Video of 2011 USBC Queens Championship Telecast

I was talking with a friend last night who said he wishes he'd recorded Wednesday's ESPN2 telecast of the USBC Queens Championship so he wouldn't have had to watch all the commercials that littered the two hour program. I didn't notice more commercials than usual, but maybe that's because I wasn't noticing the commercials at all. When the commercials came on, I focused my attention on other things.

Nevertheless, it's not a bad idea to record a bowling telecast if you don't absolutely, positively have to see it live and don't care whether you know in advance who won the matches, or you want to watch it again later. And if, by chance, you don't have a DVR or, if you're really old-fashioned, a VCR, or your DVR is full, or if you forgot to program your recording device, there's always YouTube. Usually, some kind soul who loves elite bowling as much as I do will upload video of the telecast to YouTube within a day or two, and someone did that with the 2011 USBC Queens Championship, which I am happy to share with you below.

Chris Barnes' Outstanding Bowling Commentary

Chris Barnes is one of the greatest bowlers in history. He's also showing himself to be an outstanding bowling commentator. Wednesday night, he was the commentator on ESPN2's telecast of the USBC Queens Championship, and he was excellent, just as he was in last year's Queens and Women's U.S. Open telecasts and as he always is when he sits in on PBA Xtra Frame and USBC webcasts.

The man clearly knows the ins and outs of bowling, has an exceptionally keen eye for what's happening on the lanes, and he has a virtually flawless way of articulating what he knows and sees so that we, the fans, can know and see it too.

When I watch a bowling match, I don't need someone to tell me that so-and-so left the 10 pin or got a strike or spare. I can see that with my own eyes. I want to know WHY the 10 pin stood after what appeared to be a perfect pocket hit, or why so-and-so's ball is carrying strikes while her opponent's ball isn't.

Chris Barnes gives you that information. He talks about how minor variations in release, ball speed, and entry angle can spell the difference between a strike and a pocket 7-10. He can insightfully analyze a bowler's style and strategy in fine detail, and he can tell you what went wrong on an errant shot and what adjustments in equipment, release, alignment, ball speed, or body mechanics the bowler needs to make to get to the pocket and carry. And he manages to do it in a way that keeps me interested and informed without overloading me with information that is too abstruse to understand.

I look forward to any bowling telecast or webcast that features Chris Barnes' commentary, and I hope there will be many more of them. Fortunately, he'll be joining yesterday's Queens play-by-play announcer Dave LaMont next month to cover the finals of the USBC Intercollegiate Championships. The tournament actually concluded last Sunday, April 24, but ESPN2 will be airing it on May 15 at 6 p.m. EDT.

I'll be watching.

What do you think of Chris Barnes' bowling commentary, and who are your favorite bowling commentators of all time?

Below is video of Chris Barnes' commentary for the entire telecast of the 2010 USBC Queens Championship.

Dorin-Ballard and Nation Leading USBC Queens Qualifying After Second Qualifying Round

Carolyn Dorin-Ballard is leading after the second round of USBC Queens qualifying action in Syracuse, NY, Stefanie Nation is in third place, last year's champion, Kelly Kulick, is in ninth place, and local Sacramento favorite Leanne Barrette-Hulsenberg is hanging in at 35th place.

The top 80 placers in the beginning field of 206 will return to bowl 5 more games of qualifying today, and then the field will be winnowed to the top 64 who will then compete in double-elimination match play until the players are determined for the televised finals that will be shown live on ESPN2 on Wednesday, April 27 at 7 p.m EDT.

You can read the Bowl.com story and check the current results here, watch live streaming of the action here, and below is a USBC video showing Stefanie Nation and Dorin-Ballard competing this year and talking about their first two qualifying rounds.

The One a Day Dick Weber Open Finals Field

Well, it looks as though Xtra Frame's "Bowling Doctor" Jeff Mark and recurring guest Stuart Williams made pretty good guesses Thursday night about who would make it to the televised finals tomorrow. Each was off by only one pick in his predictions. Sunday's five-man stepladder finals will begin with up and coming Bill O'Neill taking on perennially underrated Ryan Shafer. The winner will face the one and only Pete Weber who, as PBA.com reports, would love to win the tournament named after his late father, Dick Weber, as much or more than he would any major. He qualified third last year. The winner of that match will go up against the amazing Walter Ray Williams, who is still showing those young whippersnappers a thing or two about how to bowl on very demanding conditions. And the winner of that match will face Mike Fagan, who has pretty much dominated the tournament all week long, for the title. It's a great field, and we could very well see some great matches.

Don't forget that it airs this Sunday, 1/31 on ESPN2 (and not ESPN) at 10 AM PST or 1 PM EST.

First Round of Match Play Recap at Dick Weber Open

Mike Fagan led qualifying in the One a Day Dick Weber Open, and he still leads the field after the first round of match play that took place last night. Hot on his heels is a star-studded cast headed by, in descending order, Walter Ray Williams, Tommy Jones, Ryan Shafer, Amleto Monacelli, Pete Weber, Robert Smith, and Bill O'Neill. And not far behind them in 13th place is defending champion Norm Duke.

This is a good, old-fashioned round-robin match play, top five advance to the televised stepladder finals kind of tournament, the kind I'd like to see a lot more of from now on. But take note that this week's finals will be broadcast live at 11 AM PST on ESPN2 rather than the usual ESPN. I hope that everyone who gets ESPN on their cable or satellite system also gets ESPN2, and if some don't who want to watch Sunday's tournament, they can catch it later on PBA Xtra Frame on demand. I should also mention that ESPN.com's popular Bill Simmons, "The Sports Guy," will be sitting in the ESPN broadcast booth this Sunday with announcer Rob Stone and bowling analyst Rany Pedersen.

On Xtra Frame's coverage of match play last night, British bowler Stuart Williams sat in with the boys for awhile giving his always entertaining and perceptive view of the action. He predicted that the TV finalists would be Mike Fagan, Walter Ray, Tommy Jones, Bill O'Neill, and Ryan Shafer. "Bowling Doctor" Jeff Mark predicted that Mike Fagan, Walter Ray, Bill O'Neill, Norm Duke, and Pete Weber would make the finals. By the way, Stuart Williams competed in this week's tournament, along with an international contingent of male and female stars, and finished a very respectable 30th. Jeff Mark claims that Williams has one of the heaviest ball rolls and most potent strike balls he's ever seen or heard. It hits the pins with an impressively unique sound.

Ritchie Allen dropped in for a few minutes before getting into a disagreement with Jeff Mark and leaving prematurely. Allen and Mark were talking about practice strategy on an easy pattern. Mark contended that when the conditions are easy, you should make them difficult by moving your line to where you have to be very precise to hit the pocket and carry. "Practice where it's hard, play where it's easy," he advises. Allen, on the other hand, advocated always practicing on the easiest part of the lane for strikes, because that's what you do when you're bowling leagues and tournaments. Mark countered by telling Allen that if he'd practiced the right way, he might have made the cut, and Allen promptly took off. Allen just missed the top 24 by four pins, coming in 25th.

But this raises a good question. What IS the best way to practice? Ritchie Allen's or Jeff Mark's? How do YOU practice? I try to play different lines from the easiest to the toughest. But I admit that I spend more time practicing where it's easy than where it's tough. What do you think?