Though the proprietor did not conceive of this situation as an “experimentâ€, he did decide to try the "experiment" that follows. I thought of an earlier thread that asked what is more important, heads, midlanes or backends to scoring and watched his set-up with some interest. I would love to get the thoughts of all y’all on the following.
The Experiment: Set up a house that had been a moderately high scoring house (high average around 225) with a moderate house taper while “calming down†the backends – essentially making them act all the time like they have mild to moderate carrydown. (This was done by calming down the stripper so it was either less efficient or left a residue). On nights where the lanes held oil, the carrydown and backends could make strong reactive equipment react like plastic at best.
The Reason: Strong, crisp backends had created over-under problems for the 150-190 and average bowlers – leading to high but inconsistent scores, especially in this group.
Time Frame: November through the summer.
Results: (1) 60-70% fewer honor scores; (2) Left-handers, no longer fear over-reaction, see their averages go up by 5-15 pins and their high scores outpace comparable right-handers; (3) Tweeners and moderately high speed players see fewer honor scores, lower carry percentages; (4) Low speed, lower rev players see their games become more consistent – fewer highs and lows; (5) Right-handed players have more extreme problems with breakdown (midlanes becoming fried while backends get worse) leading to more frequent poor nights; (6) good players are required to throw more particle equipment to get ball reactions and get through the backends; and (7) beginning players trying to learn to play the game get more frustrated as ball reaction becomes more inconsistent.
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"I don't mind if you don't like my manners. I don't like them myself. They're pretty bad. I grieve over them on long winter evenings."
Edited on 6/30/2004 1:10 PM
Edited on 6/30/2004 1:18 PM
