This past weekend I  bowled in the Greater Kansas City Tournament.  I didn't do  all that  hot, I shot 600  in two out of the three sets but I was really unprepared for the lane conditions.  My equipment just wouldn't let me get to stringing strikes like I had hoped. The first day  had a real tight shot and I  took too long to adjust. I ended up with  620's in team event which I wasn't too mad about because I seen people who I consider to  be better than me  throwing no where near that for their set.  

The second day was singles and doubles and I really wanted to redeem myself and maybe put myself in the hunt for a decent all events finishing. Well, that didn't happen. The oil machine broke down  while they were oiling the lanes so we basically got  the leftover oil from the previous league night.  Needless to say the heads were really burnt up and it had less carrydown than I figured there would be. I struggled badly the first couple of  games, which was singles. I decided I would just figure out a shot for doubles because my dad was my partner and somehow he was bowling pretty good with a urethane ball. I finally found a look, not at all that great of one but none the less it was a look. I pulled out a ball that is supposed to go extremely long but even it was  rolling out. I was just keeping it on the lane as short of time as possible (by amping up the speed and keeping it tight) and trickling the pocket. Every ball I threw down the lane I was just begging to carry and bowled better than what my score showed for the set. I shot 630's and again was not all that upset because of the comparison to other bowlers' scores.

All in all it was not a fun experience. I couldn't believe that, with all of the USBC officials present, the tourney was ran  so poorly. I will really think twice about  bowling in this tournament again or any other local one for that matter because of the ethics of the local USBC officers. I called the office and asked how it was fair that we had such a terrible pattern when all of the other sessions (the tourney runs for two weekends and has a few sessions per day) get the normal and freshly put down house shot. His response was that we should have had it easy because of the carry down. That's not entirely true because if you don't have the right equipment with you to go long and fight through the carrydown then you're screwed LIKE ME!! I then asked him, "If there was  nothing wrong then why did you have to bring over another oil machine from the closest house for the session after us?" He stuttered a little and couldn't give an answer. The guy is just full of crap and I'm really questioning how the governing body of bowling, THE FREAKIN' USBC, can pull that on payed members like us. The thing that really sucks is that I had some guys that I talked into bowling the tourney with me. It was their first tournament and it just completely ruined the experience for them.

Has anyone else ever had a problem similar to this and if so how was it resolved?

Well yet again, so close but yet so far for my hopes of the all mighty 800 series on the Sunday mixed league. First game i started off with the strike, spare, strike, spare, next 5... That was when I started thinking well maybe tonight is the night for me. Well that was all good and fine until I lost concentration in the tenth and tugged it right through the nose, BIG FOUR! Oh well I deserved that and finished with 222(not exactly happy at this point lol). So I start next game with full concentration and threw the front 7 before I left a reemin 9 pin and struck until the fill ball for 277. I can't remember the exact sequence of the last game but by then my 800 hopes were all up because I turned the corner at 499. I still was happy with 768 for the night considering my friend Donnie (teammate on Thursday) turned the corner at 530's and shot 740's. The rest of my team struggled here and there however and we lost all of our points. I took out my man all three games and series and that's all I could hope for considering he's a pretty good bowler.

I'm hoping my lovely wife Nicole gets me a Track Kinetic bowling ball for Christmas. I'm sure she will considering most of the time I'm spoiled rotten by her. It also helps that I'm probably going to get her an expensive purse or something. What can I say she has a purse, shoe, and gem stone fetish and mine is bowling balls. :)