Slow and Steady

When you're on the lanes, some nights are like a fireworks show, all action and excitement; others, like tonight, are like a long, lazy drive through the country, boring, but mostly pleasant. The latter pretty much sums up this trio of league games.

Game 1

9/ 8/ X 9/ 9/ 9/ X 9/ X X9/ - 205

After having bowled 10 games yesterday, I came into tonight feeling less-than-stellar physically. That showed during this game as I struggled to really post shots. Still, I was in and around the pocket; I just couldn't find the right combination of ball and line to carry.

I started off with my Nirvana, but after going 7-pin, 2-4, strike, I went flat-10, ring-10, flat-10, which told me that was not the ball at that point. I switched to the Melee Cross and found the pocket immediately. Sadly, the carry still wasn't quite there, which caused me to finish strike, light-7, double, solid-9 to end at a modest 205.

Game 2

9/ X X 7/ 8/ 9/ X X 9/ 9/9 - 211

I moved a couple of boards deeper off of the solid-9 fill ball, and that caused a flat-10 to start this game. I covered it up and then switched to my original Melee, which tends to be a little better than the Cross as I move in. I doubled in the second and third, but then I threw two very poor shots in the fourth and fifth. Thankfully, I still managed to stay clean. I didn't miss the pocket the rest of the way, but after a double in the seventh and eighth, I went solid-9, ring-10, solid-9 to finish at a clean 211 and +16 through two.

Game 3

8/ X 72 9/ 81 X X 9/ X X7/ - 191

Realizing that I needed to go even further inside, I switched to the Melee Jab, which is by far the best Melee for getting deep. I hit what I wanted to hit on just about every shot, but release inconsistency caused some shots to pick up too late, leading to a few different 2-4 combinations. Sadly, I threw bad shots at them in both the third and fifth, which led to a pair of chops and my only two opens of the night. I recovered with a pair of late doubles, but the damage was done as I finished at 191 and 607.

Obviously, I'm not thrilled with the numbers when all is said and done. Still, there were some positives to take out of this. I covered all 12 of my single-pin spares, six of which were 10-pins. Really, other than the two silly mistakes in the third and fifth of Game 3, my spare shooting was stellar, which is what it has to be on a night when you never manage more than two strikes in a row.

On another interesting note, I did some number crunching, and I discovered that I have a HUGE amount of average disparity between games. I have averaged a shade over 205 in Game 1, 210 and change in Game 2, and 228.5 in Game 3. Clearly, I need to re-evaluate how I attack the lanes in practice and during the early portion of the set because it's hard to shoot the really big numbers when you're barely breaking a deuce out of the gate. I hope to my new Turbo Switch Grips installed in the other half of my arsenal this week, which will be nice because that will bring balls like the Brute Strength and Mastermind Einstein back into the bag for me. We'll see if that helps!