"THE VARIABLES TOURNAMENT"
by Nicholas J. Hoagland
As John Davis once told me during a hot, humid, day in Central Florida, "Nick, the American Bowling Congress Tournament is the most unfair tournament in the world. If you really pay attention, think about all the variables there are at that tournament." After I bowled in my fourth ABC Tournament in early February, his wisdom finally has sunk in.
Please do not think that I am in any way blaming the ABC for the inequitiesin the tournament; they have enough problems to deal with. In fact, the problems are nobody's fault in particular, except for the thousands of bowlers who bowl in the tournament every year. Through our bowling balls that have mica, glass, and anything else that will scratch a lane surface in them, we change the physical condition of the lanes and destroy the oil pattern that was put out for us.
If you think about it, there really are many variables that go into this tournament. Some of them include: the destruction of the oil pattern, topography of the lane surface, temperature of the lane conditioner, temperature of the National Bowling Stadium, amount of humidity in the air, where you bowl in the Stadium at what time, who bowled earlier on your pair, the number of times the lanes have been stripped and oiled each day, the length of time the oil had a chance to sit on the lane before you bowled on it, the condition of the lane surfaces
the list is endless. The point is: not only do you need a tremendous amount of skill to bowl well, but you also need some good fortune.
Good fortune and good knowledge are two different things. So you need to know some basic information about this year's tournament. The pattern is 38 feet long and uses 22.76 microliters of oil. This volume is probably the same as what you bowl on for league. However, the SHAPE of the
pattern is much different. The condition, simply stated, has more oil on the outside and less oil in the center down the lane. While your normal house condition has 3 to 4 units of oil on the outside at the break point, the ABC Tournament has roughly 7 to 9, a dramatic increase, especially at the National Bowling Stadium where the
ball historically does not like to hook off of the gutter.
Since the volume of the pattern is roughly the same for your league condition, the lanes should tend to hold up quite well for three games and then dissipate after that. Basically, if you bowl the 7:30 p.m. squad, the lanes should be tough from the start and get easier. If you start at 10:30, the lanes should start easier and then burn up at the end, making them tougher. This theory is good, but it doesn't always work out depending on who bowls on your lanes prior to you. In general, the majority of the high scores in the team event are bowled on the 10:30 squad.
Remember, the lanes are being completely cleaned and oiled three to four times per day! There is bound to be an error or two during the time that the lane maintenance personnel perform this procedure for 120 days straight. Although the Kegel Sanction Standard is being used to condition the lanes, there is bound to be human error at some point. And even if there isn't human error, there are so many other variables that could hurt your chance at winning. For this year's tournament, use this list as a general
guides.
1. The National Bowling Stadium's lane surface is very tame.
Your ball willnot "snap" as much as it will
"roll" or "arc" toward the pocket.
2. The lanes in the center of the NBS (20-60) get more play and
will tend to hook more and break down more quickly than the end
pairs.
3. If you bowl at 7:30, the scores should be lower than at
10:30, but the chance at winning brackets with lower scores is
also probable.
4. The ideal squad to bowl (in my opinion) would be the 4:40
doubles and singles events, and have a lane draw on the extreme
high or low end of the NBS. Remember, the lanes should be
tighter on those ends, and should hold up better for the third
shift of doubles and singles.
5. The lanes get cleaned and oiled for the 7:00 a.m., 12:00
noon, and 7:30 p.m. squads.
This year, I bowled the team event on lanes 55-56 at 7:30 p.m. (fresh oil). The lanes were in constant transition from beginning to end. I threw a strongly drilled Ebonite Apex and played from 12 at the arrows to 8 at the break point. During the games I probably made a half-dozen different moves. I shot 190, 227 and 190 for 607. I ended up being second high on the 60-team squad and made a nice chunk of change in the brackets. As I mentioned before, the early squads are always a bit lower scoring.
In the doubles event, I bowled on 31-32 at noon (fresh oil). The pair ended up being about 5 boards different by the end of the third game. The topography of 31-32 at the NBS has been known to be opposite from one lane to the other. This is part of the reason why the lanes were so different. Our squad was small and my 194-191-201/586 performance was good to make me money again in the brackets.
Then we moved to 29-30 (the pair just to the right of the walkway) and good fortune smiled upon me. As I mentioned earlier, part of the ABC Tournament is luck. The guys who bowled doubles on that pair before me had all had been playing deep (at around 20 at the arrows) on the fresh oil! This carried the oil down more towards the center of the lane for me. I bumped a few right of them, played around 17 at the arrows, and went 243, 279 and 276 for 798. On the pair just to the right of me, I couldn't break
600. Then I almost shot 800 for my next set while I threw an equal number of shots on both pairs.
I hope you see that the ABC Tournament is a wonderful event to compete in, but it has its problems just like any other tournament. If you go into the competition with a positive attitude and with the expectation that you might run into some tough lanes, then you won't be disappointed and
you'll bowl fine.
Nicholas J. Hoagland is a former Collegiate All-American
and Collegiate Bowler of the Year at Indiana University. He also
provides lane maintenance for the PBA's Midwest Region.
Questions can be forwarded to Nick at his e-mail address: nhoaglan@indiana.edu
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