Hey, hey, a 2nd-place finish!

Every year, Lance Murray and the nice folks at Victory Lanes (Kankakee, Illinois) put on some sort of tournament the night before Thanksgiving. This year was no different as they put on the Victory Eliminator.

For those unaware of this format, you start out with 5-6 people per pair. Everybody bowls two games, and then the two bowlers with the lowest pinfall are eliminated. You move a pair to the right, and then the remaining 3-4 bowlers bowl another two games. At that point, another 1-2 people are eliminated based on the total pinfall from Games 3-4. This process keeps repeating until there is one bowler remaining from each pair, and then the survivors are seeded for match play until a champion is crowned.

I will spare you a game-by-game breakdown and simply say that I played it smart. The neat thing about the Eliminator format is that it's all about timing. You don't have to beat the field; you just have to beat the people on your pair at the right time. Because of that, you could average 175 and advance while someone on another pair averages 210 and gets bounced. Obviously, your opinion on that notion will vary depending upon which end you come up on on a given night! : )

It didn't take long to notice that only one person on my pair had a good look early on, so my plan was simply to keep it simple, control the pocket, and let the others make mistakes around me. That plan worked to perfection as I breezed through the first elimination despite not putting up special numbers.

As we got into the second two-game block, we still had one bowler with a much better look than the rest of us. As such, I knew it was pretty much a head-to-head between me and the third bowler. I decided to stay the course and continue working the outside with my Melee Cross while he played a high-risk-high-reward shot deep inside. I knew his look was better in terms of hitting power once he got the ball to the 1-3, but I also knew that he would be susceptible to open frames if he missed in either direction. We had a good battle, but, in the end, I emerged victorious and advanced to the head-to-head pair final.

We moved to the lower end of the house for this match, and I knew that I could no longer afford to play it safe. With that in mind, I switched to my Nirvana and moved way left. Thankfully, this shot was there from the start, which allowed me to get off to a strong start during the early going. At the same time, my opponent threw a couple of loose shots and also struggled with carry. He got lined up later in the game, but the early lead gave me just enough cushion to put the match away with a solid fill.

At this point, we were down to the final 6 bowlers, and I was seeded 4th based upon total pins. Both of the next two matches were close, but, again, I managed to do just enough to get through in both cases, which put through to the title match.

Unfortunately, by this time we moved all the way back to the high end of the house, and that is where my good fortune ran out. Just as it had during qualifying, the championship pair played MUCH tighter than the pairs on the lower end, which took away the look I had used to my advantage during the previous three games of match play. Couple that with the fact that my opponent had his best look of the night, and you can tell that this wasn't going to go well for me.

I hung tough, staying clean and throwing a couple of doubles, but my opponent started striking right away and simply didn't stop. He ended up throwing the front nine at me before a solid 9-pin ended his bid for perfection. Still, his 279 gave him the highest game of the tournament and an easy victory.

Still, in the end, I was pleased with my performance. I played it smart, limited my mistakes, and came up with a few great moves and great shots when I needed them most. I also walked away with a better feeling about my Nirvana and Melee Cross, two balls that don't always see a ton of action in league due to their shape. Well, clearly, on more-challenging patterns, these two offer me a great deal more versatility, and that is something I will need during tournament appearances down the line.

Before signing off, I want to thank Lance Murray, Mark Denault, and the Victory Lanes staff for running a solid tournament, Ron Bragg, Brian Graham, and Brunswick for giving me some amazing bowling balls to use, and Shaun Quinn for getting half of my arsenal fitted with Turbo Switch grips the afternoon of the tournament. As always, thanks for reading!