2012 so far.....

January....

So I decided to get back into bowling competitively.

15th - Team England ranking event @ Romford.
This was the first tournament of the year and I didn't do very well. I hated watching the people I used to compete against rise way above me. This along with watching all the juniors that are coming through made realise I had a long way to go if I wanted to compete at the top level again - it was time to knuckle down.

20th - 22nd - Irish Open - Dublin.

When I first booked into the tournament I was using it as a weekend away, a chance to see friend's I hadn't seen for a long time, but since I had the fire back in my belly all I wanted to do was win!

I love the leisureplex @ Stillorgan. Ive had success there in the past and I am always welcomed by all the staff there which helps to make you feel relaxed and comfortable.

I played pretty good during the whole tournament but I could tell I wasn't at my best, I was tired, achey & threw lots of bad shots.

I finished the tournament 4th - I was a little disappointed because I saw the mistakes I had made but I couldn't be so hard on myself. I needed to give myself time to get to the standard where I wanted to be. Had a great weekend with great people - even if I was accused of looking like animal from the Muppet's!!!

February....

I'd been practicing a fair bit now and needed to figure out my equipment to make sure I had a suitable range to get me through the tournaments I had planned. I went to see Alex Hamilton @ Powerplay Pro Shop Nuneaton and drilled some new equipment.

5th - I bowled the PTBC Doubles Team England ranking event with Cherise Denham. This was another not so great tournament for me - we missed the finals by just a few pins and I kicked myself ( Not literally - but I did boot the toilet door ) for missing some easy spares throughout the qualifying block. Lessons learnt and onto the next event.

18th & 19th - I had the privilege of managing the Yorkshire Under 24's at the Inter County Finals in Nottingham. I had so much fun the team - Hayley Rumkee, Keira Reay, Lauren Husbands, Kim Hewitt & Suzie Webb - were a pleasure to work with. They all bowled amazing and we wont the event - wooooooo!!!!

26th - Team England ranking event @ Wellingborough was the next event for me. The tough lane pattern + a beaten up old wood lane surface made the tournament a real challenge. I didn't start off great... I was struggling to figure out what I needed to do to make the pocket let alone strike but after a couple of games I managed to settle down and start throwing good shots.
It was a long drawn out day, it hurt my brain because you had to think ALOT! But I battled through and won the female section - It felt so good to win again and even better that the hard work was starting to pay off.

March....

3rd & 4th - Welsh Open Rhondda
I hadn't bowled the Welsh Open for some time so I was really excited about going back. The drive was awful - I felt like it took a whole day ( 4 hours 30 minutes )
I came 2nd to Hayley White, who also won the Irish Open, by just a few minutes.
I'd played pretty good the whole tournaments but I let myself down by not executing good shots when I needed to.  Although I was annoyed and disappointed with the bad parts of the weekend, overall I was satisfied & quite happy.

10th - BTBA Nationals @ Coventry
I was sooo excited about bowling the nationals. I'd been asked to play with Jo Cundy, Kirsten Penny, Lisa John & Nicki Ainge. I hadn't bowled with the ladies for sometime and it had been even longer since Nick & I played doubles together.
We had a little road trip on the Friday down to see Alex @ PowerPlay for Nicki to finish off her new fit and for me to get a new low end ball. We had so much fun catching up on old times - we even saw a U.F.O.
Me & Nicki played good in the doubles. I posted 635, Nicki 668 for 1303 - we finished 4th but our other doubles pairing KP&LJ shot big & won the doubles with 1368.

Singles DID NOT go to plan - I had 555 :o( I played not very good, I read the lanes not very well and was just a bit clueless.

I got it together for the team event and shot 731 to help the team post a team score of 3464. We played really great as a team with games of 1197 1146 & 1121 - Yes we did win!!!!

I finished 10th in the all events with 1921 for 9 games!

22nd - 25th - Brunswick Euro Challenge, France!

Road trip to St Maximim - Sheffield to Nuneaton. Nuneaton to Newbury. Newbury to Q's House. Q's House to Folkstone. Folkstone to Callais on Euro Tunnel. Callais to St Maximim. Funnily enough I didn't get too bored on this drive - I had the company of Mike Quarry (Q) and Sam Rose so we had a laugh!

I went to this tournament in 2009 and was successful making top 8.

This year was not so great..... The lane condition was TOUGH. The standard of players was AMAZING.

I struggled to get my game to match up to the lane condition and I wasn't good enough to be able to adapt to play the area of the lane I needed to play. No excuses - I just wasn't good enough.

Still I had an amazing weekend - so much fun and saw some great bowling.

April....

1st - Credit Crunch Challenge, Team England Ranking Event @ Peterborough

I was really looking forward to bowling this tournament as it was a tough pattern on a really good lane surface. The pattern was pretty similar to the one we played on in Paris so I was hoping for a better performance.

After 6 games qualifying I had 1145, I wasn't overly happy with my score although I didn't think I'd bowled that bad. Just the odd bad shot here & there. I had to sit back and wait for the next squad to finish to see if I had made the finals.

I escaped the bowl and enjoyed the sunshine with an old friend Becki Jolly & her gorgeous son Tyler - we had a lovely roast and played in the park.....I am 26 really!!!

When we got back to the bowl I was surprised to see that only one female had beat my score so I was 1nd going into round 2. Round 2 went well for me and I qualified for the round robin finals in 1st place.

I wasn't feeling very well after bowling today, my joints were really sore and I was struggling with movement in my shoulders...I wasn't going to give in though. I enjoyed the winning feeling too much and felt I had a good chance in the round robin.

I battled through the round robin - 5 more games. I won the first 4 and lost the last but had already built up enough pin fall to stay at the top - another ranking win for 2012. :o)

Laura Marcham ( Fellow PowerPlayer'er') was 2nd. James Tidd won the men with Johnny Big B Wells IN 2nd

The drive home from Peterborough was hard...thank god for the arm rest & Costa coffee.

WOW That was a long post but I had a lot to catch up on. I'll TRY and post little & often in future....

So what's next........

Easter Re Entry doubles @ Airport bowl - a bit of fun, a relaxed tournament!

I travel to Texas, USA on the 18th April for the USBC Queens a major ladies only tournament - Mega Excited!!!