Brunswick 5's

I'm in the car trying to get to Calais for the earlier ferry! I'm not quite sure what happened today? After being so good for the last few days we had a terrible day!

In baker system 5 bowlers share one game, so the first bowler takes frames 1 & 6 the second bowler frames 2 & 7 etc. The order of the players is the most important thing, as you have to get the people who are striking together to make doubles and turkeys. We set the line up yesterday as Matt first then Paul, Missy, Andy and Me. Andy, Matt and I had the best ball reaction over the qualifying squads so by putting us 1-4-5 we had the opportunity to get 3 in a row frames 4 to 6. The lanes played a lot tighter when we started and I didn't have a good reaction at all. We kept the order for 3 games but it really wasn't working we lost all three games. We switched to Missy 1st, Matt 2nd, Me 3rd, Paul 4th and Andy 5th. This order was much better, we were getting doubles so instantly put 20 pins on our scores. Now we just had to win some matches as there was a 30 pin bonus for winning matches!

It felt like we were really battling and going no where! Missy hadn't had the best ball reaction all weekend, she nailed the pocket in one game and threw 3 messengers in 2 frames and didn't strike! This pretty much summed up our whole day! Out of 15 matches we only won 5. I guess when you bowl so well in qualifying every team gets hyped up to beat you! We had some great scores bowled at us and with this tough format of 1 game matches you blinked and the match was over!

It was fun to play baker format again, it's been a few years since I played it and with a few tweeks the format could make for a great tournament!

I've got a few weekends off now, my next trip will be to sweden to play league in 3 weeks time.

Zara xxx
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Brunswick 5's - Paris

We've just finished qualifying at the Brunswick 5's in the outskirts of Paris!

We started bowling yesterday morning at 10am our team consists of Paul Moor, Andy Giles, me, Missy Bellinder and Matt Giles. We opened up with a steady 1027 then a massive 1209 then 1116. Finishing +352 at the half way stage.

After lunch we squashed into the car and drove into central Paris. The weather has been terrible, raining heavily and even hale stoneing in places. We parked close to the river and bought tickets for a boat tour. We had about a 40 min wait before the boat set off so went over the bridge intending on looking aroung Notre Dame. When we got over there the que was 100's of people long and the heavens had just opened so we made a quick dash for a coffee shop. We had some coffee's to warm up and indulged in some crepes with nutella and banana :) then headed back to the boat trip. We had a great time took some fantastic pictures and froze! The boat ride was for about an hour and we went past all the major sites of Paris.

We then headed back to the bowl (via a few souvenier shops) for a dinner organised by the Valcke family who were running the tournament. They must be exhausted as they also ran the Brunswick euro challenge last weekend in another one of their centres. We got back to the bowl about 8.30 and joined in the festivities. It was a lovely buffet and we had a great time socialising with all the other teams.

Today we had a much needed lie in, not waking up until noon. Then headed down to the bowl for lunch and to bowl our 2nd block of qualification. We were in the lead by quite a bit as the highest team that had bowled their 2nd block this morning was around +160. We started off slow, only Andy had a good look on this pair and we shot 946 then on the end pair we had a great look and shot 1184 then finished with 1063 +545 for the 6 game block!!!

We have qualified top team and tomorrow is a different format. 16 team baker round robin! I'm really looking forward to it as I always enjoyed playing baker when that was the team cup format! The most important thing is getting the line up right as stringing strikes together is tough in baker format. Each person only gets 2 shots per game!

I'm going to get some sleep now ready for tomorrow. Fingers crossed we have another great day!

Happy Easter!

Z xxx

Zara Glover

http://www.zaraglover.com/

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Brunswick Euro Challenge

Well what a drama I had on Saturday night! I thought I was pretty safe going into the last squad as I could be beaten by 5 people and still make the cut. The most I think I have ever seen make the cut in the last squad was 3. Everyone is telling me that I will breeze in. So I'm upstairs in the pro shop discussing my options for the finals with Rick Bernoit trying to change my surfaces to give me the best chance in the finals. Rick is the ball rep who is on the Pro tour in the USA with all the Brunswick staff players-he is the best guy in the world at lining bowlers up. So we're in the pro shop when Matt comes up to say that I missed the cut by one place, 6 people went past me in the last squad!!! I couldn't believe it, so I ran down to pay my €50 for desperado and quickly got changed!

I got to my lane and was lucky to only have 3 bowlers there so we would be finished before most of the other lanes with 4 bowlers. I always feel this is an advantage in desperado - nice to finish a one game shootout, sit back and wait for everyone else to try and beat your score. Rick had dulled down most of my pearl bowling balls, and I found a great shot in practise with my Vapor Zone. Rick had taken it down with a 500 abralon pad and for the first time of the tournament I had a look! I shot 237 and finished 2nd in the despo the top 6 games going through to the finals. Phew!

After the late finish (3am!) I had to be at the bowl for around 8am. I should be used to it by now as 3 years out of the 5 the euro challenge has been running i've qualified through desperado!

The morning round played very tough and the cut ended up a very low +15 for 6 games! I had bowled really bad the first couple of games and couldn't make up the pins I had lost! Finishing a disappointing 50th.

I am getting back to form now with the changes I have implemented into my game and mentally I am feeling good!

Next weekend I am travelling to another suburb of Paris for the Brunswick 5's tournament again run by the Valcke family. The last time I played the 5's in Paris I was part of the winning team! Let's hope we can repeat it!

Zara xxx
Zara Glover

www.zaraglover.com

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Brunswick Euro Challenge - Day 3

I've figured out I can add videos to this blog... How cool!

Now you'll be able to get a feel for every centre I go in and be able to see what I see :)

Bowling Plaza - St. Maximin

Funny Take 2!!!

Matt being Funny!!!

I bowled again yesterday and today. Still haven't beaten my score from Thursday of +62 the lanes have been hooking a lot more the last few days. I think everyone is finding a better reaction with more surface on their equipment so this is burning up the lane a lot quicker. I moved in with my ultra zone and found some reaction but still didn't have a great look for more than 5 frames on any pair of lanes! Very frustrating!



So now I am waiting for the final squad to finish. I was on the waiting list but not enough people pulled out for me to bowl. 5 people can pass me this squad for me to stay inside the cut, its at +59 right now. I hate sitting waiting, its totally out of my control now, all I can do is wait to see how everyone else does, not a feeling I want to get used to.


Zara

xxx

Brunswick Euro Challenge - Day 1

Well today was the first day of bowling in the biggest European event of the year. The Brunswick Euro Challenge has moved to France this year. In previous years it has been held in Greece, but due to the growth of the tournament and the number of lanes in the Greek bowling centre it is now being hosted by Valcke in their St. Maximin centre on the outskirts of Paris.

My first squad was at 2pm so after a long sleep (13 hours!!) I was very refreshed! I started off on lane 26 and had a real issue with this pair. After 10 mins practise I still managed to only shoot 155! Not a very convincing start! Every ball I threw on this pair went way too long. I left a lot of 9 count and a few nasty 6 counts. For the next pair I picked up my blast zone and went up the back of the ball with less ball speed. This looked a lot better and I shot 190 then got better and better through the squad. I kept around the same place on the lane. Playing straight up 8/9 on some pairs even playing from right to left! The pattern is very tough. High volume on the heads and pretty flat so there is not a lot of room for error in the first few games. Some of the higher rev rate bowlers managed to open up the lane in the last few games, but I had to stick it out just being accurate and sparing. I finished with +33. I bowled again straight after and made some different decisions. I dulled my Fury, Thunder Zone and took the surface off my Ultra Zone. I started with the Thunder Zone and although it looked better, I still had under over issues. After a few frames of the second game I switched to my blast zone again and had a couple of bigger games. I stuck with the Blast until the fifth game when is started hooking less and less. At this point I switched to my Vapor Zone, this didn't work out too well as I left a few single pins and then a couple of wash outs finishing with 173 :(

The last pair were pretty similar. I tried the Vapor for 2 frames but didn't like the reaction so switched to the Ultra Zone. I wish now I had changed to it earlier as it looked great! I had 5 in a row! Only finishing with 209 which put me at +62 which is boarder line on the prediction of the cut.

I am playing again at noon tomorrow. Fingers crossed I will improve on my score!


Zara

Barcelona March '08 ETBF stop

Well this weekend has been a disaster from the minute I set off! I had a flat tyre when I tried to set off from work on Friday! Then when that was fixed the traffic was terrible all the way to Heathrow. It took 3 hours to drive a 90 minute journey. Once at the airport my flight was delayed by 2 hours due to a engine fire on a plane and bad weather.

This trip was planned to be very short, I was arriving in Barcelona 9.30pm on Friday night bowling qualifying Saturday 8am then flying home on Sunday night. The delay meant I only got to the hotel around midnight!

So at 6am Saturday I dragged myself out of bed and made my way to the bowl. It took me 2 games to really get lined up with the right ball. I was playing straight up board 5 with my Original Inferno. There hasn't been a tournament for a while where the gutter has been in play, so I was quite optimistic. That block I started with a 170 game and just couldn't make any pins back. My high game being 211 and low 192 excluding the 1st game finishing on +26.

I went for some lunch with Kirsten and Stu then returned for the 4pm squad. Silly me tried to play in the same place as the morning squad and shot 168 first game. Then started moving around switching balls and found something in the third game. The pattern was playing so much drier outside, I ended up playing 13 out to 7\8 at the breakpoint still with the Original Inferno. Again though I couldn't get that high game to pull back the pins I had lost and finished on a lower score than the morning squad. The final squad was full and I couldn't get a place.

Very frustrating to finish a tournament without figuring out the match up!

I am supposed to fly home at 8pm tonight but I am going to try and get an earlier flight home. Let's hope something actually goes to plan this weekend!

Next weekend I am bowling the British National Championships in Tolworth, London.

Zara Glover

www.zaraglover.com

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