Sun City Open Scores

[RobbieB]

The Burdekins' Angelo Nucifora is this years Mercure Inn Sun City Open champion, finishing 30 pins in front of me, with Steve Hunt a further 47 pins back in third. Local Kerri Merritt was high lady, just ahead of Mackays Leigh Harris.

Matchplay standings:
Name Pinfall Bonus Total Avg.

Angelo Nucifora 4109 250 4359 216
Rob Buckley 4089 240 4329 215
Steve Hunt 4022 260 4282 211
Tyson Jones 3916 280 4196 206
Shaun Dunn 3949 200 4149 207
Rob McGrath 3901 240 4141 205
Matt Wood 3838 280 4118 202
Aaron Copp 3918 160 4078 206
Trent Bosel 3838 220 4058 202
Geoff Ott 3779 240 4019 198
Adrian Mann 3705 200 3905 195
Greg Langford 3694 200 3894 194
Gary Norman 3710 180 3890 195
John Dunn 3669 140 3809 193
Rob Kaluci 3605 170 3775 189
Kerri Merritt 3399 140 3539 178
Leigh Harris 3367 100 3467 177
Kate Murry 3329 120 3449 175
Kirsten McKell 3208 120 3328 168
Kim Carney 2649 (16gms) 80 2709 165

I'll try to post up the full scores tomorrow night if I can get the file from Judy.

Despite the small field of 30 men and 11 women, Currajong paid out the full advertised prize fund, except for the 300 game bonus - a great effort from Judy, Geoff Ott and the rest of the crew who managed to raise the extra sponsorship at the death.

Qualifying saw Trent Bosel top qualifier with a 225 average, from "Sleepy" Sam Nucifora and Steve Hunt, with Adrian Mann 15th on 201.5, and Lee Matthey the unlucky 16th just 5 pins back. Leigh Harris led the ladies, averaging 205. 5th was a tie between Kim Carney and Maddy Hill with Kim getting the Sunday start in the rolloff by just 2 pins.

5th reserve Rob Kaluci from Mackay got a surprise start on Sunday with a high-profile noshow at check-in time, and no higher reserve showing up on time either.

Tournament high game went to Aaron Copp, throwing 12 straight strikes in game 4 for his 2nd 300 game (the first was in qualifying last year). The lucky person he threw it at was me - I only had 268. :shock:

Conditions - it was very dry, and got drier. The lanes were washed 5 times in 36 hours, and it showed. It was pretty easy if you could throw it hard enough or straight enough, but when the best women bowlers in NQ average less than 180 in matchplay, then it's time to have a look at the shot. Other than that, Judy and her crew did their normal excellent job, and hopefully next year we will see numbers back to normal.

Next NQ stop - Cairns Open. See you all there.

 

[Funky Chicken]

First let me say a HUGE congratulations to Angelo Nucifora on his win in the 2003 Suncity Open. Ang is one of the true nice guys in bowling and was an extremely popular winner.

Over the last 6 months he has been in one of those dreaded form slumps, which has seen his confidence plummit. But over the weekend he showed all and sundry how good he really is, and why he is one of the best bowlers to ever come out of NQ.

Now as to some of the comments made by the mad professor.

The last time that an Open tournament was held in NQ where all 15 male qualifiers averaged over the card was................NEVER, that's right never before have the averages been this high and I find it amazing that someone of Rob Buckley's experience and talent would gripe about lane conditions. Yes they dried out during the second half of matchplay, but there were still some good scores shot and this will be addressed next year when the the lanes are re-oiled at the half way point of matchplay.

It is really easy when we bowl in a tournament and things don't go our way to blame the lane conditions, to try and take away from the short comings in our own games. I wonder had Rob won (which he very nearly did) whether we would be hearing any complaints about the lanes. I too preferred the lanes before they dried out, but did I lose because of this ???? Nope I came 3rd because on the day there were two guys who bowled better than I did (But that will change next year !!!!! ).

Next time you bowl a tournament and things are a bit tough, just remember the old saying "Failure isn't getting knocked down, it's not getting back up!!!"

I say let's focus on the good things - like the great scores bowled by everyone, Aaron Copp's 300, a really good guy winning the tournament and the fact that Southern Comfort comes in 40oz bottles.

Next year will be a huge tournament, so mark the 1st weekend in November 2004 on your calender and come have a crack at beating the best that NQ has to offer.

Cheers

Funky Chicken

PS No animals were harmed during the writing of this post !!!!

 

[GeorgeF]

Hi sunny NQ, I wish I could have been there to make up the numbers but there was a clash of schedule and I needed to be in Sydney. It's good to hear Angelo won, I wonder if the results would have been different if somene else didn't sleep in??? Congrats to Ang, I heard he bowled well all weekend and deserved the win.

I hope next year can be bigger and better and lets hope it doesn't clash with anything

 

[Barry.Park]

Sun City Open.

Congratulations to all the matchplay Players & the winner Angelo. Well done. The scores show a reasonable condition for all was applied (even tho, not all enjoyed) well done to the team down the back & the tournament directors. Thank u to all sponsors.
Sorry I couldn't be there, but needed a small break, badly :? . Will be there next year. Hope to see u all at the Cairns Open, where the prize fund is also garanteed.
Once again. Well done to all.
Barry Park.

 

[RobbieB]

Steve,
I agree with you that the condition was a high scoring one for NQ. If that is your only basis for judging it then that is up to you - if it is ditched up enough we could probably get the cut to 220. My gripe is that I don't think it was a fair condition in that it pretty much chopped out anyone who rolled the ball.

quote "I wonder had Rob won (which he very nearly did) whether we would be hearing any complaints about the lanes."

The short answer is yes, you would. I got beat by a better bowler on the day, not the lanes. I had made my opinion about the shot fairly clear well before the halfway mark, and if the decision has already been made to reoil halfway next year, then someone at the bowl must agree with me. But why not just put a bit more in the heads to start with and not have to reoil?

I'll bowl on whatever is put down, but I think it is a shame when bowlers like Kate Murry are shut down just because they can't throw the ball hard.

With the amount of work Judy and the rest of the crew puts into this tournament, and the great backing from the sponsors, this has te potential to be - and deserves to be - a big event nationally. NQ needs exposure to the best bowlers in Australia, and they won't come if the tournament has a reputation as a typical dry Qld bullet fest.

This is just my opinion, and I'll be back next year regardless of what the lanes are like. But I'd like to see the best bowlers in Australia there, not just the best from NQ.

See you in Cairns.

 

[Sean M]

I'll bowl on whatever is put down, but I think it is a shame when bowlers like Kate Murry are shut down just because they can't throw the ball hard.

This is exactly one of the reasons why I didn't come this year. After the year before I am still trying to get my arms back to their normal lengths. Like Robbie said....you need to throw bullets and I am way of a bullet thrower.

 

[Funky Chicken]

To Rob and Sean,

I understand what you are saying and in part agree, but I still think your arguements are slightly weighted in favour of what suits the way you bowl.

I mean when I went to Kedron to bowl Qld Cup this year there was more oil than what I am used to, and as a result I was the victim of the dreaded 8-10 on more occassions than I care to remember.

Is that the lanes fault ? No

Is it the Bowl's fault ? No

Is it my fault for bowling a weak shot ? Damn right it is.

I could have easily whinged about the conditions at Kedron (because they didn't suit the way I bowl), but I chose to focus on the many positives that I took out of that weekend namely;
1) Making the cut and finishing 11th in such a strong field
2) Having the opportunity to bowl against some of the best bowlers in the country
3) Finding areas of my game that need improvement and working on them.

I don't want to get into a long winded debate but I just think that a lot of bowlers today complain about lane conditions not because they are bad, but because they don't suit the way they like to bowl. We all love to bowl in our "comfort zone", but to get better we have to identify weaknesses in our game and develop ways of improving those weaknesses.

That's what makes the great bowlers great, they might not like a certain condition, but they don't sit and sulk about it. They look within themselves, show a bit of heart and do whatever it takes to win. Take Walter Ray Williams Jr for example, sure he doesn't have the "Oh my God" type shot like Amleto Monacelli, Robert Smith, Rudy Revs and the like, but I am sure when he is kicking their butts (which he has done all year) he couldn't care less. He will do whatever the lanes dictate in order to win, one week he will throw a frozen rope off the edge, the next he will swing the ball through 20. He is VERSATILE and ADAPTABLE, and that's what makes him the Champion that he is.

Maybe if more people worked on being versatile and adaptable instead of staying within the confines of their "Comfort Zone" cocoon they may be surprised at the results.

This is just my humble opinion.

Steve

PS Rob - I don't believe that anybody was shut out over the weekend, and the scores support my arguement. Why is it that none of the women could average over 180, while the guys were shooting the house down ??? Surely you don't need me to spell it out for you. I mean a couple of the girls were injured, but you ask the rest how many easy spares they missed. Is this the lanes fault ??? The ugly truth is that NQ only has a handful of really talented female bowlers, so now is the time to start trying to nurture and develop some up and comers so that we have a big pool to choose from come Rachuig time.

**For any female NQ bowlers who take offence at my comments please don't, as this is not my intention, come and talk to me or give me a ring and I will explain what I am trying to say more thoroughly.

 

[Graham]

PS Rob - I don't believe that anybody was shut out over the weekend, and the scores support my arguement. Why is it that none of the women could average over 180, while the guys were shooting the house down ??? Surely you don't need me to spell it out for you. I mean a couple of the girls were injured, but you ask the rest how many easy spares they missed. Is this the lanes fault ??? The ugly truth is that NQ only has a handful of really talented female bowlers, so now is the time to start trying to nurture and develop some up and comers so that we have a big pool to choose from come Rachuig time.

Hey Steve

Its true though, it can happen where conditions can favour people who can throw the ball. A perfect example was the State Championships at Toowoomba in 2002. The guys couldnt miss, banging it off the edge and scoring, the girls couldnt hook the ball - in my opinion because they roll the ball. High score in the Ladies Open Singles was 608, 2nd was 577 and 3rd was 554. The high in the Mens was 758, followed by 749, then 690. 13th place in the Mens was better than the Womens results.

The girls bowling were definately not low calibre bowlers - the field included the entire Womens Rachuig side - it was just the condition didnt suit most of their types of styles ie rolling the ball.

 

[GeorgeF]

Every condition poses a challenge irrelevant on how short, dry, oily or long it is, some are easy than others. North Queensland has always been dry but if you live there you don't know any better unless you travel. You are only ever a product of your environment and when I moved from Townsville to Brisbane I couldn't hook it due to my lack of rotation and too much speed (not much has changed).

Stephen now appreciates that when you travel to the bigger events most of the time there is going to be a decent amount of oil on the lanes. The thing Stephen didn't realise is that Kedron was dry compared to normal National events!

The only way to correct this is through minimum standards (hello TBA new lane policy) and education. TBA are taking the right steps to promote bowling and not throwing. I am sure over time things will improve. North Queensland always seems to be the last to know about things, lets hope in 2004 we can have some Nationally ranked events in north queensland which will put down decent amounts of oil which is fair and equitable for everyone.

Just for the record though, it doesn't matter where you bowl. If people insist on bowling 19 games of matchplay in one hit with no break or no re-oil the lanes are going to get very very dry. It's more the formats fault as well as the laneman.

 

[Judy]

Thanks to everyone who has offered an opinion on the Tournament,as Tournament Director I try to offer the best I can,last year we stopped after 10 games and reoiled the heads,this year as we are putting down more oil,I made the decision to bowl straight through,it turned out to be the wrong choice. Next year a lot of things will be different,firstly we are applying for rankings points for the tournament,therefore we will have to adhere to the TBA lane oiling policy,we now have 12 months to make the tournament bigger and better than ever before. Thanks to everyone who attended the tournament this year, we had a terrible time with the dates this year owing to Rachuig, but thanks to a lot of hard work from lots of people, we were able to pay out the total prize fund based on 60 bowlers,even though we only had 41. I must congratulate everyone on some fantastic bowling,so lets concentrate on the positives and look ahead to next years event.

Judy Hunt :lol:

 

[white man jumps]

BOWLING CONDITIONS

STEVE I TOTAL AGREE WITH YOU.
WHY DO GUYS WHO ALWAYS GO DONE SOUTH ,THINK THAT THERE BETTER THAN EVERYBODY ELSE. BUCKLEY AND GEORGEF GET GRIP ON LIFE AND REALISE THAT YOUR NO BETTER THAN ANYBODY ELSE. : :evil: :shock:

 

[Sean M]

That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard. Who are you white man jumps?

 

[GeorgeF]

white man jumps I don't usually respond to baits but there a few issues I would like to raise.

The reason people such as myself and Robbie promote oil and lane conditions is not because it suits the way we bowl but from a world wide standard we need to put down oil to catch up with the rest of the world.

TBA has now introduced a new policy to help ensure that enough oil is placed at our National events to educate and teach our current and upcoming bowlers that this is what your going to get overseas and this is a world standard. Do you think TBA are just making it up? Someone from TBA just thought it happened to be a good idea? They did it for the benefit of Australian Athletes and for the better of the sport in Australia.

As for Stephen's comments "The ugly truth is that NQ only has a handful of really talented female bowlers, so now is the time to start trying to nurture and develop some up and comers so that we have a big pool to choose from come Rachuig time "

There is no way living in North Queensland based on the current conditions you play on that any nurturing is going to take place. The conditions are just not up to a higher enough standard. There's more to a lane condition than running an old century down the lane, you have to take into account lane topography, surface, surface softness, humidity, temperture, oil type, ratios and the list goes on. If you don't know those things and really want to better the standard of bowlers coming from NQ just ask for some help. Don't run the machine up the lane 2 times per lane and think it is going to solve all your problems. I am sure TBA or a representitive from TBA would be only to happy to help.

I am very passionate about the sport and I am not critising anyone or any person. I am just saying standards need to be addressed and improved for the benefit of all bowlers in the North Queensland area.

As for the format, 'White Man Jump' show me a tournament outside of North Queensland anywhere in the world you have to bowl 19 games in a row with no break and no re-oil and I"ll personally send you $20. :wink: