USBC Queens 2013

Today was emotional when it was time to say goodbye to my team mates as they left for home. The farewell banquet last night was not as good as we hoped, but it did give us the chance to get dressed up - which was nice! 

Today the USBC Queens started! It's a long running women only tournament, that has had some amazing winners over the years. This year we'll be bowling for the title, $20k and a beautiful tiara! 

I'm rooming with Lisanne for the rest of my trip, packing up my stuff this morning was not fun - especially after a late night!!  By the time I had said my goodbyes to the team I had just enough time to shower and get ready for practice, which is on the chosen tournament pattern. The pattern which has been chosen is 39ft and should be significantly more playable than the 2 patterns we played on for the World Championships. 

The balls I have with me are all Storm or RotoGrip. I have the Disturbed. Defiant Soul. Deranged. Crossroad. Hyroad Pearl. IQ Tour. Tropical Heat Solid. Tropical Breeze & Polar Ice.

Practice went OK and I managed to find a few options to start with tomorrow. The balls I'm liking the look of initially are the Disturbed, Defiant Soul & Crossroad, but that may well change in the actual squad.

After practice Lisanne & I went for tea over at Red Robin, which dangerously is in the Galleria Shopping Mall. We were almost falling asleep whilst eating, as we were both exhausted from yesterday, but we managed to find some energy to do a little bit of shopping. After a visit to one of  my favourite shops, Bath & Body Works, we decided to buy some things to help us relax in the room! Eucalyptus & Mint candle & stress relief body lotion! 

Early night for the 2 of us, ready for our 9am start tomorrow (5pm UK Time) We will play 5 games tomorrow and 5 games on Monday then the next cut will be announced! 

You can follow the tournament at www.bowl.com/Queens

Keep your fingers crossed for us :) 

xXx

The Championships are over......

And so the World Championships are over.... It's been a long, challenging, emotional but very rewarding trip. 

My bowling got better day by day but I still didn't really settle in and play to my best until the final 3 games in the 5 man team event. 

Trios I played with Hayley W & Nicki... We did OK, but never really got going enough to make a threat to the other teams. I struggled on the fresh on the short pattern then missed the transition in the final game on the medium pattern. 

Our other team of Autum, Hayley R & Lisa were amazing though and qualified for the finals in 3rd place guaranteeing them a medal and giving them the opportunity to bowl for gold. 

The semi finals are 1 v 4 2 v 3 with the highest seed selecting which oil pattern to play on. Canada chose the short oil which was not our strongest. The girls gave it a go but unfortunately Canada were the better team and had a lot of strikes. The girls did get a bronze medal though, which at world level is amazing and I couldn't be happier for them! 

Next up was the 5 man team event - I played in the make up team for the short oil then Hayley W played in the make up for the medium.  We really gave it a good go for a team medal - fought right till the end but the other teams around us didn't stop fighting either. We finished the team event in 9th place and it was gutting for all of us. 

On the flip side we did finish the team event on a high because Hayley finished 22nd in the all events meaning she qualified for the top 24 masters event. Also John Wells from the men's team qualified too!! 

Both of them gave it a good go but both missed the next cut which was top 8, was a great achievement by both though on a world class level. 

So looking back and reflecting on my own Championships is hard - it's really frustrating when you work so hard to prepare for something like this then come away and don't perform to the level you know you can. I wish I had some excuses to use, I wish I could blame my equipment, the lanes or something else but I can't. I just didn't bowl good enough - simple. 

Today is the last day with the team here, we have the banquet/farewell party tonight and then my next challenge starts. Time to take the few positives I have from the championships and leave the negatives behind. It's a new tournament, new format, new oil pattern & new challenge. 

Huge thanks from myself & the whole team for everyone's support at home. The trip hasn't been as successful as a lot of us would have hoped, we will all come home with certain things to work on but as a team we are extremely proud of the girls getting a world medal :-)

Right now I'm gonna enjoy some sun & pool time with the girls before getting ready to let our hair down tonight! 

Bye for now, J xx

The Strip, Doubles & Days Off!!

Tuesday night we went to the strip, my first time & I loved it! I can't wait to go back and see a bit more as we didn't have much time and it was so hot! The Bellagio fountains were AMAZING, I definitely wanna see them again! 

Here are a few of my favourite pics.....

So Wednesday was a day off, I spent most of the day in the bowl watching the men's doubles before getting an hour or so out by the pool - which was nice obviously!! Wednesday evening we did plan to go to the Outback grill for tea but after a mishap with taxi's we ended up staying in the complex and going to one of the restaurants here. 

Thursday was doubles day on the medium. I was paired with Hayley W and on the first squad along with Nicki & Lisa. Autum & Hayley R would play in the second squad. 

Doubles started off better for me, I seemed to find a couple of options on the fresh and started off well in the first few frames before my ball reaction changed drastically and I got tight trying to make it work. 

I had the same sort of thing for the first 3 games, the reaction looked good for 3-4 frames and then quickly changed, I then threw loose shots and didn't take advantage of the good shots I'd made before hand. Game 4 I decided to stop playing safe and go 'fish' for something. Yes it meant I ended with a 143 but I didn't manage to see the reactions of all the balls in my bag and figure something out for games 5 & 6. This time it paid off and with the help of Mike Quarry we found a really good ball reaction which stayed, using my Roto Grip Defiant Soul with 2000 surface playing further right. Bounced back with 244 & 208 to boost confidence and feel a bit more positive about my next block on the medium.  

Thursday afternoon I seemed to pick up a bug from somewhere and spent all afternoon in bed sick, which was not fun at all. Managed to feel a little better in the evening so went for a walk across the way to Walmart, we stopped in at a pet shop to play with the puppies. We almost lost Autum as she fell in love with a golden retriever/cocker spaniel cross! So cute....

Friday was another day off.... It doesn't feel like we've bowled much since we've been here but I am extremely grateful for the downtime, especially when I ain't been feeling great. Friday we had a super chill out day by the pool, tried to escape the bowl for a bit, forget bowling for a little while & relax. We still all ended up talking bowling around the pool, but it was nice to get some fresh air & sunshine! 

The girls finally went to Outback last night and it was definitely worth the wait :) my ribeye was beaut, shame I couldn't eat much before I was being sick again but hey at least I got to enjoy a bit of it!!!

Today we start the trios. Autum, Hayley R & Lisa are playing early today & afternoon on Monday so Me, Nic & Hayley W play afternoon today and morning on Monday! Back on the brutal short pattern, time to figure out a plan, make good shots and hope for a bit of luck our way too! 

I'll leave you with a picture of my Outback steak.... Mmmmmmmmmm!!! 

J xx

The tournament begins....

So the tournament officially started with official practice. Practice went OK for me, I got to throw all the balls I brought with me in different areas to see which reactions I liked the look of the best. 

After practice I had to drop 3 balls and choose my final 6 for tournament play. The balls I chose were Rotogrip Disturbed, Rotogrip Defiant Soul, Storm IQ Tour, Storm Crossroad, Storm Tropical Heat Solid & my Polar Ice which I use as a spare ball. 

Didn't really get up to much on Sunday night, ate tea (dinner), wasted some dollars on the slots then went to bed. 

Monday was game day for the men. The short pattern really played tough for all the men and scores were a lot lower than any of the team would have wished for. There were 2 300's in the tournament which was nice to watch, when all you seem to see around is people struggling. 

The girls spent most of the day in the bowl watching so by the time the finals were over we were all shattered, both mentally & physically. Watching bowling really does take it out of you. We decided against eating out and chose to get Panda Express - its a Chinese fast food restaurant which I absolutely love, especially when you're tucked up in bed having a chill out night with the girls!!! 

And so we come to Tuesday..... Game day for the girls. For the first time since arriving I got a decent nights sleep. Jet lag has really got to me and I kept waking up between 3-4:30am then struggling to get back to sleep. Last night seemed to be better so fingers crossed that rubbish is outa my system!!

 Nicki & I were on the first squad along with Hayley R & Autum

I really didn't start good today, I took too long to settle into the sticky approaches and threw a lot of bad shots. I was like this for the first 2 games before giving myself a mental kick up the ass, then I started to throw the ball better and had something to work from. Games 3,4 & 5 were better but game 6 just stumped me. I read the lanes based on a couple of shots and made a decision to move my whole shot to the right, in hindsight I think I should have maybe moved everything left a little but hey, you learn from your mistakes. 

Here are the scores from today... 153. 134. 167. 219. 201. 146 = 1020. They're not so fun to look at after months of hard work but I have to out that event behind me, I gotta forget the negatives of the first couple of games and keep the positives, I didn't give up and it proves that if you keep fighting for it then the results get better. The next event is doubles on the medium pattern so I won't have to play on the short pattern until the trios later in the week. I'll have some time before then to sit & talk to Jon & work out a new game plan before then. 

Tonight we're going to the strip. We're all having tea at the MGM grand with all the families & supporters that are here with the team. Although I'm shattered it'll be really nice to escape the hotel complex for a few hours. As this is my first time in Vegas I've never seen the strip in real life either so that's gonna be fun! 

I'll take loads a photos to post next time :-) 

Until then, Much Love. 

J xXx

Friday & Saturday

Friday & Saturday brought a fair amount of down time and also unofficial practice. Unofficial practice sessions gives us chances get used to the surroundings and familiarise ourselves with the centre. The lanes are dressed with medium & short patterns but not the official patterns. Those are chosen after unofficial practice has ended. 

Friday we practiced in the morning for 2 hours, it felt good to be able to bowl after a long day of travelling. I personally found the approaches quite tight but after an hour or so I had settled. Nicki & I went for a much needed deep tissue massage in the afternoon, deep is an understatement and although we left feeling tender, we both felt much more at ease. 

The opening ceremony was Friday evening, we all got taken to the Henderson Pavilion which is an outdoor amphitheatre, the heat was almost unbearable so we didn't stay around there long. 

Here's the girls at the opening ceremony..... 

Saturday we had practice time in the evening so we managed together some chill out time by the pool..... Which was nice. The temperature was HOT so we spent most of the afternoon in & out of the pool to keep cool. Practice went well again and we were all starting to feel more relaxed on the lanes. 

The managers meeting was held last night and the official patterns were announced. We will play on WTBA Sydney which is 33ft and WTBA Seoul which is 39ft. 

http://www.worldtenpinbowling.com/pdf/WTBASydney33-12.pdf

http://www.worldtenpinbowling.com/pdf/WTBASeoul39-12.pdf

Today we have official practice, which will be on the tournament patterns. It's a scheduled practice where you practice for 15 minutes and then move lanes so you get to bowl across the whole centre. After official practice today we have to choose which 6 balls we will keep for tournament play. 

I'll write again soon after practice!! 

J xx

Hello Las Vegas. Hello Jet Lag.

Well after last years bad run with flight delays and baggage issues, I was crossing all my fingers & toes that we wouldn't have any issues on this trip! 

12 people with a case each + 38 triple tote bowling bags - That's a lot of baggage!! 

The flight was on time though and we landed 20 minutes before we were due! Was a massive relief when all our bags arrived safe & well. Definitely a good start to the trip! 

We had a little wait at the airport before the tournament shuttle picked us up to take us to the bowl/hotel complex. Dropped the balls in the ball park then checked in! Again all fine & no issues (touch wood) 

We managed to get a bit of chill out time before we all met up for tea! By the time we'd finished eating we were all ready for bed, I went n had a quick look around the bowl then came to my room to get some much needs rest! 

I was fast asleep by 10pm & wide awake by 3am - hence taking advantage of doing nothing and updating the blog! 

Gonna try n get back to sleep now ready for unofficial practice tomorrow! 

Until then, 

J xXx

Lets get Loud!!!!

Very, Very exciting stuff! Those of you that know me, will know I like things that are a bit quirky, a bit out there & LOUD! 

When I got offered a clothing contract with Loudmouth Golf, I didn't have to think twice! I'd seen there clothes before and instantly loved them! 

I'll be wearing Loudmouth at tournaments & training around the UK as well as the upcoming USBC Queens in USA in a few weeks! 

Unfortunately I have a 'uniform' when I am on England duty for the World Championships so can't wear them during that trip! 

If you fancy something different to wear for bowling, playing golf or just for a bit of fun - have a look at http://uk.loudmouthgolf.com/ 

J xXx

A new breed - Dog Bowl

So.... I didn't tell you about the 2 exciting sponsorship deals I signed! 

First of all I started working with 'Dog Bowl' in Manchester. It's a top end 5 lane bowling centre in the heart of Manchester. It has amazing New York styling and I just love it there! 

I'll be doing some coaching & lessons with local schools, competition winners & corporate events!! 

If you're even in the Manchester area, I would definitely recommend calling in. The lanes are immaculate, the cocktail bar is fully equipped, the food is delightful & at weekend that's have Dj's playing till the early hours! 

http://www.blackdogballroom.co.uk/dogbowl/

J xXx