2019 World Bowling Women's Championships: Day Two

I love the biggest international bowling tournaments for women because the best players and teams from all over the world compete in them. Unlike professional PWBA and WTBA tournaments and regional amateur tournaments such as the Asian Games, PABCON, and Pan American games which draw either individuals or individuals and teams from what tends to be a fairly narrow range of countries and which are often not streamed here in the States or at least not comprehensively so, the World Bowling Women’s Championships is streamed comprehensively in the States throughout qualifying and perhaps also finals and semi-final rounds, and it features most of the best female players from the world over.

One of the countries that sends players and teams to the World Championships that I seldom if ever get to see elsewise is Korea. Unlike Asian countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, and even China, and for reasons I don’t understand, I never see Korean women competing in PWBA or WTBA tournaments, and I think that’s a real shame. Why is that? Because Korea has some outstanding women bowlers and teams that have shown themselves plenty capable of competing head-to-head with the best players and teams anywhere. And they’re proving it so far in the World Championships.

As I reported yesterday, Team Korea member Nayoung Lee led singles qualifying Saturday, and what I didn’t report is that five of the six Team Korea members placed in the top 34 in the field of 176. I don’t think any other team placed so many that high. And then yesterday, one of their teams placed second in doubles qualifying just 29 pins behind a powerhouse Colombian team. And another Colombian team placed third in the group of four teams advancing to the semi-finals on Thursday, followed by a Swedish team in the fourth spot and two more Swedish teams below them in the fifth and sixth spots. A USA team finished seventh.

Incidentally, I’m writing this blogpost after the first three-game block of qualifying for trios, and Korea has a team in second, behind a Colombian team, and another team in fifth. A USA team currently sits precariously in fourth. They’ll all bowl three more games of qualifying this afternoon, and, as with the other events, only the top four placers will advance to the semifinals in a brutally brief elimination process.

I wish I didn’t have to say it, because I think elite bowling and elite bowling coverage face more than their share of criticism and pandemic negativity, but I’m hugely disappointed with Dailymotion’s live-streaming so far. I don’t know how much, if any, of it is their fault as opposed to South Point’s data-handling capability and other infrastructural components and functions outside Dailymotion’s control. But to be blunt, the streaming has sucked. Often times, only one stream has been up when five were supposed to be. And, just as with Saturday, yesterday and today I’ve frequently found a stream I was watching intently, as I followed my favorite players and teams, buffering and then stopping altogether followed by a dreaded “Server Error” message.

Some might say I should just be grateful the Championships are being streamed to any extent, and I am. But I can be and am both grateful for what coverage there is and disappointed, frustrated, and sometimes downright angry over how spotty and limited it’s often been.

Anyway, we’ll see what today’s next trios block of three games brings in terms of results and the quality of the live-streaming.

2019 World Bowling Women's Championships: Day One

I had hoped and even planned to drive to Las Vegas Friday to watch all seven days of the 2019 World Bowling Women’s Championships competition taking place from August 24-30. I even reserved a room at South Point so I could be conveniently close to the action. That’s how enamored I’ve become with elite women’s bowling and with the powerhouse teams and top players competing.

But days before the tournament commenced, prudence dictated that I cancel my plans and settle for watching as much of the action as I could via live-streaming.

I don’t know why I thought the live-stream coverage would be good enough to allay a fair portion of my disappointment over not being able to attend the tournament, but I was quickly disabused of my optimism. The disillusionment began when I went to the Championships website at the scheduled starting time of the first event, singles, at 9 am Saturday, clicked on the link labeled “WATCH LIVE,” and repeatedly got the message “COMING SOON.” By 9:10, I figured that the bowling must have started and that I needed to look elsewhere for a functional link to the action, so I did what any reasonably knowledgeable bowling fan would do and checked out Jeff Richgels on Facebook. The chances are overwhelmingly good that he’ll know what’s happening and how you can see it online if it’s anywhere to be seen.

Thanks to Jeff, I found three camera feeds. But the wide-angle views afforded took some getting used to. For while I could see the competition occurring on several pairs at a time, it all had a kind of offputtingly distorted and distant look to it, and I couldn’t make out the scores displayed on the wall above the pins. Watching it might have been the next best thing to being there, but it was a far, far cry from being there, and it took me a while to settle into making the best of it. Worse still was the fact that of the three cameras operating, one or more of them often lost the feed for significant periods of time, preventing me from watching almost entire games of bowlers I really wanted to see.

Fortunately, one of my favorite lady bowlers, Team Singapore’s Bernice Lim, winner of the USBC Queens title in 2016, was on one of the live-streams, and she came right out of the chute striking her way to a first game of 245, which she followed up with a 247 en route to placing first in Squad 1 after the six games of qualifying with a total of 1354 for a 225.67 average. Team USA’s Liz Kuhlkin finished 12th at 1298 (216.33), and Jordan Richard finished in 29th place with a total of 1223 (203.83).

I was thrilled to see Team Malaysia’s fabulous Sin Li Jane on one of the live-streams for the first game of the second squad. And after she shot 248 her first game and 237 her second, I posted to Facebook that I wouldn’t be at all surprised if she took the gold in singles and all-events. But a singles gold was not in the cards as she ended up in 22nd place in that squad with a total of 1269 (211.50).

As it turned out, the top four who qualified for the singles semifinals on Thursday and the top five finishers from both squads all came from the second squad. They were led by Team Korea’s Nayoung Lee who finished with a 289 for a total of 1410 (235.0). Second went to Sweden’s Sandra Andersson at 1401 (233.5). Third was none other than the amazing Shannon O’Keefe at 1392 (232.0). Shannon is arguably the best female bowler on the planet right now. She’s the reigning PWBA Player of the Year, has won a phenomenal four PWBA titles already this season coming off her victory last week in the PWBA Orlando Open, and appears to be at the top of her game physically and in possession of an indomitable will to pravail. It’s a real pleasure watching her compete so masterfully and with such a determined spirit. And rounding out the field of qualifiers to the semifinal round was Team USA’s great Danielle McEwan, the defending all-events champ from the 2017 World Bowling Women’s Championships. She totaled 1371 (228.5) and shot a clutch 242 her final game to edge out Colombia’s Maria Jose Rodriguez who totaled 1368 (228.0).

What I didn’t realize until nearly the end of the bowling yesterday was that only four players in the stellar international field of 176 advanced to the next round in singles and that they had only six games to do it. I guess it can’t be any other way in a one week tournament with so many events, but it sure seems like a shame to make women’s bowling’s equivalent of the Olympics an all-out sprint to the finish line.

Oh well, it is what it is. And what it is will keep me watching as much of the action as I can for the rest of the week. Coming up is qualifying for the doubles event, and I can’t wait to see how my favorite lady bowlers fare in that.

All Good Teams Must Change

I've been a huge fan of Women's Team Singapore for years and have even had the pleasure of watching them practice and compete in my home bowling center. They've been one of the world's best women's bowling teams throughout that time, which is remarkable given the diminutive size of their country, and they seem like a delightful group of young ladies besides.

But a team is not a static entity. Talented players are always looking to make it to the big leagues, and they eventually come along to unseat the veterans who are referred to as "senior players" even though Team Singapore's so-called "seniors" are only in their late 20's to early 30's.

Good luck and great bowling to marvelous Team Singapore (and New Hui Fen) at the World Bowling Women's Championships later this month, and may the established "seniors" show the young whippersnappers that they're not ready to be retired to pasture just yet.

Bowling--You're Not Worthy!?

I got mad at a friend yesterday for saying bowling doesn’t get good media coverage because it isn’t “worthy” of it. What I found especially maddening about this was that he and I subscribe to FloBowling and regularly and enthusiastically follow professional male and female bowling and chat about it virtually every day. Watch some televised PWBA stepladders from early in the 2016 season, and you will see him sitting in the stands watching and texting me about what’s happening. And although you can’t see him in the audience of the televised PBA Masters stepladder recently that Jacob Buturff won, he was there.

I confess that I felt his remark like a slap in the face. And when he defended it against my protests and then said I needed to stop being so “emotional” and "honestly" face up to the truth, I didn’t exactly feel more favorably disposed to his point of view. Because what I understood him to mean, which he did not dispute, by his “not worthy” remark is not that bowling simply isn’t popular enough to garner more media coverage, but that it isn’t GOOD enough to deserve greater popularity and coverage. And while I realize that many people believe this, to the extent that they ever even give elite bowling a thought, it shocked me that HE would believe and say this to ME.

And because I felt my temperature rising as this discussion unfolded, I quickly made it very clear that I didn’t see any point in continuing along that line because it seemed that we had made our respective views plenty clear and that there was nothing to be gained (and, by implication) much to possibly be lost by chatting any more about it at the time.

Was I being too “emotional”? In hindsight, I’m willing to consider that possibility. In fact, I concede that a wiser or more mature response would have been to dispassionately take note of my friend’s opinion and then just let it go like I would a similar remark from a child or adult who knew nothing about bowling and was just talking out of his ass or trolling.

But my friend knew a lot more than nothing about bowling and he knew full well whom he was talking to, and he still said bowling wasn’t “worthy” of more popularity than it enjoyed or coverage than it received and that he had the right to hold this opinion and to express it. Well, I disagree with his opinion of bowling’s worthiness, but I agree with him that he has a right to that opinion and to express it. By the same token, I could say that I had a right to disagree with him and to express my emotional antipathy to his holding and expressing his opinion so long as I didn’t didn’t do it any more disagreeably than I did. But I’m not sure our asserting our respective rights in this regard gets us anywhere we want to go. I don’t know how he feels in the aftermath of our disagreement, although his uncharacteristic silence may well provide a clue, but I do know that I don’t feel particularly good about it.

And it’s not only because I don’t like having angry confrontations with people whose friendship I value and then having, with unpleasant awkwardness, to try to reconcile, but I also wonder if I don’t deep down agree with his opinion of bowling and am angry over the fact that he forced me to confront and examine it. Is elite bowling NOT worthy of the greater popularity and media coverage that other sports including football, basketball, baseball, boxing, soccer, tennis, and golf enjoy and receive? And am I foolish to be working, as I now am, to produce a podcast devoted to covering elite bowling?

I don’t have any solid answers. Just unsettling questions. I guess I’ll mull on them a while.