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I need to do a little venting; that's what you're here for, right? Great!
This past Sunday the other half and I entered into what was my first 'real' bowling tournament. Sure, I've bowled league for about 2 years now, and I'm used to competition, but this was a chance to stand apart from a team and show my own performance in front of my peers. This particular event was a monthly No Tap tournament held at our local bowling house. For those not keen on the nitty gritty bowling undergound, 'No Tap' is a term for a scoring system that marks a 9 pin fall (on the first ball) as a strike. It's especially great for bowlers like me who tend to hit the head pin just out of the pocket and leave that one straggling pin. But that's enough of the technical jargon, all you need to know is that there were about 40 teams of 2 competing across 3 games, total pinfall (plus handicap) determines placing.
Well the other half and I wrapped our first game with two scores over 300. (Recall, this is handicap, which means we had a set number of pins coming in, but bowled exceptionally well above our average.) Right out of the gate we had a target on our back. The regular tournament crowd was watching us very closely, and already calling placings. The second game we fell a little, but still bowled well and just above our average. The third game we bowled very good, but not as hot as our first. In all, we had fellow bowlers coming by proclaiming that we had 'swept' the competition definitively. We had entered with no intention of taking home any money, simply to attend and have fun, so I was hesitant to stick around and wait for the results. I was proud of our scores, but I had no idea what was 'normal' or 'great' for a No Tap tournament. For all I knew everyone had scores as high as ours.
