Hello everyone,
     This week we bowled on the Cheetah pattern in Buffalo, NY.  This is the new and improved version of this pattern.  Well, it was definitely new, but improved?  I’m not sure.  The one thing that I like about it is that the scoring pace is now much lower.  This pattern went from a free for all throwing it at the gutter as hard as you could to being a shorter, flat pattern with hang on the gutter.
     I drilled a new Nkryption Code with a slightly stronger pin to try to get a smoother look through the pattern.  It seemed to help control the break point, without having to open the angle through the heads too much.  I used this ball through most of qualifying, and while my scores weren’t as high as usual on this pattern, they were good enough to be in the top 32 after the first round.
     When I came back for the second block, I brought along a couple of stronger balls just in case.  If there is one constant out here, it’s that the lanes will probably be tighter after each run of the lane machine.  Sure enough, there was even more hang down lane than earlier.  I was able to use a Bounty that actually had some surface on it.  This ball started early enough that it didn’t read the tighter back end as much, and I could keep it on line toward the pocket.  I started with some decent scores, and built up a small cushion on the cut number.  The next couple of games started to get a little wet/dry for me, and I bowled a couple of games in the 180s.  Fortunately, the number also stalled a little, and I was able to stay ahead of the cut.
     The next day in the finals, we saw a condition that resembled a major more than a score fest as the advertising for the Cheetah suggests.  There were a lot of low scores, and doubles were hard to come by.  I was pretty much in grind out mode through most of the games.  I had a few good ones, but some bad as well.  I was only able to win three games, and going into the position round, I was about 80 pins back of the top 16.  I tried to use everything I had, and settled between the Nkryption Codes, and the Bounty from the day before.  I also used a Creature for part of it.  I was basically just trying to find the best angle for carry.  At times, the best strategy seemed to be hooking it, and other times it seemed to be better to go straight.  This center also has some topography issues that come into play on some of the lanes.  Some of this is seen on the left lane of the show.  There are simply some lanes that won’t let you play where you want, or where the pattern dictates.  At the end of match play, I missed the cut to the top 16 by 87 pins.  I had also lost three games by less than three pins through the course of the round, including a 256 loss to Scroggins when the scores were somewhat lower.  If these had gone the other way, I would have had enough to make the cut with the bonus pins.  That’s why you never give up in the round robin format.  Anything can happen.
     All in all, it was a pretty good week, and hopefully the good bowling will carry on to Baltimore on the Shark.

                                                     Thanks,

                                                     Steve

--------------------
900 Global/AMF  Sales Manager