I'm really open to suggestions because this is getting stupid.

Lanes 3-4 at our center. The pattern, at the end, almost feels like an inverted "V." Oil on the outsides, dryer to the middle (but not a reverse block). The point of the "V" feels like about 32-35 feet down at the 20 board. Then it goes dry around 15 at the 35-38 foot mark, etc.

Our house supposedly has five different house shots that rotate. No difference in the volume, just the length. First one starts at 36 feet, next one is 37, etc. It's irrelevant, though, on this pair. They're always tough.

I typically, if I know I'm going to be on this pair, try to remember to pack a particle pearl ball. Anything I can do to smooth the breakpoint. Well, tonight, I forgot to bring one.

Game 1, I'm already using the least aggressive ball in my bag (other than my plastic spare ball) and playing left of where I usually start off. I start the game with four splits in the first five frames (convert the 4-9 in the first) and shoot 163.

Meanwhile, the other team (four-man) shoots 931, with a woman rolling off a 168 average who missed the 100-pins-over watch by 1 pin (shot 267). Second game, they shoot 900 again.

I bounce back in the second to shoot 206, still just 11 pins over average. I then shoot 155 in the last game with three splits, a washout and missing two easy spares at the end of the game. And in this one, I changed to plastic in the fifth frame -- and the first shot, I left a hard-hooking 9-pin. WITH PLASTIC.

This is the only pair in the house like this. It has bedeviled me for three years. I'll take any suggestions up to and including using a shotgun. I know it can't be the lanes given that other people score on it, so it's obviously me.

Jess

I used to bowl ALL THE TIME at Fern Valley Strike & Spare in Louisville when I lived 5 minutes away.  Lanes 1&2 and 3&4 are always interesting.  They usually get very, very wet/dry.  The outsides just start to dry up completely after one game.  And lanes 13&14 are all-or-nothing for me.  I either shoot 750 or 550.  There's no in-between.

And on my Saturday night league at Executive Strike & Spare, every pair is a headache pair.  I never know what the ball is going to do.  One night a couple weeks ago, I threw my Cell on the left lane and my plastic ball on the right lane the third game, and I threw MORE strikes with plastic than my reactive equipment.  So of course I tried throwing the plastic ball on the left lane late in the game and couldn't carry with it either on that lane.    (Struck every ball but one the right lane, didn't throw a single strike that game on the left lane!)