Here is a re-cap of the week straight from Steve.
World Championship Recap
Hello, and welcome to what I hope to be a regular update from each of the weeks on tour. I want to give a recap of strategy, and bowling balls used throughout the week.
We bowled at Northrock Lanes in Wichita, KS this week. The lane surface is original anvilane from around 1987. That’s a lot of games over the years. Needless to say, there was some friction out there with quick and large transitions.
I started the tournament with the new Bounty from 900Global. The debut of this ball was as good as I could of expected starting with a 279 out of the gate. This ball gave me really strong midlane roll with a strong continuation through the pins. Both ends of the building played much different, and when I made the turn, there was much more hook on the lane. I moved much farther in and bowled a solid game in the 220s. By this time I started seeing transitions on nearly every shot. I spent most of the next couple of games changing balls to keep the shot on line. I finally settled on an Nkryption Code from AMF. This ball gave me a little better look through the front end with a smoother roll through the pins. I was able to finish the block strong at plus 171 putting me in the top twelve for the block. At the end of the day I stayed in the top 20.
The next day I had to bowl the late shift, which was still on the fresh pattern. The format for this tournament was for A squad to bowl six games, followed by B squad on the leftover burn. The lanes were re-oiled, and then C squad bowled their games on the fresh. This way, every squad got to bowl on early fresh, late fresh, and the leftover burn. I can tell you that there is a difference between the early and late fresh patterns.
This block, I started with another Bounty that I drilled for this block. This one, I polished up quite a bit to try to keep up with the breakdown. It worked well for the first few games, and I started decent. I also saw quick transitions again, and the middle part of the house gave me some trouble and I bowled a couple of low games. I again settled on the Nkryption Code to finish the block. I did have to play much deeper on the lane for this squad. There was much more friction in the middle, and if forced everyone way farther left. I ended up in front of the ball return and lofted the gutter for the last game. I ended up only bowling plus 76 for the block, and put me in 21st place. The scoring pace was a little lower today.
I bowled the third block on the burn. To tell you the truth, I was the most concerned over this squad. There was so much friction at the end of each of our fresh squads, that it didn’t seem there would be any room to go. Well, just as expected, they hooked a lot. I went through a lot of different balls in practice. I was able to find a good look outside around 6-7. I actually had a few options here with some of the less aggressive balls. I started with an old Radar Lock from AMF. I was able to use some of the oil that was pushed to the right from the earlier squad. I still had to make great shots, but I felt like I had the best chance to use the oil that I could find. I started the block great with the front 8, and shooting 268 out of the gate. One problem that we had was going lane to lane. There were pretty big differences on each lane. My next two games were a little tougher, and I struggled to a 190 and a 160 game. Here again, I spent time switching between a Code, and a Creature. I settled on the Creature. This ball gave me much better length through the front, but still gave me a good movement in front of the pins. More of a skid/snap reaction. This matched up much better, and I bowled 85 over for the last three games. I finished the block at plus 110 putting me at 15th after qualifying.
The fourth block was a 9 game block to cut to the finalists. The top eight in this tournament after qualifying earned a bye into the super 16. I started the day only about 100 or so away, and had a lot of games to catch the leaders. I once again started with a Bounty, and bowled great starting with a 255 and a 238 bringing me less than 50 from the top eight. As I saw all week, that 3rd game showed big transitions that were hard to keep up with, and the next two games were tougher. It seemed like that was the case for a lot of the players as well. The number to the top eight was slowing down as well. I managed to bowl a 220 game, but then went back to a 190 and a 170 game. During this time, I spent a lot of time changing balls to try to keep up with the moves. I used the Nkryption Code for a while, went to the Code, and settled on the Creature at the end. It seemed like there was more friction each round we bowled. Even though I didn’t bowl as well as I hoped, I qualified well in the number for match play.
My first match was against Jeremy Hunt. He is a good player who has good success in the regionals, and has bowled well in some tour stops as well. I had to keep an open mind for the finals, because you never know what your going to get when that machine goes down the lane. They were actually close, and I was able to use the shiny Bounty to start. The one thing that I was able to do here was manage the pair better. Since I didn’t have to move each game, the transitions were easier to read. Rather than trying to fight the inside, I was able to soften up my hand at the bottom of the swing, and roll through the track and let the ball stay on line. At the end of the second game, I was able to switch to the Code, and play the same shot.
My second match was against Jason Sterner. Another good player who is solid at the line. He was coming off a victory over Tommy Jones. My strategy was the same for this match. The only difference was that there seemed to be more friction in the middle of the lane. My Bounty was reading the spot a little too much. I did however have a good look with the Break Solid. I was able to use this ball for the whole match adjusting my hand position, and the lanes changed. Jason played deeper than me, and I think that might have helped me stay out as long as I did.
My third match was against Steve Harman. Another solid exempt player with a strong ball roll. He qualified in the top eight, so he was going to be a little more rested. For whatever reason, this pair was a mess from the start. There was much more friction in the middle, and hang to the right. I started with the Break s75. I was almost as deep as I was in the later stages of qualifying. This ball gave me better recovery, but I did have to start much deeper to cut the angle through the heads. I started with some good games to take a 2-0 lead. I had a chance in game three to win by a pin, but missed the shot at the bottom. At this point, the right lane was getting much tighter down lane, and the pair was getting worse. I switched back to the Nkryption Code and bowled a good 243 game to take a 3-1 lead. The next game, I was still struggling with the right lane being so tight. I think at one point, I had the pair at least 20 boards different. I bowled a really bad game next, and had to try something for the next game. The last thing I wanted was to bowl a game seven after being up 3-1. I finally moved way deeper on the right lane and took more hand out of it and just tried to keep it on line to the pocket. I bowled a 204 game, and advanced to the round of eight.
Now I had to bowl Mika Koivuniemi for the show. Mika had played farther right in most of his matches, and I thought I would probably be able to start somewhere around there. We both started out around 6-7. Mika was actually a little farther right of that. I started with the same Break that I used in the match with Sterner. I played them harder and straighter trying to go up the back of the ball, and not give the pocket away too much. The first game was lower scoring, and I saw some quick breakdown on the lane, and it forced me to look for more length. The next ball in line for me was to go back to the Code. This ball was perfect, since it gave me some hold on the lane, and the ball would come off the dry hard enough to create better angle and carry. I bowled 257 to win by ten and take a 2-0 lead. The next game, Mika started seeing the same thing I did earlier. I think me being a little left of him took some of the hold away. Part of his third game was spent trying to line up deeper. With a 3-0 lead, I had to try to hold him off before we saw any momentum change. I’ve seen enough 3-0 leads turn into game seven to take anything lightly. I started with a string of strikes to hold on to a slim lead. Mika started with a spare and then strung together the next 8 in a row. The whole time I was bowling this game, I was thinking about what the next move might be. I was planning on switching to the creature, and play the same zone. At the same time, I’m trying to strike out to keep pressure on Mika. As it turned out, I struck out in the tenth to force Mika to get the first hit, and 9 spare to stay alive. He threw a great shot and rung a ten to end the match. I was able to sweep him and advance to the telecast.
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900 Global/AMF Sales Manager
