Cheetah Day 1: Monday, Oct 26th

Yesterday was the Cheetah championships. And true to form, the pattern played fairly high scoring.

I will tell you the schedule for the week is rather grueling, with players either getting up early for a 7 AM start and a Midnight finish, or starting at 11 and going for 12 straight games till 7 PM , with only a brief break. The biggest challenge has been to find food during the 30 minute break or to find some time for a nap during the long breaks on A squad!

It's only Tuesday and I'm exhausted.

If you have never experienced a PBA event, it is much different than a regional tournament. All guests are required to sign in and get a wrist band for each day, without the wrist band, you either have to pay to enter $15 per day, or be declined entry. There are different entrances based on your player status, guest status, media, staff, etc. Failure to end up in the right lane = a stern reminder and verbal slap on the wrist.

Many players are finding out quickly that fines can add up for a variety of offenses such as late for roll call, a $10 fine, arithmetic errors on score sheets $25 for each signature on the mistake, and failure to move equipment from lane to lane = $25 per each piece of forgotten equipment. Leave a 3 ball bag with 3 balls behind on another lane? Be prepared to pay $100 to recover it. Everyone is being extremely cautious to avoid ending up on the dreaded "OBLIGATIONS" sheet.

Many of the South region bowlers did well and a shout out to Richie Allen for leading the way with a very impressive 3,020 pins (+620) averaging 252 for 12 games. Many of you may have already read the article posted on the PBA website, and it refers to Richie's changed mindset. What I can say, is that in between games, Richie's mindset was all about cleaning up the trash in the bowling center. If you had an open drink or were one of the unfortunate B squad members who were desperatly trying to eat protein bars etc for lunch, you had better keep it close or it was going in the trash. I luckily was able to save Rick's lunch from ending up in the bottom of the trash can, so check one off in the win column for me today.

Our grueling schedule didn't allow us to gamble yesterday, so we're still down a bit overall.

We tried the Italian restaurant Don Vitio's for dinner and it was better than some of the other meals we have had so far here.

Other top finishers for the south include: Trip Roberts, who had a fantastic first block and was 5th after the first 6 games and went on to finish tied for 37th at 2,785.

Randy Weiss had a good 2nd block to finish in a tie for 63rd with 2,738.

Jason Sterner delivered a solid 2,718 for 71st place.

Richard Langton finished in a tie for 81st with 2,698 and right behind Josh Chambliss with 2692 and 85th. Kip Roberts also finished in the top 100 at 97th for 2656.

Scott Newell, Steve Arehardt and David O'Sullivan had a trying time on the Cheetah, but were ready to hit the lanes again for Viper today.

All in all, the bowlers from the south showed up and were competitive and will learn from the first day for a better result for the rest of the week. Noticeably absent in the top were Walter Ray Williams, JR and Jason Couch who had a very tough day and finished 151st and 157th respectively.

Practice Makes Perfect: Oct 24th, 2010

Discussing strategy with John Baskett

Today marks the start of the WSOB tournament. Practice sessions were held at 8 AM Pacific Time and again at 3 PM Pacific Time.

With 254 entries and 64 lanes and 3 patterns (Shark, Chameleon, and Scorpion) out in the morning and Viper and Cheetah in the afternoon, it was organized chaos. We saw many more bowlers in the afternoon than in the morning, likely because of start time and some late nights in the casino!

Today was also the last day of the horse show, so I dilligently spent equal amounts of time watching the beautiful saddlebreds and the bowlers... PROMISE.

Everyone is really getting into the spirit of the tournament and tension levels have started to elevate.

And what would a blog be without the pictures?




Here's Rick Langton practicing on Chameleon.

Here's Jason Sterner thowing a strike on Scorpion.

Since everyone knows stategy is a big part of the sport of bowling and with coaching now allowed, discussion on how to play the lanes and which ball to use is an advantage. Here Jason Sterner and Scott Newell are chatting about ball selection and ball reaction.

The official tounament starts on Monday at 7:30 Pacific and B squad at 10:30 Pacific. Be sure to check out the Xtra Frame on the PBA.com website to follow up live and see real time scoring.

First day in Vegas, Saturday, Oct 23rd

As you probably already know... I hate flying! I seem to do better on shorter flights, but a touch of vertigo and turbulance usually spells disaster for me. And no, even though we were in 1st class, I only had 1.5 drinks! I spent much of the flight in the lavitory and was greatful to finally arrive in Las Vegas, and to our relief, with all of our luggage!

We arrived quite late to the South Point Casino, which is about 4 miles South of the Mandalay Bay hotel. Since we missed the courtesy shuttle (last pick up was 9:30 and we got in around 10), we ended up taking the airport shuttle to the hotel. The van was old and I think our driver was retired from the demolition derby circuit, since we almost hit 2 light polls, ran over a curb and hit every bump in the road along our 5 mile journey.

We arrived at the hotel and were quite relieved to find a clean hotel room well equipped with a nice 42 inch flat screen TV! Although well appointed and quite large, apparently towels and hangers are a premium and have required several calls to housekeeping to get more than 2 of each.

One nice feature of this hotel for me is the state of the art indoor equestrian center, which was hosting the California Saddle Horse championships this weekend. So, while Rick obsessed about when he could get his bowling balls, I sat and watched the show. Although we shipped the bowling balls and they arrived Tuesday, they were stored till 9:30 tonight, so I've been dealing with "Nervous Nelly" all day. Rick spent the better part of 2 hrs in panic mode, when he wasn't able to locate his stuff, but found just about everyone elses' (253 other competitors) equipment. The boxes finally showed up about 2 hrs ago in a back hallway of the bowling center and Rick is still wearing holes in the carpet, since he can't physically get everything situated.

As the bowling ball drama unfolded, we caught up with Kip and Trip Roberts, from VA, who were planning on driving to Vegas. We found out that they ended up flying out of Nashville, after a bad car accident which totalled the car, and luckily left everyone uninjured but shaken up.

We tried our hand at a few slots and are only down a little. We have decided it's much better to play during the day, the place isn't as crowded, smokey, and the cocktail waitresses seem to deliver drinks quicker.

Tomorrow starts tournament practice at 7:30 AM and with 254 competitors bowling, should be interesting. Thankfully, the horse show ends tomorrow, since Rick is worried my viewing priorites might be a bit out of whack.

Count down to the WSOB..T-Minus 36 hrs.

The Joys of Airline Travel: Oct 22, 2010

I'm starting to understand why some of the guys choose to drive to Las Vegas instead of fly. I thought Kip and Trip Roberts were CRAZY to drive 2,400 miles from Glen Allen, VA to Las Vegas, NV, but after dealing with the logisitics of trying to fly, I'm starting to think flying was the wrong choice.

First of all, shipping bowling balls is not an easy task. 4 balls per case = 70 lbs each and $70 per box each way. Then in addition to the cost, your friendly local driver does not have any intention of picking these up for delivery, leaving you having to manuver 2 very heavy, very large cases to the local drop off facility.

Thankfully, Rick's equipment has succesfully been signed for and is safely (at least hopefully) secured and awaiting our arrival.

Next we have to deal w logisitics of packing for 2 weeks. Since I was traveling on business this week, for me it was pack for 3 weeks. No laundry facilities are available on site at the South Point Casino, and I refuse to pay $2.50 to wash a pair of underwear, so what's a girl to do??? Pack everything she owns in the allowable 2 pieces of luggage. I have to say, I did well and managed to get everything into a 22 inch and 19 inch suitcase and it was under the 50 lb weight limit...which is more than I can say for Rick.

All he had to do was pack for himself and pack for 2 weeks.. what does he do??? Arrive to the airport with the largest piece of luggage imaginable and stuffed to capacity... weight...well over the allowable 50lb limit, so they wanted to charge him $79 to send the bag. We managed to shuffle clothing to get him to 65 lbs and down to $49 for the bag. In addition to the whole closet, Rick also checked a 3 ball bag that just barely made the limit and 49.5 lbs. So now, we have a total of 4 checked bags all ready to burst at the seams!

As I had eluded to before, I was traveling in Dallas all week and on the same airline as we were leaving Atlanta on, so it should have been a piece of cake to just have my luggage checked through to Las Vegas.. but that was not to be! Ran through the airport to baggage claim only to have to recheck the luggage back in. Oh, and since it's Atlanta, that meant another trip through security. As I was rushing to solve both Rick's and my luggage crisis, I left my book in the airport bathroom.. and it is now MIA.. Ugh.. I was just getting to the good part too.

Thankfully, we managed to score first class seats, so the rest of the luggage was free and the "Adult beverages" also free and flowing. Let's just hope we make it to Vegas on time and with all of our luggage.

And We're Off! Oct 22nd, 2010

Countdown to Las Vegas and the 2010 PBA World Series of Bowling is less than 12 hrs and we are ready to hit the road.

I've done the blog thing once before and it was a hit, so given my "Type A" personality and my inability to relax, blogging the WSOB as we will call it, comes naturally.

I will continue to post our adventures as well as some of the highlights of the week, for those of you who didn't have the chance to join us in the city of lights. I will do my best to include as many of the South Region's best as I can. Here's a quick preview of the " Non-Exempt Yet.. Stars of the South": Jason Sterner, Kip Roberts, Trip Roberts, Scott Newell, John Baskett, Richard Langton, Russell "Rusty" Minar, Josh Chambliss, David O'Sullivan, Lee Vanderhoef and Randy Weiss.

Exempt South Players include: Richie Allen, Norm Duke, Jason Couch, Patrick Allen, Tommy Jones, Stevie Webber, Brian Voss (Who also lives in Alpharetta), and of course, Walter Ray Williams, JR.

So, please sit back, relax, insure your tray tables are in the full upright and locked position, carry-on items are stowed and your seat belt is securely fastened, as we are ready to depart!