH) sale price is $169.00. He sold alot of balls while we were there.

Heres a few pictures, I'll add more later.

Click Here
As for the Tournament-

We bowled the last shift (1:00pm) the first shift was small about 10 teams. We checked in early, it was fast and we got a free big ceramic mug. Also they gave out a envelope with Ocala visitor info.

We bowled on lanes 17 & 18. They fresh oiled the lanes with a old AMF Silver Bullet machine, It made 2 passes down the lanes. The first pass was all the way to the end of the lanes. The 2nd pass stopped at about 44' heres a picture of where it stopped.

Click Here

No pattern was posted anywhere. The concensus was that it was a very flat, medium/medium low volume pattern. Majority of lane play was between 2nd & 3rd arrow out to 9-10, not covering a lot of boards. Speed control and being accurate payed off, with good solid strikes. Ball reacted predictably on strike shots and spares.

To far to the right and balls didn't quite come back (washouts), pulls left thru the nose with possible splits. Too fast ten pins and possible washouts.

I bowled 222-163-188. I used my Horizon solid the 1st & 3rd games, for the 2nd I used it and tried the black widow.

Heres lane play diagram of my shot.

Click Here

Game#1 with the Horizon was great! Standing on 21 hitting 12 at the arrows out to 8/9. reaction was very predictable. Mostly strikes,corner spares and a couple double woods. Ending with a 222

Game#2 started leaving the 9 pin instead of sticking with the horizon and making a parallel adjustment left. I switched to the Black Widow after a couple of spares and splits, I switched back to the horizon made the parallel move 2 boards left to 23. Started striking again but too late finished with the 163.

Game#3 Guessed right I think moved back to 21 and up on the approach 3". Some strikes and mostly spares now. A split got me near the end finishing with 188.

The shot held up for the 3 games. I thought it would get real dry by the 3rd game, but it didn't. Even though we all played a similar lines on our pair.

My team didn't fair well, the others are older house bowlers. I and my doubles partner have the most experience bowling on other conditions. He bowled 155-190-221 using a burgandy columbia U-Dot Urethane.

Note they have Scr./Hdcp. brackets ($5) and Scr./Hdcp. side pots. Unless they change how they run them, think twice about entering. They don't post anything! till its all done. They just brought out the final sheet at the end and put them on the table. Imagine 30 guys crowded around a little table, trying to look at these sheets. It's was so silly!

They said they can't post anything because the Assoc. said they can't. They didn't want guys running back to look at the sheets, just stay at the lanes and bowl.

The prize list-
Team Hdcp.
1st place $5000.00 paying to 131st place is $90.00

Team Scr.
1st place $1500.00 paying to 25th place is $76.00

Doubles Hdcp.
1st place $2000.00 paying to 327th place is $40.00

Doubles Scr.
1st place $900.00 paying to 71st place is $30.00

Singles Hdcp.
1st place $1000.00 paying to 654th place is $25.00

Singles Scr.
1st place $1000.00 paying to 152nd place is $25.00

All Events Hdcp.
1st place $1000.00 paying to 462nd place is $10.00

All Events Scr.
1st place $800.00 paying to 137th place is $20.00
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Aloarjr810
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Click For My Grip

We went last year when it was in Stuart, and collected our big mugs, too.  Don't hold your breath waiting for results to be posted on-line.  They'll keep filing for extensions to delay it as long as they can, then only post the top ten in each category, not all cashers.
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the 3 is silent

Well heres the Day 2 report. "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly"

73rd Annual Florida State Championships-Doubles/Singles Event

AMF Galaxy East has 40 lanes, they are synthetics with wood approaches. Brunswick 2000 ball returns and a SUMMIT lane conditioner. Automatic scoring is done with AMF units with color monitors.

The house seems well maintained and well staffed. The restrooms clean and larger than West. The cafe food was good,they push lot's of combos. Prices not overly high considering their combo's. (You kind of throw them off if you order anything other than a combo.)

"Jeffs Pro Shop" is a small tight operation and a fair selection of Balls,Bags and Shoes. Prices are not bad about the going rate of most places around here.
Tournament specials-Total NV,No Mercy,Ang.One,Shift or Fury $179.95 drilled.
plus a sale on shoes.

Heres a few pictures, I'll add more later

Click Here

As for the Tournament-

We bowled the last shift (2:00pm) with 38 lanes used, 3 people to a lane. The first shift was about 20 lanes with 3 people to a lane. The operation was run alot better, check in was in a conference room at one end of the building. The brackets and raffles and door prizes handled here also.

The Brackets ran better here though they don't post anything till the shift is done. Also payoff was delayed AWHILE do to technical problems. So you have to wait to see if you in anything.

The raffle was for a "STORM PYRO" and I bought $10 worth of tickets.
I WON the darn thing!(Storm Pyro 16# TW.2.96oz 3-3.5"pin)

We bowled on lanes 9 & 10. They fresh oiled with a fairly new looking SUMMIT lane machine. It made 2 passes down the lanes. The first pass was all the way to the end of the lanes. The 2nd pass stopped at about 50' heres a picture of where it stopped.

Click Here

No pattern was posted anywhere. I asked the lane man and this is what I was told.That it was a 36' pattern the machine on the first pass oils all the way through the pindeck, then it brushes(buffs?) it back on the way back. Then the 2nd pass it puts down the 36' pattern. You could easly see a higher volume of oil about 8 to 8 after the 2nd pass on the lanes.

The machine stopped alot farther down the lane than 36', I assume it it was buffing after the 36' point. This pattern I think was similar to the nationals (Not saying thats what it was). If you got the ball out too far, it didn't come back. If you stood right and slowed or pulled it the ball took off.

Starting off with doubles I bowled bad. 104-138-188. The Black widow at 800grit, needed more surface I think for me. Unless I was spot on it didn't move. The Horizon at 800grit had the midlane move, but needed some more surface too. A particle ball I think would have been right for doubles, at least for me. I was just hoping the shot would start breaking down.

Now these conditions for my other bowlers helped them some. They had slower speeds and it helped their balls get down the lanes. High man had a 608 using a particle ball. My doubles partner shot 185-182-177 with a urethane, but he has a lot more hand in it than I do.

Now for singles you stayed on the same pair. the shot started breaking down the end of the doubles 3rd game. My Horizon started working I shot 232-188-164 and the others scores started falling off. My partner changed balls to a rotogrip resin ball and shot 194-135-207.

Heres a diagram of some lane play. This is based on the good shots I made and the shots made by those around me that were scoring well.

Click Here

By the end of the 3rd game I was slowing down, I couldn't keep the speed up. Interesting though was even with these bad scores I was winning some brackets.

Over all it was a fun time, one of the nicer AMF houses I've seen.

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Aloarjr810
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Click For My Grip

Edited on 4/23/2007 11:41 AM