We just moved from the White to something they're calling "Blue 1," and I'm told there's a "Blue 2" and "Blue 3." I don't know if someone is pulling my leg or not, but I just wanted to give you guys who haven't rolled these shots a preview of what we're seeing.

The reason it may be pertinent to you is the word is that state tournaments will be going to USBC Blue very soon.

For starters, I found the USBC Blue pattern to be easier. I think it was because of the higher oil volume. I have decent revs, and if you have good revs on USBC White, I found you ended up having to move too far left, too quickly.

We're on 10-year-old AMF HPL.

The White pattern has a fairly violent backend. It has decent recovery room outside, nice bounce. Big-time backend. Low-rev guys seemed to like it. What makes it hard for me is that hold area is basically nonexistent. I ended up using weak equipment drilled weak, or I couldn't score. Overall, I was about 15-20 pins off my standard league average.

The Blue pattern is almost exactly the opposite. I found it to play sort of in between PBA Viper and Scorpion, my two highest-scoring of the animal patterns. I was able to stay right all night with a medium piece of equipment and make adjustments based on hand positions and speed. Backend was predictable. What the Blue did not have, though, was bounce off the gutter. If you missed out, you were going to washout or leave something with the 2 and the 10 in it. My average on that pattern, so far, has been within 5-7 pins of my standard league average.

From what I can tell, the "Blue 2" and "Blue 3" patterns are of similar shape, just with increased volume.

Jess