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.
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