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?

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

The place I travel 45 mins to on Fridays isn't as drastic but they oil in the early morning, allow all open bowlers all over the lanes all day long. They have youth programs, b-day parties you name it. Sometimes we wait for open bowlers to get off our pair so we can get ready for league and they don't re-oil. Surprisingly the shot holds up ok most nights but there are more than a few nights where the shot is drastically different from lane to lane or just completely wrecked. It teaches you to play different lines, hand positions, match up etc if nothing else. It's still an easy older house.

If my local lanes oiled only 3 times a week it would be ugly. The shot doesn't hold for a game let alone a few days.