Made the long trip out to Reno this past weekend from the east coast. My expectations were pretty high after shooting 1960+ last year. Here's my review of the whole trip:
Team Event Monday 2:30pm lanes 51-52
Started out that day bowling in the 1-2-3 tournament at the grand sierra to get loose. I had a 700 look at that tournament, but I used it more as practice with different angles/balls to shoot a low 600 I believe.
Game 1 I started with a Victory Road at 2000ab/pin over/ no hole - stayed clean playing around the 9-12 boards with little swing room. Had a chance for 220, but I stuck a little on the first ball in the 10th and tugged a 4 pin. Ended up 201
Game 2 I switched to a 1000ab/pin down/low hole Nano to try to create some swing and a better angle into the pocket. The Nano looked like garbage for me, but I stayed relatively clean to finish out with a 207.
Game 3 the lanes started to open up a little and I switched to a different Victory Road at 4000ab/pin up/no hole and got my best look for a 246. I was quite happy with the 654 set in teams as I usually struggle in that event. I put $400 into brackets for teams and got back $1170.
Quick side note before the doubles/singles results: Usually we have the 920am squad for minors, but they switched it on us for no apparent reason even though there were 10 open lanes on that squad. Just another reason I'm all for Riggs fresh for all argument after what we had this year.
Doubles 1140am lanes 17-18
I arrived early at the stadium to catch some views of both the 7am squad and the 920 squad to see where the people in front of us were playing and with what type of equipment. And they were pretty much all over the place, which hurts.
Game 1 - I started with the same Victory Road I ended the team event with and jumped inside about 18 off my hand out slightly to 14-15 area. Had a good look in there, but I couldn't create enough angle to kick out the dimes. Had a late split and ended with a 180. Very little miss room on these pairs, 1 board out and I left a 2 pin 1 board in left a 4 pin.
Game 2 - Started to get dialed in a bit moving back right with the weaker Victory Road and put together a 220 game
Game 3 - Started making small moves back inside and stayed clean for a half of a game but I couldn't strike a lot. My miss room was ridiculous to be honest like stated earlier. Ended the game with 180.
Singles Event 1140am lanes 19-20
Game 1 - The group in front of us on this pair were trying to play up 5 with little success for them. I figured ok they're almost getting there and I have more hand. I jumped outside and started out 6 in a row. That was about it for that line as it went away real quick, left 3 four pins and a 4-9 to finish with a 233
Game 2 - Going right of 10 isn't my A game to begin with, but after the 233 start it was worth trying to stay out there making small moves with my feet, unfortunately it became very over/under for me. Battling every frame to fill 180 something.
Game 3 - It didn't get much better for this game as I tried to get back inside, struggling getting good carry kept me moving and looking back I should have been happy with 9 spare. Ended up 180 round about.
To conclude the bowling portion I ended up 1825+ which is ok, but I was disappointed after a pretty good start on day one. I ended up losing $190 out of the $1000 in brackets on day 2, but still made about $600 all together.
Reno is still Reno as far as the city goes, with moving the bus terminal there was less people hawking you for loose change, and the area around the Eldorado seemed a little cleaner than last year. We only go out there for a few days because it's in Reno, but enjoy the bowling out there. The Eldorado is nothing spectacular, but it does the job for a relatively cheap price. Brews Bros is still a great place to eat and drink, and the Silver Legacy slot machines were paying (for me at least) as I made about $900 on them.
The equipment booths were IMO sub par this year. I usually like to pick up some shirts at the Storm Booth as all I use is Storm stuff, they didnt have much of anything good there unless you wanted a $80 jersey. They did have VG's for $179 drilled but that's about it.
Good luck to those of you who haven't gone yet, hopefully you get a better squad in front of your doubles/singles than we did.
Edited by storm making it rain on 5/27/2011 at 11:11 AM
Edited by storm making it rain on 5/27/2011 at 11:17 AM
