“Clash of Champions” thoughts

The highlight of Saturday’s show was definitely the second women’s “Clash”, where Jenny Brown, the female National Junior Amateur Champion, went strike for strike with one of the legends of women’s bowling, Liz Johnson, until Brown left the 3-10 “baby” split and Johnson got a ninth consecutive strike to advance. Good show by both bowlers. 😀
A couple of Mike Rose Jr. items: 1) I thought he had a bit of an advantage in the event, having seen the oil pattern on similar lanes in Albuquerque at the USBC Open, where he took the Regular All-Events lead the previous weekend, but struggled in his “Clash”; 2) Speaking of Rose’s performance in the USBC Open, I thought either Bill Macatee or Nelson Burton Jr. would mention that on the show, but neither did, missing an opportunity to talk up bowling’s largest event.
I don’t know if CBS would only give the USBC two one-hour shows, but if that was the case, the decision to run the men’s and women’s semifinals simultaneously made sense for time purposes.
Of course, the final match between Sean Rash and Lynda Barnes, the eventual winner, was high drama, with Barnes forcing Rash into a double-and-nine-to-win situation. I had thought Rash was up to it, but he caught a bit of a bad break leaving the 10 on his first ball in the 10th. I just wish Rash could’ve at least made it come down to the final shot.

Published by Rich