Our league president has been informed by the management that as from next week, the lanes will only be dressed three times a week - before Monday league, before Thursday league, and Friday or Saturday morning. The official reason given was to reduce cost (of lane conditioner etc).

Guess from now on I will only need to bring my XXXL to practice huh?!?! My local centre is only five minutes drive away, the next nearest three are all 35-45 minutes away, so I don’t have much choice.

On another note, in the last eight months our league pattern had been long and heavy with next to no movement at the backend. It is also very tight and out-of-bound outside the 8 board. Three weeks ago the mechanic and our league president had been experimenting different patterns, and have settled with (for now) 32 feet. It’s not so bad cos the volume is med-heavy, and it holds up pretty well. Still out of bound outside, but if I control my ball speed well, there is 4-5 board area at break point. My score has gone up a bit, so all is not lost!

Have your centre been cutting cost as well?

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I''m a THS hack and a ball junkie.

Lisa,  didnt you tell me a few years ago you had one league where it was always a Chefs surprise on what kinda oil conditions you were going to get for the nite?


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" Lift Your Skirt Grab Your Balls and Learn How to Bowl "   http://coolluvr4u1976.bowlspace.com/

That sucks man, just make the best of it. My local alley (doesn't deserve to be called a center) has done something similar but this is year 4 of it. They oil the lanes on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays if they have travel league or tournament.

They strip the backends on the other days/nights. Its absolutely garbage here, the shot is pretty good fresh but once it breaks down its bad and if your on a night where they aren't fresh forget about it.



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http://www.absolutebowling.com

That kind of thing happens all the time in some centers.  If you go back to the old days, lanes were run once and two shifts bowled on it.  Now many centers have only one shift per night.  Sometimes mechanics experiment with a new pattern to help make the lanes more stable.  There are many times and reasons centers change lane oil cycles.  Saving money is not a bad thing either.  Oiling less saves labor and materials.  The key is if you can put out a quality shot consistently.  Next year when your lineage goes up think about it.  Many bowlers do not understand oiling lanes at all.  They can not tell you anything about the oil pattern or the lane.  All they want to know is if you oiled the lanes.  It's a mental thing.  Don't know or care how you did it just did you do it?  If you tell them "gee I don't know", they are in sure terror.

Smash49
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Smash49

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