Another local tourney

[boomer]

This time they did handicap no-tap - which was fun but obviously for the lower average bowlers. And yes, they racked it up! My wife took 14th, for $90. Not bad!

I found it funny how during league we all seem to leave so many 10's that you'd think we'd ROCK no-tap but . . . I think out of 30 strikes (5 games) I only had 5 taps. Weird.

Anyway - it was on a heavier pattern than our usual. It was 45' 5 to 5 pattern that they are going to standardize for the house shot. Very do-able from multiple angles, but you DO have to actually bowl. It's interesting how some people struggled who don't normally.

Game 1 - clean. 1 Tap. Left a couple of 4-7's and a 6-9-10. 238. Nowhere near where some people were but . . . still good.
Game 2 - open in frame 1 (3-6-9-10 - left the 10) but clean after. I think only 2 taps. 239. Again - nowhere near but was having fun.
Game 3 - fell apart. Talking with others, there was a puddle on this lane that we were having a hard time getting around. 5 opens, 2 splits, no taps. 157.
Game 4 - Much better until 7-8 where I blew a 4-6 and a 6-10. 222. Better - and having some fun again.
Game 5 - Again, pretty good. Left a 6-7 and 3-6 but otherwise solid. 217.

With handicap I finished in the low 1200's, 1073 scratch. My wife was the low payout at 14th, 1373. She had couple of 300+ games (with her handicap, obvoiusly) and had a LOT of fun.

Overall was a great tournament, had a ton of fun, bowled with great people and was great to see people who don't normally win do well and have fun, themselves! (not to say that I typically do well. . . I don't. . . but was fun all the same! )

[Aslan]

I can't do no-tap.

It just feels weird. It's like it's not really bowling.

Not to mention, there's always that ONE GUY who is a great bowler...but his achilles heel is he leaves a ton of 7s or 10s and can't pick them up to save his life. Usually a thumbless bowler or someone that rips the cover off the ball...and just can't straighten his shot out for spares.......and THAT GUY...is essentially a "no-tap GAWD!"

[boatman37]

I have never done a no tap and don't plan to. I feel the same. Kind of like taking football and saying 'well if you make it to the 10 yard line we'll give you the TD'...lol

[Aslan]

The other 'annoying' thing about no-tap tournaments is bowlers think no-tap tournaments are designed to include more people and make it more fun. While this is the language used to market no-tap tournaments; it's fairly clear the motivation is $$$$. No-tap tournaments are incredibly shorter than standard tournaments. Standard tournaments that might take 0.5-1.0 days become no-tap and take < 3 hours.

[boomer]

Ummmm - OK, for "serious" tournaments, sure.

This is our local pro-shop trying to get excitement and participation up - and they are planning to do a tournament per month. In September they're doing a 3-game with a ball demo afterwards - something I haven't seen in SoCal like, ever?

so, sure, it's not a "serious" tournament. It's fun bowling with everyone. There was a good amount of money in it - my wife got $90 for taking 14th. SHE was very excited - she generally won't do well at any tournament but she did great at this one and wants to do more (not the September one - that's her birthday weekend so. . . she has plans! LOL)


This 5 game no-tap cost us only $50, took half the day easy (10:00 start to about 2:00-2:30), had a ton of brackets, and we filled the center more than 3/4 capacity on a Saturday.


This is definitely different from y'all out there in Kansas and Iowa and such where bowling is still thriving and you get lots of tournaments both big and small (that's my perception anyway) - we have a FEW fairly big tournaments that go off monthly but they are intimidating, cost quite a bit more, and we have to fight traffic to get to them. Having a local, fairly inexpensive, and FUN tournament go off each month with something different each time? That's NEW and something we NEED.

It's not going to be no-tap each time. They want to do different things - and I'm HOPING they also sponsor a few interesting leagues. They've made noises about being interested in a match-point league . . . YES!!!

[Aslan]

I think your 'problem' is you live on the wrong side of the green river pass.

I know the owner of the pro shop at Concourse (Anaheim Hills) does ball demos quite a bit. He'd also do "ball raffles" a couple times a year and made decent money that way. Everybody pays $1/ticket or $5/6 tickets and the winner gets a new ball. I think standard drilling was included. VISE and TURBO would probably have to pay a little extra. Sometimes the raffle would be for a couple specific balls/weights. Other times he'd just offer two tiers (upper level ball >$175 and entry level < $175) and you can pick the ball ya want and weight ya want. He'd do these raffles during the bigger leagues (30-40 teams) and I betcha he made $150-$200 per ball...probably $210-$290 on some nights.

I think AMF in Fullerton also does demos. That's the Missy Parkin pro shop...probably the best pro shop I'd ever been to. The only downside is it's in an AMF center...which I think was bought (again) by bowlero or something. Same thing with Brunswick Classic Lanes on your side of the green river pass. They used to host some tournaments, but I think they're a Bowlero now. Linbrook does tournaments every Saturday and the place is packed. It's a color-pin tournament where you get paid for a variety of different things as well as if you strike when a color pin is the headpin. Depending on the color, determines the payout. But, Linbrook would be a rough drive from the citrus belt.

[boomer]

We had a Parkin pro-shop here and got TERRIBLE service. They kept changing our guy and . . . just wasn't a good scene.

We have a new one, private, and he's been GREAT.

Yeah - I know. I'm not in the right place, but that means potential, right? No place to go but up!


Fullerton and Anaheim Hills are a PITA to get to. We have to take the 91 FW over there and it's always bunged up. If you can, you avoid the 91. Anaheim Hills is about an hour away - Fullerton maybe twice that.

That's why we're excited with our new PSO's.