AO Conditions.

[Fitzy]

I am starting a new thread as I do not want to hijack the responses and achievement of David in his time. Well done by the way mate!
As I did not attend, I am curious on the conditions for the AO (not just lane condition, but environment, atmosphere, successes, failures, pros, cons …). Hopefully people who bowled/watched might be able to give us their impressions.
By the qualifying scores it looks as though the conditions were tough (200 to make the cut) even though there were some very high qualification scores with the top people (George … Belmo … Pilko … Tonx and others) who seem to be able to shoot high scores on anything, so to me, there still seems to have been some very hard conditions.
Also score’s seemed to seesaw quite a bit, any theories? (213,177,229 as an example)
Attendance, I know some centre’s are small but what is Sunshine bowl like? With it being a major tournament were there many spectators? How was the atmosphere to bowl/watch??
Is unlimited qualifying a pro or a con?
How was the event in reflection?
Any feelings/opinions (interesting/otherwise) you would like to share?

 

[rychenroller]

As a bowler, I found it tough, quite under and over. If your speed or target was out by 2 boards, dont expect a good result. Porto found a nice place way outside...credit to him to be able to throw that shot.

Personally, I thought the hardest thing to deal with was the change after every game. You are really relying on consistency throughout the house to be able to have the confidence to go to a different pair and play the same shot. If the pair was different, I found myself having 2 or 3 "sighters" to get it right...then you didnt have the 2nd game in that block on the same pair to fall back on.

But tough is ok, I'd rather see a 200 ave required to make the cut, instead of a 220 ave.

 

[Fitzy]

But tough is ok, I'd rather see a 200 ave required to make the cut, instead of a 220 ave.

Agreed - good call!

 

[tonx]

Ok, time for my view.

This format allowed anyone to compete. There was only a short number of games to be lined up, and the buff on the pattern was massive, making it break down very quickly. You had to guess adjustments that were comming up, and guess them well. It would have been nice having a slightly more fair shot for the final match (ie: a fresh pair of lanes for the final, or at least something a little tighter for the lefties to start with, especially with the length of buff), but if I suggested that, im sure the haters on here would jump on me quicker than I can blink.

I did like the format, as the amount of re-entries were huge, and the prize fund increased! its a rarity in Australian tournaments. Lets hope more TD's think outside the square for other majors....

Low scoring tournaments is what this country needs more of, to improve the calibre and quality of our bowlers that we send overseas. The better we all get on tough conditions, the easier they will become! The youth tournaments aren't having 240 averages winning anymore, and I personally think its fantastic!

Now to be as honest as possible, atmosphere was totally dead. PERIOD. The spectators that were there were good, but it seemed like there would be more excitement if they had of turned on the disco lighting, we all were made to put our shoe covers on our head (seen Kelvin do it before, blame him for the idea) and made the music as loud as possible. If this is the direction that bowling is heading in, I fear for the worst.

I think Max brought up the point that 2 majors running on the 1 weekend is kinda stupid, and limits the amount of bowlers as well as spectators to these types of tournaments. I'm sure that given the option, there would have been a few more female entries into the AO (Simpson, Baker, Anne-Marie, Langlands etc etc) only improving the numbers. AMF really need to look at this for the future. If I ever make it to another title match, having more than 20 spectators seeing me shoot 300 for 2 would be nice..... lmao!

All in all, I was glad to make it through the tournament. The short format did help an unfit fella like myself , and it was great to see a Victorian bring home the title!

Hope this answers your questions!

Cheers!

 

[Jez]

Condition was tough but fair i think, there was a shot there for most players.

If this format is to be run again i think the finals should be best of 5 and not 3, the tournament finished earlier enough for this to happen and i think it would just make the format bit less cut throat. I mean there were matches like George and Micky that were just dying to go to 5 games.

And i know it has been stated in another post, but has to be more $$ somehow very tough on the interstaters to make money and cover costs.

 

[CSP]

You summed it up well Jez. I totally agree.

 

[griggsy]

in my view conditions were great, the ones that played it well bowled well obviously. i feel though that the re try format was a much better way to go for a super 6 major and should be a regular thing. though i do feel something like 6 game qualifying blocks would be better with the finals being best of 5 as jarrod said and even possibly then doing what the pba do and have top four face each other in a one game roll off to go to the final match then one game again to decide the winner as i feel that would probably make the finals matches alot more exicting to watch for the public.
if the bowling alley was willing i think maybe intorducing the finalists would be a good idea like they do on the pba with people coming out to like entrance theme songs would be kind of good as it is something different and at least then public coming in can get a big of a background too on the bowlers bowling.
just something to think about

 

[krdavis]

I probably bowled the most games down there (31) in total!! – Like everyone, I found the conditions difficult and to be honest a little demoralising. When you come off a 200+ average in league and bowl like absolute crap to scrap up a best 5 game ave of mid 170’s you tend to start to think about things. The re-entry format gave me the opportunity to try different balls, different lines etc and at the end of the day enough information to make decisions on weather the equipment was suited to me and some ideas as to how to master the conditions in the future. Conditions like this make you think, and at the end of the day those bowlers who were able to make the best decisions prevailed. I’m off next week to bowl two PBA Regionals in the US (after the weekend I am not sure why ?) – but I am very interested to see how these tournament conditions compare to our AO – I will report back to the group. Realistically I expect to be smashed – but I will have a good time just the same. Summing up – Keep the conditions challenging, Keep the re-entry format, Don’t hold major events simultaneously, and if you’re one who complains about the prize money, you may be better off just sticking your entry fee on Black 8 !