Chameleon Championship

The Chameleon Championship started on Tuesday, August 18th with the practice session and qualifying on Wednesday, the 19th. I chose not to bowl in the practice session, but instead watch, in order to give my leg a little more healing time.

First I must tell you a little bit about the center we are bowling in. All of the women's series events are being conducted in the arena bay section of Thunderbowl Lanes. The arena bay is basically a 20 lane separate bowling center that has tiered seating and a vaulted ceiling (with normal scoreboards), which acts almost like a mini National Bowling Stadium with decor from the 70's. Complete with plush sparkly gold and pink vinyl couches in the settee area and leopard print stools at the top deck viewing areas, it is definitely a venue unlike any other.

Participating in the arena has it's advantages and disadvantages. It's nice to bowl in a setting where we are only crossing with the women (which is unlike every other year of the women's series, where we were inter-mixed with the men during qualifying). The lanes tend to break down better because we don't have all of the traffic of the men's high rev rates pushing all of the oil all over the place.

However, in this setting it feels as though we are put in a corner all by our selves (like we're on time out) and no one really knows that we're competing in there. The men bowl at the exact same time and in a completely different bay of the bowling center (lanes 41-90), which leaves spectators the choice of watching the men or the women bowl, not the convenience of watching both at the same time. Not to mention that in order to find where we are bowling it is much like an obstacle course or Where's Waldo book.

Other differences this year on tour, include our own paddock, located just behind the arena (which is normally used as a comedy club). It's nice not having to battle for tools when working out equipment or waiting so long to use the spinner, but it also has it's disadvantages too. With separate competition and paddock areas, the men and women really never get to see each other much. It's almost like "Over there is their area and this is our area." So it's a really weird vibe this year out on tour.

Another added bonus is that we are bowling on a REALLY old surface in the arena. For those of you that have watched Xtra Frame, you can see that we are not lacking in friction. This week we had 20% more volume and by the end of the 7-game block Tammy was in front of the ball return and pretty much everyone was inside of 4th arrow. (Yes the pattern is 39 feet, but there are only 20 of us and we're only bowling 7 games, NOT 14 games without re-oiling.)

So, knowing that I can't throw the ball hard because of my injury, I decided to have my dad ship me my old Columbia Trooper urethane ball from way back in the day. It came in handy, as I used it the first 4-5 games of both blocks (however not soon enough the first block) and then switched to a Storm Second Dimension when the lanes opened up a bit and I could use enough head-angle to get the ball down the lane.

Well the good news about the Chameleon Championship is that I did finish all 14 games and I didn't hurt too bad afterwards. I think my leg is getting better and I'm definitely ready to give it my all in the Scorpion Championship which starts Sunday with the practice session. Till then...