Saturday, September 8, 2007

What a bizarre ending!

The last 6 games of the 12 man round robin were played today. I was 30 pin inside the cut to make the TV top 5 step ladder and was only 120 off 2nd.
It was realy bunched and because the scoring pace was so high, a 190 could mean a 100 pin turn around (thats with the 30 pin bonus).
I started ok, 231, lost, but felt like i could put together a few good games, i needed to.

My next 3 games were 289, 279 and 264 (front 9 with a open in the 10th) for a nice 832 series and moved into 3rd. I was couldnt catch the leaders, so my goal was to stay in 3rd and i did just that.

I waited for the first match to finish on the show then my turn.

Korean's are by nature very strict, and with live TV, the time table was to be followed to the minute.
I bowled against a Korean Pro, Y.H Byeon, doesnt do to much with the ball just hits the pocket every shot.
He opened in the 8th to give me the chance to shut him out, and i did just that, 267 - 222.
My next match was to play against a Japanese Pro, Shigenori Sakata. A very funny guy who was a little weird on the lanes.
This is where the story gets interesting.............

Going into the 9th and 10th i could shut him out and bowl 246. As i was getting ready to bowl in the 9th frame, Sakata, who had taken about 20 seconds to walk off the approach, walked by while i was drying my hand, clenched his fist and raised it to my face. Of course i took it as a joke, smiled it off and stepped on the appraoch.

I threw the ball ok, and for some reason the ball never hooked where it had been all game. 2-10. I miss it and strike out in the 10th for a 212.
Now, while i was bowling my 10th frame, a local Korean guy was yelling loudly the whole time. I had no idea what he was saying and was getting a little cranky at him because if i strike out, it would force Sakata to mark the 10th.
Now this guy yelling turns out what he was saying was, was that Sakata should be dis-qualified or i should have another shot due to un sportsman like conduct.......
After i finished i sat down and the translator came over to me and asked if the taunting from Sakata put me off, causing me to bowl a split.........
I told her of course NOT, everything was fine. But there is a rule in the KPBA that a player can be disqualified or the player affected can re-bowl that frame if the tournament director deems it worthy.
So the question i had to answer was, do i take the 9th frame again, bowl a strike and shut out Sakata, based a rule that i break almost every other event :) or do i decline the offer (because i think taunting is part of step ladder bowling) and make him throw the spare.
As much as i wanted to bowl the shot again, it just didnt seem right. He did nothing wrong, just taunted me (ok maybe a little close to my face, but that didnt put me off) something that i am guilty of most the step ladders i have been in.

I rejected the offer and asked that Sakata finish the game.

Now dont forget this is live TV, going around the whole of Korea. Sakata, accused of bad sportsmanship now has to get up in the 10th and mark after 15 minutes of debate if he should even be bolwing.
The tournament director then got made the annonucement about the rule and my decision and gave Sakata the green light.

He stepped up and bowled a great shot and struck. I finished in 3rd, but it will be a match i'll never forget.

The winner of the event was Isao Yamamoto from Japan, a great bowler, he lead from game 1 and desereved his win.

Can't wait to get home and see Kimberly and the rest of the family, plus it will be nice to ask someone the time and not have to play 'guess what im trying to say' haha

Cheers for reading...

Belmo

1 comment:

Kit said...

weird game. i liked how you handled things, though.

where are you playing after this?