Japanese House Ball Tournament

First and foremost, my wife and I are very average bowlers. Her average is a respectable 120 and I am lucky to bowl around 160. Very common scores for any avid bowler back in the US. However, as is true with most things is China, being average is pretty exceptional.

About three weeks ago a friend of ours asked us if we were interested in playing in a bowling tournament. He said that a Japanese team called Medaka from the Shanghai Softball league was putting together a team for a Japanese bowling tournament. With nothing better to do on Saturday August 28^th, we agreed. Not until we agreed did we get informed of why we were invited. Apparently we were the “ringers” they were bringing in to win. Here is a brief overview of the rules of this tournament.

1. Using your own ball results in a 40 pin penalty / game
2. All ladies on the team will receive a 20 pin bonus / game
3. Two singles games and two pairs games will be played. Highest total score wins.

I can only assume that we were invited to play with this Japanese team because we fit the stereotype of a “good bowler”. First, we are American. Second, we are from the Midwest. Third, we like to drink beer. Fourth, we fit the “profile” of a bowler. You have to love stereotypes.

Not knowing what to expect, we showed up at the Hongkou bowling center at 8:45 AM on Saturday morning. A bit hung over from a night out and with Katie fighting off a nagging cold, our expectations were not that high. When we arrived we were shocked to see 31 other teams of 6-8 people crowding the lobby area. Roughly 90% of these individuals were Japanese, 9% were Chinese, and exactly one other person (other than us) was white. Since only 16 teams could bowl at a time, we ended up not playing until 9:45 AM. This proved to be a huge blessing as three of us headed over to KFC for some breakfast. We also got to size up the competition as the first set of games ended. Seeing very few scores above 150, we figured our chances were better than originally thought. Quickly we were humbled. Our first game saw us play a team of matching shirts. Now textiles are not exactly the most expensive thing in Shanghai, but when you put together a team shirt for a $25 / person tournament, you are taking it pretty seriously.

A quick loss to this team reduced our hopes of having a successful day. That is until we realized that our chances of finishing in the money actually increased by losing our first game. The way the tournament was set up is that all the winners of the first round “advanced” to the winners bracket. All of the losers were “relegated” to the losers bracket. However, the only discernable difference was that the winners bracket was sending two teams to the finals and the losers bracket was only sending one. However, all the best teams won their first games, so we got matched up with a bunch of never-will-bes. If I could read Japanese or could have figured out how the bracket worked in advance, then I probably would have suggested throwing the first game anyways. Thus, our slow start was a blessing in disguise.

After our opening loss, we played two consecutive games against pretty terrible bowlers. The second game, however, came down to the final frame. With about a 40 pin lead heading into the final frame we thought we had the game well in hand. All of the sudden, a bunch of bowlers that were struggling to break 100 were throwing balls like they were Norm Duke. First bowler goes strike-spare. The second bowler goes strike-strike-8. Our two doubles teams fail to mark. All of the sudden our lead has evaporated.

For some strange reason Japanese teams put their best two bowlers in the first and second positions and their worst bowlers in the third and fourth position. With our two singles players still to bowl, we figured to still be in a good position. I was bowling 3^rd and rolled a 9-spare-9. The pairs team bowling against me consisted of a girl that struggled to hit any pins and a guy that wasn’t picking up the garbage she was leaving him. True to form the girl started the frame with a ball that took about 30 seconds to get down the lane and flirted with both gutters before clipping the ten pin. The second bowler missed the headpin, but somehow picked up the spare as pins were falling in every direction and one miraculously clipped the two pin, which brushed the headpin just hard enough to have it wobble and fall. Spare! Luckily the girl was up again and managed a 3, which was about 2.5 points above her average / ball for the first 9 frames.

Since I was working off of a strike, we had regained a slight lead of 7 pins. With our anchor up (the 3^rd American on the team) and another of their girl/guy combos, we were feeling pretty good. We were up first and our anchor rolled a nice ball right into the pocket, but only managed an 8. A typical house ball result. With the 5-8 left, we figured to pick up the spare and be heading to the next round. A slight miss to the right on ball number two put is us deep water. Up 15 pins with the other team left to bowl. The girl, looking very nervous, kept the ball on the lane for about 10 feet before it tumbled into the gutter. This was a huge sigh of relief for our team. Up next was a guy that had failed to strike (or 0-spare) the entire game. We thought we would escape. Little did we know this guy was saving his best for last. The ball looked good out of his hand and rolled directly toward the pocket. A well deserved spare was the result. As the Japanese team celebrated, a quick calculation determined that the girl needed only 3 pins for the most unlikely comeback of the day. This fact was not lost on her either. Looking rather ill, the young lady took the ball from the rack, took a deep breath and began her approach. The ball left her hand in a similar manner as the first 9 frames: wobbly and unpredictable. It started relatively straight, but as the ball rolled forward it was clear it was heading right. The question was how far right? As the ball fell into the gutter about 5 feet in front of the pins we realized we had survived.

The next two rounds were pretty uneventful as we picked up our game considerably and cruised through the final two matches of the losers bracket. This put us up against the two undeniable favorites for the tournament. We were up against an all girls team getting 120 bonus pins and their husbands, a bunch of Chinese guys bowling in the 160s. The girl’s team had been put up the 4 highest scores in their route to the final. The guys were right on their heals, consistently putting up scores in the 600s. We were overmatched and it showed. The girls ended up beating both of us without needing the bonus 120 pins as they put up scores of 183, 178, 165, and 159. A third place finish, an 80 RMB / person prize, and 6 games of bowling was well worth the 150 RMB / person entry fee. We are definitely looking forward to the next Japanese House Ball Tournament.