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SEPTEMBER 2020 • $5 www.bowlersjournal.com

STRING THEORY A tournament like no other

What we learned from a hybrid free-fall/ string-pin event

Reprinted/Posted with permission from Bowlers Journal International. A TOURNAMENT LIKE NO OTHER Illuminating data and hall-of-fame perspectives from a hybrid string-pin/free-fall tournament.

f you are going to tell the likes of a source of controversy for those who setting as free-fall machines. 16-time PBA Tour champion Jason believe they give a bowler an extra lucky First, the fodder… ICouch, 40-time titlist , bounce here or there and, in doing so, At one point during qualifying, 20-time champion , perhaps leave the bowler’s fate to luck Matt Gasn left the 2-4-10 in the or all-time leading titlist Walter Ray rather than to skill. string-machine portion of the house. Williams Jr. (47) that they are about to If some of the events that unfolded at He hammered the 4 back into the pit, experience something on the lanes they Headpinz provided fodder to string-pin then watched to his bewilderment as never before have experienced, it bounced back out to take it had better be something down the 10-pin and then pretty unusual. continue across the deck While those pro-bowling to topple the 2 as well for a legends brought a combined conversion. Call it bowling’s 123 PBA Tour titles to Head- “magic bullet.” pinz Entertainment Center in Asked for his reaction to Naples, Fla., the weekend of that miracle shot, Gasn said July 25 to bowl QubicaAMF’s that, “I almost changed the “Some Strings Attached” score [for the frame] to 71 tournament, they brought [from 7/].” almost no experience bowling Former Webber Internation- on string-pin machines. That al star Verity Crawley, now changed as soon as they shoed a PWBA Tour standout with up to bowl the event, however, fi ve runner-up fi nishes to her as it called upon competitors to credit thus far, was within alternate between free-fall and reach of the stepladder fi nals string-pin lanes for the length in July 25’s “Invitational” of an eight-game qualifying when she left the 4-9 follow- round. Those among the top 12 ing an eight-bagger. Crawley who advanced to an additional pounded the 4-pin straight three-game block to determine back, then saw it shoot back the top stepladder fi nalists into the deck to mow down then bowled entirely on string- the 9 for a split conversion pin lanes, as did those who that got her onto “the show.” made the championship round. “A 4-9 is very makeable This was, in the truest sense for me so I just tried to shoot of the phrase, a one-of-a-kind it the way I normally would experience for players who Couch’s Call: Couch, who bowled masked up as a COVID and obviously the string pins have seen everything on the precaution, said he found string pins and free-fall helped me,” Crawley said. machines to be “very comparable” as quirky advantages lanes over their decades-long Crawley fi nished fi fth, losing of string-pin action generally were balanced out by taps. careers. the opening match of the While string-pin machines stepladder fi nals to two-time are touted for their cost effi ciency — detractors, other aspects of the event, PBA Tour champion , using less power, requiring far less particularly the data it yielded, belied 237-214. mechanical expertise to maintain, and the notion that luck infl ates scores on Four-time USBC eagle winner Matt rarely disrupting play with breakdowns, string pins to the point that they cannot McNiel said he “would much rather be for instance — string pins also can be be taken as seriously in a competitive shooting splits on string pins” than on Reprinted/Posted with permission from Bowlers Journal International.

30 Bowlers Journal International | September 2020 www.bowlersjournal.com Inside Line

News, Notes And Perspective

freefall machines, as he converted a 6-8 kind of evens out.” Invitational and won the Open, said, split he said he “had no business con- Williams added that string pin behav- “I did notice that it was a little easier verting” given the quality of the ior, quirky as it may be at times, “is not to bounce pins out of the back on the shot he threw. McNiel fi nished third in necessarily an advantage or a disadvan- string pins compared to free-fall, so that the Invitational, defeating Daugherty in tage; it’s just different.” does allow maybe a little bit better of the second match, 225-216, then losing Though a larger sample size might be a chance to make a split.” Couch also to eventual runner-up Couch, 267-226. more defi nitive, the near absence of vari- observed that the 7-pin had a shorter Couch fell to former Team USA member ance in score among tournament partici- string on the right lane, where that Kenny Ryan, 247-223, in the title match. pants between string and free-fall would corner pin is close to the door of the ball For those counting at home, yes, that’s seem to bear out Williams’s theory that return “so it does not go into the ball three lefties out of fi ve return. Occasionally, you fi nalists (McNiel, Couch, would half-7, and if that Ryan). string fell the right way, it The spectacle of such would knock that half-7 miracle pin action on out of there. I thought string machines left the that might be a bit of an likes of Duke resistant to advantage too, but, on the the idea of using string fl ip side, I also saw that if pins in a professional I threw it hard but I kept bowling setting because, it on line, it still left a in his experience bowling fl at-7. I didn’t carry every the event, “luck super- single off hit. And if you seded skill” on the string crept a little high, it was machines. pretty easy for a lefty to “I champion the at- leave a 6-pin or a righty tempt,” Duke added, “but to leave a 4-pin. So, I the technology is in its thought they were very infancy. Once we get it comparable.” perfected, I’ll change [my Couch’s victory in opinion]. But until it’s the Open event came at perfected, I want a lot less the expense of former luck involved.” Team USA member Sean To Pat Ciniello, pro- Wilcox, whom Couch de- prietor of Headpinz and The String Difference: Walter Ray Williams Jr., who utilized the feated in the title match, Chariman of the Board at two-handed style for portions of the event, said quirky string- 226-196, after dispatch- QubicaAMF, that was the pin behavior “is not necessarily an advantage or a disadvantage; ing Josh Johnson in the point of the event. it’s just different.” semifi nal, 269-238, and “I think the beauty of exacting some revenge on this whole test is that you’re going to be the lucky breaks “even out” over time. Ryan, who shot 251 in a losing effort in able to see the anomalies, and we’re go- With 383 total qualifying games bowled match two as Couch fi red a 266. Ryan ing to be able to address them,” Ciniello on July 25, the difference in score be- defeated Jerry Brunette Jr. in the opener, said. “So where we saw some of the pins tween string and free-fall came to a mere 234-227. [doing what they did for Gasn, Crawley, 1.8 pins per game. The fi eld averaged “I defi nitely think there is a need for McNiel and others] it could be a curtain 201.65 on free-fall and 203.45 on string. string technology in today’s world,” or cushion adjustment or modifi cation. In the following day’s “Open” event, Ciniello said. “We need something like We’ll be talking with the engineers on that gap narrowed further to .82 pins this. We can’t fi nd mechanics out there that piece of it.” per game as the fi eld averaged 205.68 on … Younger people want to be in tech; Williams, who utilized the two-hand- free-fall and 206.5 on string with a more they want to be in marketing. They re- ed style for portions of the event, had forgiving lane pattern cushioning scores ally don’t want to be behind his own take on those “anomalies” Cini- a bit. Across the 671 combined qualify- anymore. That puts [proprietors] in a ello alludes to, saying that, “You might ing games bowled over two days, the tough situation.” get a couple 10-pins to go down because difference between string and free-fall Which is where part two of our look the string action knocked the pins over, averages came to 1.33 pins per game. at the place of the string-pin machine but then there are a couple taps that The fi eld averaged 203.43 over two days in today’s bowling industry will pick normally would on regular pins on free-fall and 204.76 on string. up in the October issue of BJI, as more … In the end, bowling has a lot of luck Couch, the best bowler of the week- proprietors as well as manufacturers anyway. The longer you go, the more it end as he fi nished runner-up in the will chime in. Reprinted/Posted with permission from Bowlers Journal International.

34 Bowlers Journal International | September 2020 www.bowlersjournal.com