"Silver Foxes"

We had a very nice two days away from the bowl. VERY nice. For as much as we all enjoy bowling and know that is the primary reason we are here, it's no secret that we enjoy the company of the other bowlers and make sure everyone in Netanya knows it. In fact, one might say we are tearing up Netanya.

But the fact remains that bowling is a priority. Today, thankfully, I bowled well; I was only one of two guys over par for the day (the other was Yahav Rabin of Israel with a 1320 ... I was very happy with my 1208). But the even better news was that we took silver in the trios! Israel ran away with the gold and Mexico took the bronze.

On the women's side, "Team North America," consisting of Jara, Meryl, and starring Lisa Abush as the token Canadian, won the "Silver Shnekel" Award. Unfortnately their totals couldn't count for a real medal, but they did bowl well enough to medal if it did. Props to Jara for putting up 1150 and making a move on the All-Events Board. And Kudos to my roomie, Eric, for lighting up the lanes ... with his big, fat, 100! You go boy! Congrats to everyone; a full set of results are on the IBF Website.

During lunch, Jim and I received our Bronze Medal for the Doubles Event. I'd upload a picture from the medal ceremony but Blogspot and the Wi-Fi in the lobby of the 0-star Galil Hotel are not cooperating. I'll try again later.

But the big news of the day was the protest that was lodged against the Israeli delegation for rearranging their line up during a three-game set. According to the WTBA rules, you cannot change the line up during a set (games 1-3 or games 4-6). When the rule was called into question, a formal complaint was presented to the Appeals Committee and it was decided that the teams would forfeit any team game that they switched their line up but their individual scores count toward their All-Events Total.

So many people were asking, "Why bother making a protest? There are only three women trios eligible for medals and the Israeli Men's team affected didn't place in the medal." The truth is there are principles we all agree to uphold and when someone doesn't play by the agreed upon rules, they need to be called to the carpet. It's not something any of us wanted to do but it's what had to be done. Hopefully we'll all play by the same rules for the rest of the competition.

The night ended with a BBQ and dance party at the Blue Bay Hotel. When it comes to Netayna hotels, now we know we got shafted. Their lobby is phenomenal, the pool area was gorgeous, and their outdoor patio (where we ate and danced) was a great spot. We didn't see their sleeping rooms but they can't be any worse than ours. If they come with dehumidifiers, I am there!!!

Tomorrow is the 5-man team event. Australia, Great Britain, Israel, Mexico, and the U.S. will go for gold in the Men's event; the Aussies and Israelis will battle it out for Gold in the Ladies' Event.