I just bowled a little 6 game tournament Sunday, on lanes with 15 year old Guardian overlays thru the heads.  I've bowled this house a number of times over the years, but never have I seen it like it was Sunday.  My first shot in warm-up I tried my Cell.  It immediately went into a lope, checking up every revolution.  I ended up using a Power Groove (plum) for the day.  It was the only thing I could keep right, and it was touchy as to both speed and being accurate - anything that went wide of about 9 board bounced back to the left.  What I want to know, is this just a characteristic of Guardian when it gets that old?  Or something else?  Supposedly we were bowling on the house shot.  A pretty good player (ex-member, I think) referred to the lanes as "bubble gum.'
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"I do desire that we may be better strangers."  Willie the Shake, As You Like it(III,ii)
I don't belong to an organized political party....I'm a Democrat.

I have never heard of 15 year old Guardian. How has the owner NOT been tarred and feathered and not run out of town? How cheap can you be?

Only God knows how much oil it might take to make that playable day in and day out.

One house I bowl in had installed a new Guardian overlay, replacing the old one, on the front half of the lane; the back end is pine. The oil/laneman takes GREAT care of the house; I asked him what oil he uses: Legends oil.
They do not usually re-oil on weekends, yet even after the premium scratch league on Friday night, there is no carrydown until at least Sunday morning. Even then it's playable on most pairs. On Saturday morning practice, it has more oil than most houses after a fresh re-oil.

Rags,

If that was a once in a while tournament, fine; otherwise, I'd avoid that house in the future.

Guardian carries down brutally with bad oiling and bad care. WHat 15 year old Guradian looks like must be astounding. The mind boggles and the heart wrenches.
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"None are so blind as those who will not see."
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Guardian was okay before resin balls.  

The bowl in Houston that I had my shop in had 60' of Guardian on some not good wood.  I would practice on that stuff, and I remember using a Burgundy Hammer, striking at will and never hardly moving my feet.

Introduce some resin balls, and the shot was gone in just a few minutes.  I tried using the Hammer in league.  Sometimes it was pretty good for the first game, but after that, the carry down got me.  The old track from before the Guardian was still there too.  They didn't do a good job of resurfacing before putting down the overlay.  Right handers could not get the ball back from outside 5 unless you put it down outside 5.  Almost didn't matter how they ran the lanes.

I did testing for Columbia for the black Chaos.  We had to run the lanes something like 8 times before we could get enough oil to make the test ball playable.  No other ball I owned at the time would even think about catching a wrinkle that day, it was crazy.  That Chaos tore up the Guardian.  Hooked in my backswing.

Guardian IS nasty stuff.  We bowl a regional in Jonesboro, AR.  Nice Bowl, really nice, but they have Guardian heads.  I have yet to bowl really well there.  Made the finals once and cashed a couple times.  Once using a Storm Blue Hit, one of the biggest POS balls I ever had.  That Guardian made it look like a monster!!  LOL
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