Sorry for the delay. Internet access was spotty at best and google sites like this one are on full lock down in China. On to the day 2 recap of Hong Kong.
Found out the morning of day 2, that it kept the skins format within the 6 groups of 6. Every team again plays every team in their group, so you have to win your group and get enough points to be in the top 4 so you can make the semi-finals. With 8 points maximum, 5 matches to play, and assuming a modest win of 6 points per match, then 30 points was both teams goal.
The Stripes team did well the first day to qualify for the Cup tournament and had a great showing, finishing with 20 points which put them in the middle of the pack for that tournament. I don't want to give that team the short treatment, but they were at different venues in Hong Kong from the Stars team that I was a part of, so it was difficult to get detailed information.
On to the Stars team. Our group consisted of the International squad, and 4 local Hong Kong clubs, including the youth team. Where as everything went against the Stars team on Day 1, everything is going our way on day 2. Everyone is bowling better and the team is starting to gel. We get 6 points against the youth HK club, 6 against the police team, and a perfect 8 against the International club, including getting a super shot of 8 on the last end. This means that every USA team members' bowls were inside the closest International team bowl. This is a very rare ocurrence, even moreso at this level of competition. This gets us 20 points out of the 30 we feel that we need to get in before the lunch break.
The first game after lunch against another local HK club is another trouncing by the US, as we pick up the maximum of 8 points, giving us 28 with one match to go. A win will almost surely get us in and getting 2 points will have us reach our goal. Unfortunately, the last match is against the team from the club that we are playing at and on an end rink.
The last game starts off poorly for the US, as we drop 5 points in the first 2 ends. In the third end the US is holding 4 with the last bowl for the HK team to come when the oddest thing happens. The rule is that the skip can't visit the head where the bowls are to keep play moving fast. This puts the demand on reading the head on the rest of the team and being able to communicate to the skip. The HK team is starting to communicate with their skip. We can't tell what they are saying, but you get an idea of what they are wanting the skip to do. Suddenly the official who is running the venue talks to players of their team and now they are communicating a totally different shot to the skip. Getting advice from any outside person is against the rules, and the person who is supposed to be enforcing the rule is the one giving the advice! This is somewhat crazy. The skip is an excellent bowler and pulls off the shot and the US goes from 4 up to 3 down. The skip for the US team, Neil, pulls off an excellent shot to cut it to only one for HK, but now the US has lost the first 2 points in the match, and are down 6-0 for the match.
The US team huddles a bit after that, as the US vice Abe tells Neil what happened. Neil decides to take the high road and not say anything about it, but to call him on it if it happens again. We need to focus on the next three ends to try to get the next skin and 2 more points to get to 30. The US team plays like it is riled up and everyone is devastating in the next two ends and the US gets 2 and then 1 in the next two ends. So we are down 6-3 in the match, but up 3-0 in the second skin. Play is going on at several clubs in our division and the results are networked via computer. The official comes to Neil and tells him that we are in first currently and if we get 2 more points then we are in the semis. The virtual goal of 30 is now the real goal of 30. Personally, I'm going to do well anyways, but who knows what to believe at this point. We end up having a great end and get the end with 1 point, after some brilliant bowling by Abe and Neil especially. Now the match is 6-4, but we each have 2 points, and the US team should have qualified, but we want the match. Two ends to go. The US takes the seventh end with 1 point and now the match is 6-5 Hong Kong, but they haven't scored since the shennagins in the third end. The US can get anywhere from 2 to 6 points in the match based on the last end. HK is holding one and is set up well, but Neil plays a great shot with his last and gets a little lucky with a heavy bowl to make it laying 3 with one bowl for the HK skip to go. The HK skip is equall great and rests on the shot bowl and stops to take the point away. HK wins the match 7-5, but the US splits the last skin to get 3 points for the match, and 31 for the day.
The official tells us that 31 points puts us in third place for the qualifying. After seeing the standings 28 points woud have got us in, as fifth place had 27 points. We board the bus for the prestigious Craigenhower Cricket Club (CCC) in Hong Kong for the semi-finals, knowing that no US team has ever gotten a medal in the Hong Kong portion of the previous 13 Tiger Bowls tournament. All that stands between the US and achieving that is a very good Macau team.
No comments:
Post a Comment