First of all, I lost 1 more lb this week, making a total of 55 lbs lost. Also, I screwed up a little bit yesterday because I didn’t plan ahead. I had thought that the City Bowling Tournament was next weekend, but nope.. I woke up around 11:45 pm yesterday to a text message asking me if I was bowling. Whoops. I hopped in the shower really quick, then fixed a turkey sandwich and took a couple pickles with me to eat on the way to the alley. That was the last food I would eat until almost 8:00 pm. I was in dire hunger when all was said and done and was really tempted to just eat some “bowling alley food”, but I sucked it up and also sucked up about a gallon of water during the course of the tournament to combat the hunger. I survived! But it was tough.
Now to the actual tournament itself. For some reason, I love the city tourney. I’ve bowled in it for 3 straight years and have won the singles tournament the last 2 years and won the team event the 1st year and last year. The tournament takes place over 2 days with singles and doubles at one bowling alley and then the team event at another. I didn’t play in the team event this year though. The tournament just snuck up on me, and I didn’t get a chance to put a team together. I attempted to at the last minute yesterday, but it was a nice day outside and my normal bowling partners were on the golf course.
My buddy and teammate Moose wanted to bowl, so we signed up for the 3:30 squad. You bowl 6 games in this tournament. The first 3 games were doubles and the last 3 games are singles. Everyone was complaining about how slick the oil pattern was. I saw a lot of slickness in the middle, but I had some friction on the outside of the lanes that nobody else seemed to be taking advantage of (or couldn’t find). Moose and I both bowled like shit the first 3 games, but still put up a semi-respectable score of 1300 with our handicap. This was still 74 pins shy of the leaders though. Hopefully we’ll stay in the top 10 and get a little money out of it though.
Then in the singles, I bowled 163 my first game, still bowling like crap and frustrated because I had a line to the pocket, but my mechanics were way off. Now normally, after bowling 4 games of shittyness, I’d be so tired and fatigued that those last 2 games would be me goofing off trying new stuff and just hurrying up and trying to get out of there, but dammit! I have a title to defend. Besides, bowling doesn’t fatigue me anymore like it used to. Midway through the 2nd game, I have a score of 65 in the 5th frame and things are still not looking good. Then I decided that what I was doing just wasn’t working. I made a total adjustment in my game midway through the 5th game of bowling. I’m not talking about playing a different line or anything. It was like Tiger Woods just deciding to change his golf swing in the middle of a round. My change seemed like a stroke of genius as I turned that 65 into a respectable 193 score. If I could bowl a decent game in the 3rd game, I’d at least get my name on the leaderboard with my handicap.
Game #3 could have been the best game I had in my life. I started off with 4 straight strikes. In frame #5, I hit the pocket again, big explosion, but left a solid 10 pin…which I missed. FML. I didn’t let it bother me because I figured something out. In frames 6, 7, and 8, I had strikes. In the ever important foundation frame though, I lost my concentration about mid-way on my approach and instead of stopping, I continued the shot and it just didn’t have enough speed. I hit my mark and released the ball well, but not with enough speed. It hit high on the head pin and left a 3-10 split which I couldn’t convert. FML. I finished off with 3 strikes in the 10th frame. 10 strikes in 1 game is a new record for me, however, 2 open frames killed my score. My scorecard looked like this: X, X, X, X, 9-, X, X, X, 81, XXX for a 233 (273 with handicap). This gave me a 709 series with my handicap (I think). That was enough for 1st place with 1 squad left. However, there was still 1 slow pair of lanes running in the 3:30 squad that finished about 15 minutes after us. One of the better bowlers in the house, a lefty shot 729 scratch and I think he had and 33 pins total handicap to add to that, so he took me over in 1st place. Another lefty on the same lane beat me by 1 pin as well which put me in 3rd.
I was pretty frustrated (and very hungry) when I left the alley. I hate losing more than anything. I love competition. People complain in these tournaments about my high handicap and accuse me of being a sandbagger (jokingly). But the fact is that I thrive in competition. League bowling is competition to an extent, but it’s not the same as a tournament. When it comes tournament time, I have this extra gear I can get myself in. I don’t really get nervous in those situations or if I do, I can handle the pressure and still make good shots. The same is true for pool, poker, golf, whatever. I love competition. I see these people, even teammates that have a bad game or 2 in these competitions and then just start goofing around for the remainder. I was in this position yesterday, but instead of giving up, I pretty much revamped my entire game in the 5th frame of the 5th game and it paid off. If I had goofed off, my entry fee would have gone to some chump while I went home that amount poorer. Instead, I ended up making a decent profit just by not giving up.
Morale of the story: I hate to lose…unless it’s fat.
