So I am actually bowling the Open Championships in June. Im from San Francisco, so i decided to take a road trip up to Reno and Bowl the Bowlers Journal. So the BJ is actually on the high end of the Stadium. Arrived there at 11am and bowled on the fresh. I brought Pursuit-s, AMF Clutch, Victory road solid(lots of games), Crossroad, and Fireroad. I usually bowl out of a house that has wood lanes. I am a cranker 18mph with about 500RPM. What the BJ does is they have the 5 pairs to work with. I will say i DO NOT like how they run the tournament. we started on a pair with fresh i think i started on 75-76 went to 77-78 then made the turn and bowled on 71-72, But here is what i dont like as we(i had a friend bowling with me) were bowling our second game they started 2 other guys on 71-72 so as we made the turn our 3rd game was after someone already bowled on it. so we had 2 games fresh and 1 game where 2 people practiced for 6 mins and bowled 2 games! (1 game each) then we bowled our 3 games doubles. which we followed others 73-74,75-76,77-78. I understand you only have 10 lanes to work with but dont just have people jump in and start when we have to make a turn.

I am so glad i made this trip up to see where my equipment is at.

Now my opinion on how the condition is. 1stgame i tried to stand 16 and play up 10 trying to stay up the back of the ball using both my Victory road solid (which is burned out too many games) and my pursuit-S. I could not get the victory road solid to read the back and react the way i wanted so i didn't like that look. The pursuit-s(2000 AB to me seemed to burn out and not face up to the pocket and when i tried to go right stand 11 and go up 7-8 it would leave me big 4 just reading too early. Tried my AMF Clutch (4000 AB) and it was just to strong off the back on the fresh.My crossroad did a little better but just wasn't giving me much on the backs. SO the one shot i figured i could play was standing 22 looking 16 out to 10(the marker) with the fireroad. I was able to get to the pocket but the Fireroad just wasn't enough pearl to help me carry. so singles first 3 shot 478 very bad!
Doubles (next 3) i went 578 staying with the Fireroad/Clutch ! and did ok i really had to slow myself down to be able to let the ball read the back the first 2 games. I think the fireroad just wasnt enough of a pearl ball to allow me a little room. I needed a pearl with a little more kick in the back to play inside! Then comes the best game of the 6. on my last game i took out the AMF clutch and trusted my ability and started wheeling it. Standing 30 looking at 18 at arrows pushing out to about 10. and boom i started striking and shot 212. It was just so hard to think that none of my other equipment was reading the back that going to the Clutch and wheeling it would give me a good look. But it did. It actually gave me a few boards left and right as well.

Now i can see maybe i need a stronger pearl  or a good ball with maybe 2000-4000AB to play that doubles singles pattern.
Then after watching the Curtis odom singles doubles BOWL TV telecast and the guy shooting 299 it does look like to me you can start a little in on the pattern and just move left a bit when needed to catch some oil in the fronts to allow the ball to get down and have enough energy left without burning up in the mids and at least get to the pocket.

I plan on getting a Ebonite champion (to fit above my Fireroad) and maybe an Iq tour (black) to replace my victory road solid.

Thats my experience. thanks for reading
chris Wanstrath

Thanks for the report.

Two years ago in Reno, they wouldn't put me on a pair because there weren't enough bowlers.  I ended bowling the 1-2-3 instead and cashed in that.  With that in the back of my mind I may skip it this year even if it will help me in minors..sorry Monster Stitch!