bowlin' bloggin'
Link to: equipment
Link to: season 2011-2012 blog
Thursday, November 29, 2012. In the bag: Blackout, Second Bull, Special Agent, White Dot.
Surprise, surprise! New oil pattern at Krimpen! The announcement at the door by fellow bowler Roger sounded like music in my ears, but the grin on his face got me slightly worried aswell as i only brought equipment for heavy stuff. Out on the lanes the worries dissappeared within two frames. The pattern: still long, around 39/40 foot, but much less overall oil volume. Also the way the oil is spread across the lane was different, a more gradually transition in volume between the inside and outside of the lanes and more tapered (the so-called "Christmas Tree-shape") towards the back-ends. This pattern is usually called a "THS", a Typical House Shot. Often there are multiple ways to Rome on these kind of patterns and the trick is to find the best one. In our case: the one that leaves the least amount of corner-pin leftovers as that is always a problem at Krimpen. The thursday-night is a tight and competitive league and it was interesting to watch how other bowlers were dealing with this pattern.
We played a close and intense match against Bowl You Over (with Roger), managed to win the first game on 7 pins, lost the 2nd on 6 pins and the 3rd on 21. Lost the 4th big time (-90 pins) but took 70 pins back in the 5th.. not enough for winning the points for total pinfall, so 8-4 to them. Started off with the Second Bull, got a 208 but switched to the Blackout early in the 2nd game to add a touch more lenght and angle on impact. That worked quite well, while playing the same line (starting at 13th board pushing it outwards to 8th) the carry was much better with the Blackout and got a lot more room for error as a bonus. The scores after the 208 were 217, 237, 185 (got a little impatient/greedy) and finally a 269 in the 5th. 1116 series total, 223 average, best in league, but if they stick to this oil pattern the 1116 won't be enough to stay on top of the ranking for a long time.
Thursday, November 15, 2012. In the bag: Blackout, Second Bull, Special Agent, White Dot.
Difficult league-night at Krimpen. Suffered an 8-4 loss against Team Elmon and given our scores we better be thankful for the 4 points we got. Played lanes 1 and 2 (starting on 2) and spent most of the night searching for clues on both of them. The oil pattern was the same as always, but the back-ends were really dry and tacky, while the pin-decks themselves were far from clean, with pins sliding all over the place. Terribly difficult to get strikes and never seen so many corner-pin leftovers before. The dry back-ends even made the Second Bull react jumpy on the transition. Tried all sorts of options with both the Bull and the Special Agent in the first two games, went for something completely different in the 3rd (playing inwards with the Blackout) and got a decent 224. That trick however didn't work on lane 1 in the 4th game and couldn't repeat it on lane 2 in the 5th. 921 total, 184 average, still puzzled by tonight's lane conditions.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012. In the bag: First Bull, Second Bull, Special Agent, White Dot.
Again playing as a stand-in for Yoc at Krimpen. 6-6 draw against our biggest rivals Elmon. They won the first two games, the first was poor from both sides, our 2nd a lot better but not good enough. That happened in the 3rd with a 227 for Thijs and a 200 for me, the 4th was poor from my side (Thijs did 224) and went lost, in the 5th we did well with a 191 for Thijs and a 244 for me, enough for winning both the game and points for total score. Not an easy night again, lane 1 was quite nice (altough it took a while to figure it out), lane 2 felt "patchy", very unpredictable and didn't carry well.. saw tons of 10-pins despite trying different lines and missed quite a few of them. Got grumpy when i had to ask the bar-guy to lower the volume of the music, it was really frikkin' loud (with Michael Jackson all night) but other people started nagging and making fun of me when the volume indeed got lower.. took sweet revenge with the 244 game. Teammate Thijs was best in league with a 981 series, i got 977, 195 average. Used the Special Agent for most of the time. Not bad score-wise, but the night didn't feel too good.
Thursday, November 1, 2012. In the bag: Blackout, Second Bull, Special Agent, White Dot.
Round 5 of the thursday-league at Krimpen, interesting and tough match against B&B who were in 2nd place. We managed to win the first two games, our opponent needed a bit more time to adjust to the lanes than we did and somehow also had the impression we were a bit more eager out there.. our second game was rock-solid with a 207 for Koos and a 213 for me. The third game was quite exciting, one of our opponents started off with 4 strikes and kept doing well, i was swimming around a bit in the first part of the game but had 4 strikes in frames 5 to 8. All square at frame 9, opponent produced 3 strikes in the 10th for a 248 while i scored a 247 due to a stubborn 10-pin. They won the game with quite a margin as my teammate ran into trouble, having only a 139. The 4th went our way again after a close match, we lost the 5th after another close one but had just enough margin left to claim the points for total score.. 8-4 victory, extending our lead and B&B even dropped to 3rd now. Was best in league again (3rd time in a row) with a 999 total, 1 pin short of a 200 average. The lane conditions were very difficult but that contributed to the match in a positive way.. very tense with both teams trying really hard to figure out the best way to score. Played lanes 5 and 6, lane 5 had the usual long Krimpen-pattern, on lane 6 the pattern was even longer, quite unforgiving and very tricky to navigate. Used the Special Agent in the first two games to get a bit more angle on the back-ends, switched to the Second Bull early in the 3rd when the Special became a bit unpredictable as the back-ends started to brake up a little. Really enjoyed this one.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012. In the bag: Blackout, Second Bull, Special Agent, White Dot.
Playing as a stand-in for Yoc at Krimpen, against The Slow Starters, lanes 4 and 3. First game was very steady, got a 237 score with the Second Bull, starting at the 12th board and pushing it slightly outwards to the 7th or 8th with the speed-brake firmly pulled. Lane 3 however was a different story.. a massive amount of oil across the whole lenght of the lane and also the outsides were slick as hell. Didn't get any reaction at all, got a little grumpy (i hate such conditions) and decided to shovel the Bull from the outside into the pocket. Lady Luck did the rest, got a bunch of strikes in a row for a 203 score. Third game was a 179 with a miss in the closing frame, game 4 was also a 179 but needed 4 strikes in a row in the closing frames to get there.. that game could easily have been a disaster. Needed a 202 in the last game to break the 1000-series barrier, found back the line i got in the 1st game and scored a 214. 1012 total, 202 average and a welcome 12-0 victory,our biggest rivals lost their match 10-2. Happy with the scores but also happy i'm just a backup-player in this league as it kind of sucks, to be honest.
Sunday, October 28, 2012. In the bag: Blackout, Second Bull, Special Agent, White Dot.
Round 2 of the National Competition took us to the unknown territories of Breda, a 16-lane alley located right next to the famous "dome" prison. The alley itself has a nice old school atmosphere, excellent lighting and is spacious with lots of room in the players area and high ceilings. Thankfully we did much better than in the first round, won 3 games, lost 3 and had a draw against our favourite enemy as i managed to screw up the last frame of the last game. Pinfall wasn't bad at all, despite Marcel L having a difficult time in most of the games. The oil pattern was around 40 foot THS, medium volume with the outsides a touch drier. Carry down appeared in the 2nd game but dissolved again during the 3rd, after that the lanes became gradually drier but kept reacting consistently and the difference in between them was only small. Was happy with these conditions, used the Second Bull for most of the time which worked really well, only the last game was a bit poor (163) with massive (identical) splits in frame 8 and 9 and the already mentioned screw-up in the 10th. Had a 1424 series, 203 average with a 257 in the 6th game. Very pleased with the scores and the way i played but also very happy with the fact i was able to play.. had quite a poor work week, narrowly escaped working today aswell and it was good to release some tension out on the lanes. Thinking of retiring the old Ebonite Avenger as i'm getting used to shooting spares with the White Dot now.
Thursday, October 18, 2012. In the bag: Blackout, First Bull, Second Bull, Special Agent.
Round 4 of the thursday-league at Krimpen and made use of all my equipment tonight. Ran late for bowling and was forced to take the balls straight out of a car onto the lanes where it was much warmer and very humid which led to a condensation/moisture issue. The only ball showing some life the first game on lane 1 was the Blackout, shoveling it from the outside in. Things got better when both balls and lanes started to dry out, switched to the outside line with the Special Agent and had a 215 in the 3rd game. Decided early in the 4th game to give it a go with the Second Bull for the first time and was quite impressed.. hard to describe the reaction but the word "brutal" came to mind when i saw it take a turn left on the end-part of the lane. This thing does hook big time while it looks like it's already rolling, the motion is strong and powerful but certainly not "jumpy" on the transition, actually it looks more like a runaway snow-plow. Two other things noticed: overspeeding is (just like with the other Bull) a no go and didn't have a lot of room for error on the inside, got a few massive splits to deal with as a result of that. A 10-2 victory over a team named "Just For Fun" brought us in the lead and was best in league again (on just a few pins) with a 972 total, 194 average. Looking forward to the next chance to use the Second Bull.
Wednesday, October 17, 2012. In the bag: Alter Ego, First Bull, Quake, White Dot.
Another night at the Graveyard and the change of equipment turned out ok. Same low volume pattern, 37 or 38 foot with bone dry outsides. Used the Alter Ego for most of the time, it worked well in the first two games but became more difficult to control when the lanes got drier. Switched to the Quake for a couple of frames which gave a less erratic reaction but also a lot less energy on impact so switched back to plan A, moved inwards and added some speed. Got medeocre results from that but didn't dare to switch to the Bull as the Alter Ego was already too strong for these lanes. Got a 739 total, 184 average, no meat, no fish.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012. In the bag: Blackout, First Bull, XL, White Dot.
Playing as a stand-in at "The Graveyard" Keizershof, interesting and amusing, but not very good for my average. The lanes were even drier than expected, about 37 foot of oil, low volume, top-hat kind of shape. The oil in the front part held out surprisingly well but the back-ends and everything outside 8th board was dry as a desert. Any ball accidentally played wide jumped back towards the pocket from the 8th board and even my White Dot moved 4 boards inward. Had serious issues all night with timing, approach lenght and focussing. Scavenged a lot of spares in the first two games and kept the damage under control, had a decent 211 in the 3rd but my brain gave in early in the 4th game, 138. Ended up with a 682 series, 170 average only. Used the First Bull for most of the night, tried the Blackout and the XL for a couple of frames but both were very snappy on the transition and i wasn't in the mood for adjusting to that reaction. Almost nailed a 4/6/7/9/10-split early in the 4th game, but managed to squeeze the 4-pin exactly in between the three pins on the right hand side.. they didn't even move.
Monday, October 8, 2012.
Just picked up the second Raging Bull and the Buzzsaw XL at Erik's.. haven't made up my mind what to bring to The Graveyard next wednesday but the XL is certainly aboard.
Thursday, October 4, 2012. In the bag: Blackout, First Bull, Special Agent, Cell Pearl.
Back at Krimpen for the third round on the thursday-league. The usual long pattern felt longer than usual and also there was more oil on the outsides. Despite the high oil volume there was a breakpoint on the back-ends (just a few feet in front of the pins) and pinfall was quite lively so it was possible to get a decent score, but the lanes were far from easy. Both Cell and Blackout didn't work, used the Special Agent playing a line starting at 11th board, pushing it out to 8th with slow speed and tons of revs. It worked fine on lane 5, got mixed results on the less predictable lane 6 and was way off every now and then due to overspeeding. 8-4 victory over a stubborn and well playing team The Lucky Strikes, we lost the first game on only one pin. Scored a 204 in the 4th game and ended up being best in league with a 933 total, 186 average, which means everyone had a hard time tonight.
Sunday, September 23, 2012. In the bag: Blackout, First Bull, Special Agent, Avenger.
National Competition, first round, playing in group 4B along with 7 other teams. This first round took place in Scheveningen, a 24-lane alley that looks quite nice. The oil pattern was published on beforehand, Kegel's "High Street" pattern, 44ft, medium volume, drier outsides. Not the most difficult pattern but also not a very durable one. Carry down already appeared in the 2nd game, lanes started to dry up halfway the 3rd and around the start of the 5th game the pattern was destroyed on most of the lanes. Used the Special Agent in the first two games, switched to the Blackout in the 3rd and kept using it, making adjustments in line and speed when the lanes became worse. League-play was held up by many minor and a few major mechanical issues and the machines left unbelievable amounts of dirt/rubber on most bowlingballs. Our team was strugglng all day, first two games were not good at all, after that our scores got better but so did our opponents. In fact we only managed to win the last game and took home 3 points, that's all. Was the only one of the team doing ok, 1340 total, 191 average, still some room to improve in the spare-department. The Scheveningen bowling alley is right next to the beach and despite the lack of points we had a good time out there.
Thursday, September 20, 2012. In the bag: Blackout, First Bull, Special Agent, Cell Pearl.
Thursday league at Krimpen. Same pattern again but a touch less oily and much better defined. Very playable and quite nice actually. Might have to do with the fact we played lanes 7 and 8 as they always seem to be a bit drier. 8-4 victory over P-team and a close battle in most games. Narrow win in the first, narrow loss in the 2nd, the 3rd was poor from our side but we made up for that in the remaining games. Decided on beforehand to stick to the outside line and got the best results with the Blackout. The Cell didn't have enough "bite" on impact (leaving a lot of corner-pins) and the Special Agent overreacted a bit on the transition part. Missed quite a few spares along the way, but i'm happy with the 957 total, 191 average. Last 2 games were a 213 and 210 with the Blackout.
Tuesday, September 11, 2012. In the bag: Blackout, First Bull, Special Agent.
Worst start of the season in a long while, first night of the tuesday league at Krimpen and the first game was a 115.. ouch. Same pattern as last thursday and it took me 4 games to get a grip on it. The pattern is: soaked over a great lenght in between 10th board from the left to the 10th board on the right, outside that range it's much less oily. Two options: playing straight up around 7th board but you have to be consistent in revs and speed to make that work. The other option is: start around the same spot and push it slightly inwards with low speed and as much revs as possible. Tried both but wasn't consistant enough and scores were extra poor as i missed a lot of spares on the left hand side... balls got trapped in the huge oil-field in the middle and kept sliding straight on. Last game was a decent 193 with the Special Agent (straight up) that gave me some hope to do better next time. 788 series, 157 average. Brrr.
Thursday, September 6, 2012. In the bag: Alter Ego, Blackout, First Bull.
Not exactly a good start to the thursday league in terms of pinfall, but we managed to get a 10-2 victory over Yoc and Thijs. Lanes were soaked, just like last saturday, but there was hardly a recognizable pattern and carry was poor. Welcome back at Krimpen. First two games with the Blackout shoveling from the outside in led to poor scores. Switched to doing the same with the First Bull in the 3rd game as it worked better with a more early rolling ball. 857 total, 171 average. Teammate Koos did better with a 892 series.
Saturday, September 1, 2012. In the bag: Special Agent, Cell Pearl, First Bull, Blackout, Avenger.
The Day Of Champions tournament took place at Dekker Zoetermeer this time. Oil pattern details were revealed beforehand, the chosen pattern was Kegel's "Route 66", out of the Challenge Series . On paper: 45 foot lenght with drier outsides up to 11th board. In reality: also the outsides were soaked, the backends didn't do much and it was one of the heaviest patterns i've ever been playing. Warm-up made clear there was only one solution: shoveling from the outside inwards and trying to be as accurate as possible. The Special Agent and Cell didn't show any life at all so decided to grab the Blackout for having the best grip. It showed hardly any hook aswell but the carry was impressive, almost all correctly aimed shots became strikes, got only 3 single pins to deal with in 6 games. Quite unfortunate that my aiming was totally inconsistent as i'm not used to play from the outside inwards, wasn't able to string the strikes together. Had 5 decent games and a poor 138 somewhere in between them, which brought my average down to 181 only. Enjoyed playing out there on such difficult conditions but i'm also a little dissappointed with my average score.
Thursday, August 30, 2012. In the bag: Alter Ego, Blackout.
Practise session with M at the Atoll-alley, having a go with two of the newcomers. The oil pattern was a short kind of THS with drier outsides, about 37 foot and quite playable. It took a little time to dial in with the Alter Ego, was trying to get used to the grip and figuring out how it behaves. Couldn't give it as much revs as i hoped, was struggling a bit. Ball seems to run a similar line as the First Bull but it's response to friction seems quicker, even a little jumpy at times. Curious how it will behave on a heavier pattern. The Blackout brought a smile on my face right away, excellent grip, very controllable, easy going, smooth as butter, great carry.
Thursday, August 23, 2012.
The Alter Ego and Blackout came back from Erik D's pro-shop and the XL and second Second Bull are now there to get filled and re-drilled.
Tuesday, July 26, 2012.
Unexpected newcomer here and it's a pretty one. Travelled to the middle of nowhere to pick up a Lane#1 Buzzsaw XL, 14 lbs and a 2-ball Brunswick roller-bag with a price tag of just 20 Euro's for the two combined. The ball (a tame pearl) is a nice addition for drier conditions and the bag will be the new home for M's bowling stuff. Other news: the Day Of Champions will take place on september the 2nd at Dekker Zoetermeer.