"Bowling Blind"-The PBA Experience

PBA Xperience-Farmingdale Lanes

Bowling fans...welcome to another installment to "As the Lefty Worm Turns", with your host: Mr. Thomas Scherrer...take it away, Tommy.

Well, well, well....thank you very much Mr. Announcer Guy (whomever wrote that opening), this is another installment of the PBA Experience at Farmingdale Lanes. Today, we are going to review the nature of the arguably the PBA's most challenging animal pattern: the Chameleon pattern.

Why is it challenging you ask? Two important reasons, I believe, make this pattern the most challenging pattern out there not know as a 'major' pattern. First, the length of the pattern. It now stands at 40 feet, which as we all know is pretty much a mid range pattern in terms of distance, however the words '40 feet' and 'flat ratio' always screams out a US Open-type condition, and naturally a lower scoring pace. They PBA though counteracts this by laying out the Chameleon in strips, which do give the pattern an area to play on the lane, therefore enhancing scoring pace. This is where the second reason comes into play...you have to find said area and not guess wrong. If you guess correctly, you can shoot some high scores at the start and once the lanes go through their Game 2-3 transition (which always seems to happen on this pattern) the scoring pace usually goes medium-high as opposed to medium-low. If you guess wrong from the start, then you are pretty much handing over points the entire night.

This week's Chameleon pattern at F-dale yielded higher scores from inside the track area, making the usually pristine outside angle seen there rather touchy. Not that the players couldn't play out there, it is just the carry was too iffy from out so at least the track area and in seemed to be the desired place for scoring. OK, 'nuff jibber-jabber...FOOL! Get to the night's action.

Bowlers: Myself, Chris Paroly, Mike Perrone, and Adam Chase-all righties. Pair next to me had Joe Costanzo, last year's league champion, as the only other lefty in the top 8 bowlers.

Ball of choice: You think...inside 10, Thomas? You aren't gunna play inside that and chances are you are going to use some surface to give you mistake room if you miss left from in, right? Right? Stunningly and amazingly....wrong. I elected to warm up with the Columbia 300 Scout Hi-Flare, pin in the ring finger. A stable enough drilling to get a read on the lanes, but I had a thought creep into my head since I practiced Sunday about how the lanes were playing. Every shot from inside the track area on the left provided a better reaction on the lanes but it was too much reaction, often duck hooking high into the pocket. Bringing the Scout was merely a case of me taking a weak shiny ball playing inside the track area to create hold for a stronger ball to create more area. What I discovered is that the Scout was not only reading the lanes great but was hitting hard. After practice ended, I went with a gut instinct and used the Scout to start with.

Game 1: 233. Clean game for me. Laydown point was around 18, crossing the arrows around 12-13 and trying to nail the good ole' ProAnvilane rangefinder at 45 feet, which would be the 10 board. Safe to say, it worked out great to get the first game win and get some early ground on my opponents. Chris and Mike both played around first arrow shooting 191 and 189 respectively. They did not throw bad shots, the merely had less than stellar carrying. Adam struggled to a 162.

Game 2: 172. What happened you say? I happened...a lost game to where I missed two 7 pins as my carry started to wane. It should be noted that this was more mental error by me. I usually change hand positions with the bowling ball for spares instead of going to a polyester spare ball for spares. On the first weak 7, I weakened up with the Scout throwing it directly at the 7 pin. I did miss a little right but I did not think the ball would suddenly elect to dart right at the last second missing the pin. It was a surprise to say the least. In that game, I also left a 4-7 and used the Scout again and it did the same thing, darting right at the end. Thankfully for me, the 4 pin was there to provide a wider target and the spare conversion. On the second weak 7, I did make a slight angle move to pivot my left hip more to the left side of the pin figuring it would be the correct adjustment. Wrong again, sir. In caveman speak, ball did thing same time miss pin right. It only cost me one point in the game as Paroly fired a 226 and Chase shot a rather scary 269 game. Perrone shot 187 as he was clearly just hanging in with a real spotty ball reaction, but he got one point and I got nothing.

Game 3 (changing pairs): 174. Had the left lane....could not locate the right lane with a compass and Magellan's crew. I remind you, Mr. Costanzo was on the pair before me playing very direct up the lanes to some degree of success, but he too was suffering from some suspect carry playing out. I had the left lane with the Scout, but the right lane with the Scout did this for me to start: 2-4-7-8, converted; missed pocket 1-3-6-9, chopped the 1-3-9 leaving an open. I go with a ball change to the Power Swing trying to do what Costanzo was doing hoping it would at least keep me close. The 5th frame was a solid shot, but along came that late snap that created the iffy carry and I left a 6-8 pocket split and another open frame. I tried to move a little in off that shot in the 7th frame, and it wasn't even close going high and the 4-7 spare, for which (you guessed it) using the Power Swing, I actually had the ball fade downlane and chop the 7 pin clean off the 4, my third consecutive open frame on the right lane. I did get one point out of the game as Chase shot 165, Perrone found his ball reaction moving a little further left and shooting 205, and Paroly shot 185, still dancing on the verge of either have a big game look or a big game meltdown.

For 3 games, this is how the total wood was matching up: Paroly was at 602, Chase was 596, Perrone was 581, and I was 579. I needed to find a good game somewhere and I knew the only place that was happening was inside...

Game 4: 211. Back to the Scout on the right lane. I had the left lane nailed down and when you have confidence in one lane, you go on autopilot and adjust accordingly. When you don't on the other lane, you have to gamble and trust your ability that it can work. Instead of straightening out my trajectory on the right lane, I decided to wheel it (for me) with the Scout, standing around 30, targeting 23 on the lane and 17 at the arrows, looping it outside the rangefinder. While the ball wasn't striking it was close: back to back solid 8's and a weak 7 pin. The left lane was still dead solid, leaving only a swisher 10 on that lane for two games. Meanwhile, Perrone is on fire: front 4 to start. Paroly is hanging tough, and Chase was well...lost again. I needed to string some strikes. Suddenly, Perrone stops striking and in the 8th opens, Paroly is starting to self destruct on the lanes (his ball is never moving downlane leaving washouts abound), and I slowly creep into the total wood talk. In the 9th frame, I struck to put myself in position to win and when Perrone opened again in the 9th, the game was mine to win but I had to go to the right lane in which I had one strike on for two games and find a double for not only the game win but the total wood win as well. The first shot in the 10 got wide but I knew i caught some fingers in it and I got the light mixer strike and gave an Ana Ivanovic-style fistpump for finishing work (sadly guys, I look nothing like her so don't get your hopes up about this becoming commonplace). That got the duke for the win in the 4th game, now get the second one for the total wood over Perrone, who shot 195 for the last game. The second shot was absolutely perfect, blowing all 10 off the rack for an 8 point finish, and 12 for the night. I only shot 790 for the evening (my spare game was brutal tonight, cost me 840-850), but on this tricky pattern, you take that and hope that your fellow bowlers are having similar issues on the lanes that evening.

Overall, 12 points was more than anyone else took and I trusted my instincts as a player to get the clutch double on the right lane. It gave me the lead overall in the league with 52 points, and my average for 16 games is a respectable 203, despite having some rather below average spare shooting. My overall lane setup this year has been very good, for which I am proud of but still needs work in the match play format. One more odd note on the night: rare is it in the world where you are using your weakest ball for your strike ball and your strongest ball for your spares, however the Chameleon can do strange things to you as a bowler. In any event, this was a positive night for me in that I found my hook game for which I might need as I travel to Vegas for the USBC Championships. Of course, it will be blogged on...in the meantime, I gotta find a sub for next week's Viper pattern.

To Vegas we go...baby. Remember, that you strike for show, but you spare for dough, and some weeks, your spare is a 'no', while your strike is a 'go', like it was for me this past week.

Namaste...