Billiy "O"'s Journal

Wednesday, December 6, 2006 - Well here we are in good ole Baltimore at Country Club Lanes. Its Wednesday and the weather is cold but the atmosphere in the bowling alley is warm. This weeks pattern is the Cheetah pattern. You know what that means, that the scores are going to be outrageously high. I don’t mind a carry contest as long as I'm invited. In the practice round believe it or not I had my best reaction with (are you ready for this) my ole trusty Blue Hammer (BH). Talking about somebody happy, yes I was. I couldn’t wait for Thursday. I slept very little from the excitement of being able to use the ball that has made me more money then any other ball in my arsenal.

Thursday, December 7, 2006 - Its 11:00am - after the 15 minutes of practice I decided to start with my BH. Why did I do that? The first game 171, and just like that, my dream of winning a title with my BH was gone. Oh well, got to be about the business of getting those 30 pins back. So my next go to ball was my Black Widow, pin below and in between my ring and middle finger, CG at 7:00, and mass bias just left of my thumb hole. I chose that ball because I could throw it into the dry without it overreacting. Good choice because not only did I get those 30 back I tacked on an additional 204 pins.

Game:
Score:

1
171

2
231

3
259

4
269

5
233

6
213

7
228

Total
1604

That’s a good start but I am right at the cut. Got to step up my game the second half or once again I will be watching Friday morning on my favorite pattern, and that just can’t happen. At the start of the 2^nd round, because I am so stubborn you know what I started with in the 15 min. practice? Yep, my BH and after 2 shots that immediately went into the bag. Oh well, maybe the next Cheetah pattern we will be able to use him, he won’t see any more action in this tournament. So the next ball I tried was the ball I averaged. 230 with of course, however that ball went to long so I needed a ball that read the lanes earlier but not to early. The solution another Black Widow pin below the ring finger with a crater hole, CG kicked out to slow it down when it read the lane. Wow, what a great decision! That ball struck like no other, I mean so much that I shot the best 2 back to back games of my life 299, 289. That’s huge! When the smoke cleared I averaged 232 and qualified 22^nd , not bad. I made it to match play for the 1^st time on the Cheetah pattern, now its time to celebrate! See you tomorrow.

Game:
Score:

1
236

2
299

3
289

4
171

5
218

6
217

7
227

Total
1657

Friday, December 8, 2006 - 9:00am - The game plan for today is win my 3 matches and make it to the show on Sunday. My first opponent Dave Tessman. Out of all the people to play, why him, and I am sure he said the same thing, I mean he’s a leftie and I’m a leftie, we are both on Hammer staff, and we are both rookies. Oh well, he is going down. The ball of choice is the Black Widow I threw last night 1^st game 225 I left the whole back row. I have never done that before, and what did he do 267. That was not suppose to happen.

Apparently I am going to have to let him know who I am, but first a ball change. Time to throw my Toxic, pin below my ring finger, CG at 9:00, with a small hole. Second game 247 , not even close he had 269. OK, so you want to play rough hah?

Take this 268. He threw that back in my face like a Motumbo blocked shot with 269. You mean to tell me I shot 225, 247, 268 and I am about to get swept? Oh no, that’s not about to happen!

Next game he shot 258 at me. Short, I struck out to beat him by a pin (259). Phew no sweep. Now lets track him down. The round of 32 shouldn’t be this hard.

So the next game he threw the front seven at me I mean he is trying to bury me. I shot 300 at him, take that!

Last game I shoot 222 with a split in the tenth, lights out for me, he shoots 235.

I had fun although I got spanked. That was the most intense match of my life. The best match of the 1^st round was the rookies. The PBA better watch for the new guys because we are on the move.

“Remember You can make money or you can make excuses but you cant do both.”