A good Friday morning to you all! (Thank goodness for the weekend...)

Last night in league we encountered a Reverse-Block type of condition or what seemed like one. I would say anything outside of the 10 board on both sides of the lane were out of bounds. Seemed like there wasn't that much oil in the middle and I guessing a light application at most. It was a nice change from the normal house shot we usually get.

I was throwing my ultimate inferno Pin 1/2 inch over bridge and kicked out right around midline area (4 inch pin) in box condition. This puppy wasn't coming back from the outside boards. I tried pointing it through the oil, but when I hit the dry inside the ten (around 13-17 board area) the ball would dive or go brooklyn. So I moved left a couple of boards with my feet and tried to mini-belly the ball to the out of bounds area (10-5 board) to catch a little oil so I wouldn't hit the nose, but obviously the ball just skated through the soup!

After 5 frames in the first game, I switched to my Polished red monster (Stacked Leverage)...I know I wish I had something in my arsenal that wasn't so Skid-Flip so I could try and play at least a frozen rope. *Note to self...Set up a versatile arsenal for once...hehe* I tried a few shots with this ball around the 15 board and out of the oil and swing it to the 10 where the out of bounds oil was. I couldn't keep a consistent shot here, because I was throwing a little harder to get through the dirt and if I bellied it to much outside of the 10, the ball would skate.

Then the tiny lightbulb flashed above my head after in the 10th frame of the first game {I shot 154 by the way =*(} I switched back to the Ultimate Inferno and moved deep inside. I was standing at 40 and looking at 25. I figured if I start this ball inside the 30-35 board and catch some oil on the left side of the lane and belly it to 15 or so, I would have some type of decent reaction. Well, in the second game, the lanes started to break down and created some area to play. I shot 180 the 2nd game and 209 to finish the night off. It was one of the most fulfilling nights bowling league in awhile.

It was a great experience talking to everyone that bowled last night, because you see different types of styles (Crankers, tweeners, strokers, etc.) all trying to figure this shot out. Some of the straighter players like my anchor man who was playing a very frozen rope type shot pointing from around 7 board to the pocket ended up lining up around where the crankers and tweeners were throwing pretty deep inside.

Anyways, that's my story. I would love hear from you others and you're not-so-typical bowling conditions. Last night reminded me of a pseudo sport shot type shot we saw/encountered in only tournaments hosted outside of our House. It was nice to see a challenging shot. Would love to hear about your "Sport-Shot or Non Walled-Up Shot experiences at home"

Have a great weekend!
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Ramil Torres
S.F. Bay Area, California

Edited on 11/12/2004 10:20 AM

The past two years I've been bowling on a reverse block, although this year the outside seems a little more playable than last year and the inside even drier, with flying back ends to boot. I consider it a challenge every week to go down to my Tuesday night league and perform well on this shot. Splits have been killing me this year in that house, it's hard to shoot above 550 when you average 2 big splits a game. I will continue to experiment and see what happens from week to week- I'll be bringing out my old urethane Blue Hammer this week to see what I can do. I'm averaging 180 on this shot and 3rd high in the house right now (185 is tops)...

Matt