Grudge leads to 6th-place finish at ABT

With the ABT Chicagoland South Branch taking something of a hiatus, I decided to drive up to Stardust Bowl in Addison to take a run at my first ABT Chicagoland North event in many months. My previous experiences at Stardust had been a mixed bag; nevertheless, I really liked the way that I've thrown the ball the last couple of times out, so I figured it was worth the effort.

Qualifying - +97 (3 games)

My typically-slow ABT starts came into play here again as I washed out on each of the first two shots on the right lane. After that, I came to the realization the pair was playing five boards different between the two lanes. Once I got that straight, I was able to find the pocket more consistently, but I still couldn't strike enough to erase the bad start. After one game, I was sitting at -15.

As we moved to the next pair, things immediately looked better. My Grudge was giving me the same look on both lanes here, which allowed me to stay in and around the pocket from the word go. A couple of shaky releases led to less-than-optimal pin carry, but I still managed to post a solid 245, which erased the bad start and brought me to +30.

Things only got better as we moved to 45-46. My Grudge continued to give me everything I was hoping for, and I took advantage to the tune of 267 and a three-game total of 697, which was good enough for first place on the squad and an automatic berth in the next round.

Semis - +20 (3 games)

I started the semis at the upper end of the house, but my look remained pretty similar to what I had seen during qualifying. As such, I stuck with the Grudge and played the lanes very much as I had during Games 2-3 of qualifying. Sadly, my pin carry just wasn't there. The ball was reading and rolling very well, but I just couldn't get the ball to go through the pins the right way to carry. As such, the semis started with a one-open (split) 203.

We moved back toward the lower end for Game 2, and I thought that I was back into my comfort zone. My look was decent, which allowed me to control the pocket and keep myself out of trouble. Sadly, again, I just couldn't strike enough to really get anything going. I caught a bad break in the 9th frame as slick tape caused the ball to leave my hand just a touch weaker at the release than intended, which resulted in a failed coversion of the 2-8. I still managed to finish with 223, which put me at +26 for two.

Going into Game 3, I was 17 pins behind the number to advance to the finals, so I was still right in the thick of things. Sadly, I just never got anything going during this game. The clammy hands that started bugging me during the latter stages of Game 2 really got bad during Game 3, which caused lots of messing around with tape and some very poor releases. I managed to stay clean most of the way, but I just never got anything going. In the end, I finished with 194 for the game and +20 for the set, which put me 49 pins out of the finals.

In hindsight, I probably should've switched balls and moved inside as I saw a few other guys doing. I think my stubborness in this case was caused by the terrible feel I had in the ball. It left me thinking that my bad reaction was more about release than lane play. Still, it probably would've made more sense to make a drastic move to try to impart a different result, but I was caught between trying to maintain and making the aggressive move to really go for it.

Still, in the end, I'm pretty happy with what I did today. I only missed one makeable spare all day long, and that one was brought about by the ball falling off my hand - and I still thought I'd made it. In the end, today was definitely a positive experience, one that I hope to build on as I continue through the tournament season and continue prepping for the USBC Open Championships in early May.

As always, thanks for reading!