33rd Canon Malaysian International Open (14th March)

Today is the last day for local bowlers to slug it out to qualify for the final before the oversea bowlers arrive. The local bowlers still can play but usually the place will be reserved to the oversea bowlers. Alright, how did I bowl today? Bad and good, I guess. I bowled in 10 a.m and 11 a.m and I was quite surprise there was a lot of people bowled in the morning. Maybe they don't want to be in the waiting list when the oversea bowlers arrive. For the 10 a.m squad, I started out quite good with score of 220-something, as the squad progress, my score was getting worse. The lanes was reacting differently. I think because I was bowling on left side of the alley. To tell you the truth, there are 48 lanes in Pyramid Mega Lanes and you can divide them into 2 sides. The left side and the right side of the lanes does react differently. For the first 2 days of qualifying, I was bowling on the right side. So, you'll understand why I said the lanes was reacting differently. I bowled 190-something for the 2nd game and for the 3rd game, I was losing interest to bowl and shot 140-something. Another wasted MQ. Continuing for the 11 a.m squad, I was assigned to lane 47 and 48. Now this was another freak beast to handle again. You will always hear that in every bowling alley that the first pair and the last pair, the lanes are always different compare with the middle pairs. It is the same with Pyramid Mega Lanes. I was paired with my brother, I complained to him why the heck we are assigned to this pair. When the practice throw began, my brother threw on lane 48 while I threw on lane 47, I noticed that lane 47 was a bit oilier than other lanes but my brother said to me after he threw that lane 48 was freaking dry. Then I tried to bowl to see how dry was the lane. Yep, the lane was freaking DRY. Me and my brother discussed how to tackle lane 48. I decided to use Brunswick Fury, the straightest ball I have on the lanes and usually I use this ball for short pattern and spare shooting on lane 48. The first game was a challenge. I already said that lane 47 was a bit oilier than the rest of the lanes, I was using Brunswick Copperhead but the ball didn't react well enough, while for the lane 47, I was throwing harder so the ball doesn't jump early which did happened a few times and luckily, I shot 201 for the first game. The 2nd game was still a challenge to me, but I was striking on lane 48. Lane 47 was still a mystery to me because the ball just didn't want to react well. I gambled and move to what I called the 'Walter Ray's line'. I called it with that name because Walter Ray was bowling diagonally from outside when he was bowling in the long pattern for World Championship in Thailand. It paid off. Strike after strike starting from the middle of 2nd game and ending up with 249. The 3rd game, I was determined to get another high score, but lane 48 gave me another headache. I was leaving the 4 pin but luckily I kept striking on lane 47. I moved half a board but it still leaved the 4 pin. Another half board and the strike came. A double but I made a mistake on frame 7. A washout and an open frame, leaving the score at 135 on the 7th frame. I kept my composure and strike out for the rest of the game to give me score of 225. The total score was 675. So, the best 2 squads of mine are 678 and 675 for the total score of 1353 which still is not enough. I need to do better. Much better. I'll be bowling again on Tuesday morning. One complain though, I want to book for the Tuesday morning squads but they were full. I told of the person in charge to put me on the reserves list and I want to pass to squad sheet whenever there is a vacancy, he can immediately put my name with the squad sheet in. But he refused, saying that I need to pass it personally on that day which annoying. What if somebody on Monday jump the queue and because I am not there to pass my squad sheet, my place is given to another person? It is really troublesome to me. Never mind, I need to concentrate on my game. The battle continues Tuesday morning! Probably...