This edition of “As the world turns” comes to you from Town & Country Lanes in Joliet, Il. This is the first time I’ve been here in over 20 years. My mom bowled here when she was on the Ladies Tour in the early 80s and I haven’t been here since. I’ve known the owner, George Kontos, for years I’ve been looking forward to coming here since the schedule came out earlier this year. This is also a pretty special event, with it being the Spina-Bifida Open. This is the 6th Annual tournament benefiting this charity and the people organizing have done a tremendous job in the past raising a lot of money. Ron Zicha’s daughter is the “poster-girl” for this event and its always nice to do something to benefit friends.

Friday June 9th

Like always, today is practice day. I drove in this morning, unloaded my truck, changed clothes and grabbed a practice pair. Since was coming off of a long layoff, I noticed right away how rusty I really am. Even though I won on this pattern last year, I struggled on it the rest of the season. We were bowling on fairly new synthetics ( I think they were Murray ??? ) and synthetic approaches. The approaches were in great shape for me, so I knew that was something I wouldn’t have to worry to much about. I threw several different balls and played several different angles, trying to find the best way to strike. Our scores have been pretty high lately, so there was no reason to think this week would be any different. The only thing that I thought would be the “equalizer” this week would be the pins. It seemed to me like the pins here were a little heavier than normal. I’m not sure if that was the case, but it seemed like it. Too me, that is the best way to control scores. Not lane conditions, not bowling ball regulations, just make the pins heavier and that will slow the pace down. Okay, I’ll get off my soapbox now. Anyway, I only bowled about an hour and a half of the practice session. I really didn’t strike very much, but I didn’t feel very sharp either. We headed to Hooters for dinner before our pro-am. There was a brand new one not to far from the bowl, so I got to check another one off of my list !!! The 7:30 pro-am was pretty full. For the first time at this center, the pro-am entries were outstanding. I think Heather ( Paul Nicholas’ wife ) said they had somewhere around 175 entries for the 2 Friday night pro-ams. The pro-am was a great time as usual. We got to do a few trick shots and I’m hoping that the crowd went home happy. By the time we got out of the bowl, it was already 10:30 pm. Since the NHRA is in town this weekend, hotel rooms are scarce in the Joliet area. I’m staying about 30 minutes away, so I headed back and went to bed.

Saturday June 10th

I got to the bowl today around 11:00 and watched the last 3 games of A squad. The scores were a little lower than I expected. That was actually good news for me since I didn’t strike much in practice. I am crossing with Steve Jaros, Chad Maas and Brian Waliczek this weekend. That’s a pretty good cross in my opinion and it gives me other people on my pair to get a good read off of. My game plan was to start out around 10-12, but that part of the lane started to break down half way through practice. Besides, Chad and Brian were already left of 15, so Steve and I jumped in there with them. I had a pretty good look with a Screaming Banshee, but I just couldn’t execute shots very well ( still too much rust I guess ). I ended up bowling a clean 204 in game 1 with three 4-pins and a 10-pin. I got off to a good start in game 2 with a double, but a big 4 in the 3rd and and a 4-6 in the 6th put me in trouble. Luckily I rebounded with a 4-bagger and finished with a 209. I switched to a Paradigm in the middle of the game and I thought that would get me going on my way. Unfortunately I just couldn’t seem to get my angles right. Everything was either way too much or not near enough down lane. I switched to an Agent in Game 3 and went clean for 204 again. I left five 10-pins and a solid 9. Not much was going my way at this point, so I brought the X-Factor out. I struck with it on the fill ball, so I was hoping that was a sign of things to come. Game 4 saw another clean game with solid 9, solid 8, ring 10, 4-pin, ring 10 and another solid 9 to start the game. I ended up with 211, but I wasn’t picking up any ground. At that point I think I started trying to hard to strike because in Game 5 I struggled with two 2-8-10s and five 10-pins. I finished Game 5 with 191 and fell back to +19 for the block. Game 6 was on a pretty rough pair but somehow I managed to pull a 223 out of nowhere. The left lane was extremely tight down lane, but I managed to strike on it a couple of times and parlay them into doubles. At that point I was just happy to make up some pins on the cut number. The scores weren’t very high at this point, so I figured a couple of decent games would get me a check. We made the turn and went to the low end for Game 7. By then I had made the switch back to the Agent and I was in around 6th arrow, trying to slow hook it as much as I could. Now the right lane was about an arrow tighter, and after a 2-8-10 in the 6th I threw the back 6 to finish with 237. I know—big deal, but it was my high game of the day ! Now I was at +79, and inside the cut number. I needed a big last game to make a run at the top 16 number now. Our last pair started off pretty nice. I had the front four to start with, but I suddenly lost the left lane and didn’t double again. I finished that game with 222 and went +101 for the day. I just didn’t have much luck today, but I also know I wasn’t as sharp as I probably should have been. Looking back, 23 days off might have been too much, but I desperately needed the break.

By the time we got done it was almost time to shoe up for the special 7:30 Saturday night charity pro-am. This pro-am is strictly for charity, no prize money involved. Most of the people that bowled in this one, were family or friends of the people involved in the event. They had about 175 people in this pro-am and it was packed. Normally I don’t like to bowl Saturday night pro-ams, but when its for charity you do whatever possible to help out. Like always we had a great time, the ams enjoyed themselves and a lot of money was raised for Spina-Bifida. Just like last night it was around 11:00 by the time we got done, so I headed back and went to bed. I know, I know pretty boring. All I can tell you is I was beat after today. I am totally out of bowling shape and it shows in a big way. I have to get up early in the morning because there’s a chance the interstate will be packed with race fans. Don’t want to be late !!!

Sunday June 11th

Well luckily there was no traffic and my trip back to the bowl was pretty quick and easy. Entering today I was 47 pins out of 16th place, so I needed to pick the pace up a bit. Unfortunately I didn’t get out of the gates the way I would have liked to. I started with a Screaming Banshee around 14-15 and just like yesterday I had a good look to start. I still wasn’t striking much but I felt better about how I throwing it today. Then a 4-6-7 in the 7th changed that. I never recovered after that and ended up with 191 to start Game 1. Game 2 saw me start migrating left and chasing my ball reaction. I probably had the wrong ball in my hand, but the shape of the reaction looked good, but didn’t want to strike. I left three 4-pins and two 10-pins, but a missed 3-10 in the 9th frame cost me and I ended up with 205. The way it looked, I was just good enough to be a 200 average bowler today. I switched to a Paradigm for Game 3 and I felt like this was my best physical game of the weekend. I pretty much nailed every shot, but 3 4-pins, 2 10-pins and a solid 9 allowed me to only muster a 219. At this point match play was looking pretty bleak. I went to an Agent for Game 4, thinking the only chance I had was to have a couple of big games. I was banking on my Agent to do the work for me, but it just wasn’t meant to be. I was clean the last 2 games, missing the pocket once for 219 and 227. I think I left about nine or ten 10-pins the last 2 games. Same story as the rest of the weekend. To much angle, not enough angle. Too much roll, not enough roll. I just never matched up this weekend, and in today’s game that is the biggest key. Unfortunately it’s not how well you bowl anymore, its how well you can match up. I guess this wasn’t my weekend. My spare game carried me on Saturday and that allowed me to at least get a check for my efforts.

A big thanks goes out to George and his staff. The center was beautiful and everything ran smoothly all weekend. George already informed us that we will be back next year, so we have another stop to look forward to now. I also want to thank the people responsible for this event. Most people don’t realize what it takes to organize and promote an event like this. It’s a lot of work and sometimes these people go unrecognized. Thanks go out out to Paul and Heather Nicholas ( as well as Heather’s mom Barb ), Greg Zicha and his family and Jerry Morano. If it wasn’t for people like these working as hard as they do, we wouldn’t have tournaments like these to bowl in. Anybody can host a regional, but with a little extra work and effort you can make it an event worth remembering. Thanks everybody

On a side note, I was very happy to find out that this event raised over $30,000.00 for the Illinois Spina-Bifida Association. Great work by all involved. That makes everything worthwhile

Well now that I’m somewhat healthy, its time to get back into a regular practice regimen. I get another weekend off next week ( my birthday by the way, send presents !!! ) and then its probably off to Jonesboro, AR. I will talk to you soon. Bowl up a Storm, Jeff.