Doubles & Team (Long)

Well, the doubles was interesting to say the least. I was paired with Sean while Matt bowled with Dom.

We both started really well shooting 490 for the first game and I had a consistent 227. This was using the Dry Zone Solid and I was playing roughly 6 to 3 at the break point. We moved pairs and already to the other side of the centre. The pattern had brokendown a bit more which had helped me feel like I had room, with a bit of carry I shot a good game and had 268, together with Sean having 468. We moved again and this caused a change in reaction and didn't start too well. I changed ball to the Avalanche Pearl and moved slightly to the right a board or two which helped the reaction a little with a 230 odd.

After moving again the lanes carried down further and I had to switch to a more aggressive ball, this being the pin down Ultra Zone, to keep a decent reaction without having to be too precise. Another 230 later and a few more mistakes a game later I had lower scores but this being my fault I can't really fault anything else. I shot 217 and struckout with the last 4 when we needed it to shoot 200 dead to finish out along with Sean having 191 and 203. This left me 181 over for the 6 and I feel I looked good throughout and made the right choices at the right time, which is why I was left so far over.

Unfortunetly though, the next squad had a few great teams and we barely missed out on the doubles knockout placing in 5th : (

Dom & Matt were leading qualifiers and managed to win the first doubles knockout game against Iceland. A bit of revenge for knocking Sean & I into 5th, go on fellas! haha!
Although in the next match they both looked good in practice but couldn't get the breaks the Swede's were getting and lost a bit of reaction which meant the Swede's managed to beat them for the Gold. Still, another Silver to add to the boys medal tally!


Yesterday was the first squad of team play, and this was on the Long Pattern, not exactly my favourite of the two either! These lanes started rather funky and I found that my Blast Zone, even after the first two shots with one being a soft 10, couldn't give me a consistent reaction and any confidence to throw the ball. Therefore, I switched to the Ultra Zone (pin down) to get a better rolling reaction and hopefully some more forgiving reaction. I managed to finish the first game out with 182 and the team was 5 over. This placed us 6th at the early doors.
We changed sides, and I thought I would try my Blast Zone again for the first shot, through the nose! haha! I decided that should I touch that ball again unless urgently needed I would chop my fingers off, therefore to be safe I passed it to Ray to put back in the paddock!!
This side of the centre (lower numbers) was a bit different. The lanes had already carried down in practice (after 20 minutes of it, what else do you expect I guess!) and now the heads started to go with them. This made it really difficult to get not only a consistent reaction but to get a comfortable look to the pocket. Move in, slow down, but miss right you're screwed, and if you throw it harder and stay right, but miss left, you're screwed again!

I tried what I could and attempted to stay clean for a 180 and thought about the next game after moving. Our cross didn't help us too much, this pair wasn't much better if not worse than the last! The heads were pretty much shot in my eyes, and staying deep but slow was a bit too risky incase of missing either side of your mark! I switched to my Ultra Zone (pin up) to try and get a better reaction looking at the mid-lane rather than the back-end and this looked good to start but dicipated as the game went on. With a few bad frames for some of us including myself, we shot 767 and this included me shooting 171.

Not a good day on the Long and for the team but after a Team meeting later on we felt a lot more confident about today for the Short! After day 1 for the team we were sitting in 15th with our stronger pattern yet to come. A report about today's play and results from my point of view will be up later or tomorrow! Bye for now : )

Official Practice & Singles

Yesterday was official practice and all in all, this went rather well. I played around with a few different shots and found a few different looks compared to 'un'official practice during the week.

Therefore, I changed a few surfaces on my gear, these being:
Blast Zone - 500 grit up to 1000 grit
Dry Zone Solid - Polished to 2000 grit

These gave me overall better looks on both patterns. I was really looking forward to the Singles today and I felt this went well also.

The Singles was competed on the Long and I started quite well. I threw the Blast Zone and both my Ultra Zones at various times during the 6 games. I felt like I threw the ball pretty good and barely missed the pocket, a few games in this came good for a whole game with carry and I shot a 241. Unfortunetly I then lost it due to too much oil carrying down and making the wrong adjustment by moving too far left. I then moved a little right and hit the ball more and managed to close out with 235.

This left me 32 over and placed 22nd. I was quite happy for this result considering I do feel a little more confident on the short and am really looking forward to the doubles on Monday.

Other finishes for the boys were:
Dom - 3rd
Me - 22nd
Matt - 47th
Sean - 57th

Dom did manage to win both games in the finals and is crowned WYC 2008 Mens Singles Champion! Go on fella!

I will be back on Monday with a report on the doubles and results as they stand at the end.

World Youth Championships 2008

I am now live from Florida and yesterday had unofficial practice on what the lane technician said were the patterns for the tournament starting Saturday with the boys singles.

I started on the long pattern with my Blast Zone and Ultra Zone (pin down) and found a few differences. My Blast Zone did not seem to want to read the mid lane and was struggling to make it back to the pocket which was noticeable from the 5 pin just laying in the left gutter and leaving me lots of 7 pins. However, my Ultra Zone was doing the opposite and was reacting really well. After a while I found that I could get deep and still carry which was great. Considering we only had a small-ish taxi between the lot of us I only had 4 balls with me so today I am looking to use the pin up Ultra Zone to see if i can redeem another ball just encase the pin down Ultra is not looking so good after 3 to 4 games.

On the short pattern I was struggling to get a consistent reaction and after speaking to Dom I put some surface on what I was using. At the time that was my Twisted Fury and Dry Zone Solid. This worked perfectly as i was getting a good hook-stop reaction off the dry and was carrying rather well bar from a few 10 pins due to being a bit to deep and a touch fast. However, today I will have my Avalanche Pearl to see if this ball will react any better.

Today will be unofficial practice again and I will be able to use all my balls that I have bought with me. Tomorrow will be official practice and opening ceremony which I am highly looking forward to, so until then I got sleep to catch up on due to jet lag.