World Cup Qualifier - Peterborough, England

Last weekend we ventured to Peterborough to compete in the English World Cup Qualifier. The winners of this tournament would be the English representatives to bowl in the World Cup held this year in Hermosillo, Mexico. The Ladies event was an 8 game qualification cut to the top 16, then a further 4 games then cut to a top 6 round robin.

I decided to bowl on Saturday afternoon instead of Sunday morning, as the schedule was set so as the tournament would not finish until after 9pm on the Sunday night. I started off struggling quite a lot, opening up the first 3 games with 169-178-195 = 540 :-( I was moving around everywhere trying to find a decent reaction. I had used my Blast Zone and Ultra Zone and both
looked close but I wasn't creating much area, the balls were under reacting when I missed right and over reacting when I missed inside. I had played from approx. board 7 at the arrows to approx. 13 and it just didn't look right to me but I knew the break point was in the right place, I just had to find the right way to get to it.

I decided the Blast Zone was just too strong so moved in to approx 17 at the arrows and slowed down with my Ultra Zone; this really enabled me to open up the lane. I suddenly created a great ball reaction and shot 227-266-228-245-205 over the next five leaving me on 1713 and squad leader over night.

I was still in the lead after the second qualifying squad with a 37 pin lead over second place Hayley White. We had to wait for the men to bowl a six game block before we joined them to bowl four games and cut to the top six. I was a bit wary of how to play the lanes on the fresh as I hadn't started so well the day before, during practice I tried to play where I had the day before but it didn't look so good. I moved out to 7 at the arrows with my Blast Zone and increased my ball speed. I wasn't sure whether this was going to work as the practice was without pins so it is very hard to tell, but it was the best look I had found so I went for it. It did work and I shot 254
first game, finishing the four game block on 2545 for the 12 games. Kylie Wills had a great four games shooting 909 and also finishing on 2545.

After another re-dress we started the five game round robin. I decided to give my Racing Zone a go during the round robin as usually when there are only women playing on the lanes the pattern doesn't burn up as quickly so I thought I would need a ball that was going to hook more than my Ultra Zone. The Racing Zone is an international Brunswick release based on the Absolute Inferno, I had a great look on the first pair and opened up with 278 (Win) against Hayley White. I followed that up with 220 (Win), 200 (Win), 157 (Lose) and 214 (Win) to emerge champion with a 120 pin lead over second place! :-)

I am so happy that I am finally going to the World Cup! I have played the qualifier for the last 10 years and finished in second place twice! So I will be going to Hermosillo, Mexico in November!!!

:-):-):-):-)

I'm off to San Marino this Thursday, my favourite tournament of the year, I have won the tournament twice in the past and San Marino is so beautiful I love there!

Until then Z.....

www.zaraglover.com

Euro 5's tournament - Ipswich UK

Last weekend I bowled a 5 man team tournament in Ipswich. I bowled with 4 of the youth members of power play pro shop team. Matt Chamberlain, Aaron Machin, Ash Iacona and Sean Croke.

The centre is renowned for being dry as it is an old wooden lane centre. The scoring was high as the pattern was quite walled up even though it was dry. We started with a 5 game singles event moving lanes after every game. I used my dry zone solid for the first 4 games, I had only drilled this ball on Friday night. I was so impressed with how calm this ball is, It is definately going to be used for any shorter oil patterns I face. I love the original dry zone, the solid however is more even and over all I would say hooks less when drilled with the same layout. I switched to the avalache pearl when the lanes dried out more as this gets longer down the lane. I only managed 980 in the singles finding a couple of pairs very tricky I had 2 sub 200 games.

After the singles we had a 3 game block of 5 man. We drew lanes 7&8 we had trouble getting the corner pins out as a team. The lane felt like it was hooking too much too early then under reacting on the back end. We finished with 3036 for the 3 games. Not too bad for the first time the 5 of us had played together! I used my dry zone solid for the whole block to try and even out the under over reaction I was seeing.

After the squad we travelled to a hotel, the closest we could find that had rooms was 20 miles away. I'm not sure what was happening in Ipswich last weekend, but it felt like half of England was there! We had a nice meal then got a good nights rest ready for the Sunday.

The rest seemed to do us all well and I felt like we were much more of a unit on the Sunday. We opened up with a huge 1170 followed by 1160 and 1080. So putting us over 3400 for the day and 5th place over all! I really enjoyed bowling with the guys and hope we will be able to bowl together in another tournament soon!

Next weekend I am playing in lakeside Peterborough in the world cup qualifier. The winner will get to represent England in Mexico later on in the year!


Zara

www.zaraglover.com

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