When you're wrong, you're wrong : (

Some nights you've got it, and some nights you don't. Sadly, I've found myself saddled with the latter a bit too often for my liking lately. I didn't really feel like I was throwing the ball that badly, but, as you'll see from the scores, this was an ugly evening of bowling.

Game 1

9/ X 72 9/ 7/ 9/ X 9/ X X9/ - 193

Truthfully, things weren't all that bad here. I used my Mastermind Intellect, which I had just put at 600 plus high gloss polish, and the look I had was decent. However, suspect carry (10-pins in the 1st and 4th and 4-pins in the 6th and 11th) and a missed 4-7-8 conversion resulted in another decent, but uninspiring game, a 193.

Game 2

X 81 X X X X 9/ X 9/ 9/9 - 215

Other than a missed release at the bottom leading to a 5-7 in the second, things looked good early on here as I was still getting the Intellect to read and go through the pins nicely; however, as you can see, that all started to change toward the latter half of this game. I left 10-pins in the 7th and 9th, a 7-pin in the 10th, and a solid 9-pin on the fill ball. The 215 wasn't a terrible score, but I could see right then that a change would need to be made for Game 3.

Game 3

9/ X X 9- X X 81 9/ 81 81 - 169

Oh, how quickly the train can go off the tracks! I switched the Brute Strength, which has been my go-to ball for Games 2-3 this year. I left a flat 10 in the first, but then I recovered with a double for flat tennnig again in the fourth. Sadly, I missed that one, something that has happened WAY too much lately. I threw another double in the 5th and 6th, and that's when things went sideways. I left three 4-9's in the last four shots with another flat 10 in between. All that drama led to a 169 finish and another sub-600 set.

I'm no bowling expert, but I know that house shots are not supposed to require that much perfection. As such, what Game 3 tells me is that my release was bad, and my lane play strategy was laughable because if your shots result in either flat 10s or 4-9's, you're playing the lanes wrong.

I'm very frustrated at the moment, but it's not worth dwelling on it. I need to get back to work and do some practicing this week because until I iron some things out, the scores are going to keep looking bad. As always, thanks for reading. I hope I can report back with better results next week.