Author Topic: Just got back (Read 4137 times)

Arone24 · « **on:** March 05, 2012, 12:09:30 PM »

We just got back from nationals :/ lessons learned:

Don't stay at the belle
Don't go to the "40 frame" side tournament

HAMBONE · « **Reply #1 on:** March 05, 2012, 12:16:20 PM »

Why not?

And what did you see on the lanes?

Drop and give me 10

Jorge300 · « **Reply #2 on:** March 05, 2012, 01:05:48 PM »

Details please?!?

Jorge300

RLandreneau · « **Reply #3 on:** March 05, 2012, 01:48:20 PM »

The weather causes circle bowl to have VERY tacky approaches. I'm assuming that's what he is refering too with the 40 frame game. It's perfectly fine to bowl on, just have to be prepared for it. I've seen a lot of bowlers for tournaments come here and get thrown off by it.

Arone24 · « **Reply #4 on:** March 05, 2012, 03:30:12 PM »

The Belle is just WAY overpriced. Toilet didnt half work. No fridge in the room. etc etc.

This was my first trip to nationals. First, I am no professional. I average about 200 even two nights a week. The team event Saturday at 8:30 I probably wouldve bowled 700 (540) if I could have picked up a spare. I have been fighting buying a spare ball for ten years but I will have one with in the week. I had a pretty good luck playing straight up 13 with a pin down C300 Action Packed and a Pin down storm frantic game 3 moving towards 10.

Sunday we decided to go bowl the "40 frame". First of all the scoring was constantly fouled up because they are taken manually by one person (who was in charge of taking score on 8 lanes). $60 per person is just to me outrageous. The pattern is a house shot. The other reason is by the time we got to boubles and singles Sunday night at 11:30, we were so tired that all of our releases were horribly inconsistent. I was lost. I don't know if I threw two balls all night with the same release. Gives you a new respect for the pros who bowl 50+ games a week.

I also learned that I need to shorten my spans. My thumb and fingers are so sore.

We all average 200 or better on a house pattern and out of the 50+ games the 6 of us bowled on the nationals pattern there were 3 200 games haha. Was a fun experience though. Would do it all over again with the exception of the 40 frame.

DrBob806 · « **Reply #5 on:** March 05, 2012, 04:25:08 PM »

The 40 Frame Game isn't computerized scoring? I've never seen that before, in Toledo, or the USBC site. Was the system down that day?

Jorge300 · « **Reply #6 on:** March 05, 2012, 04:52:19 PM »

Arone,

I'm sorry if this sounds rude, but did it ever occur to you what a 40 frame game means? That's 4 games of bowling, just scored as 1 game. Then you wanted to bowl 6 games of D/S later that night, that's 10 games in one day, that's a lot if you aren't used to it. You should have done the 40 frame game either before/after team or on a day you didn't bowl the USBC Open. And yes, the 40 frame game is always on the house shot, and usually not reoiled during the day. So if you bowl later at night, it can be quite dry. If you want to bowl on a more challenging condition, or even the same condition the USBC Open is using, look into the BTM and 1-2-3 tournaments. The 1-2-3 uses the same shot as the USBC Open for that year, and the BTM uses a Kegel Challenge Pattern usually.

As far as the Belle at Baton Rouge goes, can't argue there. Thought it was overpriced just looking at the prices they were quoting. Got a nice room at the DoubleTree about 3 miles I-10 for about $100/night booked online.

Jorge300

Arone24 · « **Reply #7 on:** March 05, 2012, 05:58:11 PM »

Jorge yes I would say that was kind of rude since that's exactly what I meant but thanks for explaining. Anyway, the only reason we got in it was because the other two alleys told us they didnt have theirs going on (keep in mind Sunday was the only day we had free and something was already going on at metro when we got there at 12. All star said all they had was open bowling and didn't tell us they had the open pattern.

Forgive me. I was just trying to give my opinion in case any other newbies went down without knowing Not knowing. And yes I can count. I know 40 frames would technically mean 4 games. But you add in the score keeper coming over to stop you and ask you how many pins you knocked down or going over to ask them whos turn it is because the print on the screen is so small that noone can read it and your talking about 5 hours long.

No wonder noone wants to post any helpful information on here.

Arone24 · « **Reply #8 on:** March 05, 2012, 06:17:58 PM »

It could have been down that day Dr Bob. All that I know is I wish I had kept the $120 bucks I paid for my girlfriend and I to bowl in it, but hey hindsight is 20/20.

DrBob806 · « **Reply #9 on:** March 05, 2012, 08:11:09 PM »

Thanks....I will call there, or even stop in to check it out.. My group always does the 40 Framer after we're done with the Nationals. I hope whatever problems you guys experienced was just an aberration- that sucks.

Arone24 wrote on 3/5/2012 5:17 PM:It could have been down that day Dr Bob. All that I know is I wish I had kept the $120 bucks I paid for my girlfriend and I to bowl in it, but hey hindsight is 20/20.

Arone24 · « **Reply #10 on:** March 05, 2012, 08:50:33 PM »

Yeah it would probably be something to do afterwards.

Hoselrockets · « **Reply #11 on:** March 05, 2012, 10:05:46 PM »

Had a bad experience a long time ago with the 40 frame game and haven't bowled it since. We always bowl the BJ and sometimes the 123. Last year we were able to ship our bowling balls to the 123 as they didn't charge a handling fee. So we bowled that one.

THB

LotsaBalls · « **Reply #12 on:** March 06, 2012, 12:56:02 AM »

The last time I bowled it in 2010 the lanes were so dry it was nearly un playable the ball hooked instantly when it hit the lane. I will never bowl it again.

CHawk15 · « **Reply #13 on:** April 02, 2012, 04:49:51 PM »

The approaches at Circle Bowl (at least when I bowled) were very tacky and there I think they weren't able to load the 40 frame game program into the scoring machine, so they have a separate computer where someone enters the scores. It was only for 4 lanes on our squad, but it could've been 8 if we had more people. One of my team mates was sticking to the point were he had to pull out due to knee pain. Unfortuantely, we had the 7 AM squad for minors and bowled this aferwards and it just was a continued exercise in frustration.

I struggled because I just couldn't get a good feel for the release point due to finger thumb swelling from bowling more games than I have in a shorter span than I have all year. There was definitely more oil than Starlite lanes in Reno, but it transistioned quickly (mostly due to the power players on our pair).

Dave81644 · « **Reply #14 on:** April 02, 2012, 06:37:50 PM »

The Crowne Plaze booked through the USBC was 83/nite and close.

free breakfast while you stayed there (not great, but OK for free)

Traffic is horrible around the convention center

if there is any kind of event going on while you are there, then traffic is stopped

took me 90 minutes to go 3 miles on a sat a few weeks ago

almost missed my team squad