I bowled in an ABT tournament for the first time this weekend, and it was a humbling experience to say the least.

I was told after my squad that the pattern was 44ft, and completely flat, wood lanes.  Not sure on the volume, but it seemed rather high, and no bump near the gutter.

During my practice shots I was using a Cell, lightly polished.  I tried inside and didn't really see anything I liked.  Lots of flat hits.  I found something straight up 12, but it was sketchy at best.  If I missed by a board outside I'd whiff the headpin, but I had about 2 boards inside my mark and I'd still be around the headpin.  I went 209 first game, and felt like I was in good shape based on the scores around me.  It was all down hill from there, my wiggle room dried up, and what little backend we had was gone, and I started missing easy spares.  I ended that squad -66, for 3 games with handicap mind you.  They announced the cut score was at +11 after that squad, so I figured I would give it another go in the next squad.

I jumped inside playing 20 out to 14 or so, I had about a board and a half to the outside, and nothing inside that.  The problem now was that the fronts were gone so I had to switch to something weaker but that would still give me something on the backend.  So I picked up my Rapid Fire and hoped for the best.  Ball reaction for everyone was comical, the ball would wiggle in the fronts, lay off and then break very late.  I tried outside in practice for a few shots, and the ball went completely straight.  So I stayed in and hoped to grind it out and get lucky once in a while.  I went 184, 164, 186 with a few missed single pin spares, and a few splits.  -18 for that squad with handicap.  The cut after that squad was +14.  The sad part is that I was close to that number had I made my spares.

So yeah, mad props to those that can average over a deuce on these types of conditions!  I average 205 on a house shot, and looked like a fool on a flat shot.
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-Clint

Edited on 3/22/2009 4:17 PM