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Author Topic: It happened... ball hopped the track and went under!  (Read 747 times)

digitard

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It happened... ball hopped the track and went under!
« on: February 16, 2005, 07:02:40 PM »
This actually happened a while ago, but I was just reminded of it by the pops the other day during out bi-weekly bowl-o-thon.  

A few years ago we were bowling on a run of the mill 4-person team bi-weekly league and my ball didn't come back from the return.  This happens occasionally in the first 4 lanes at our local lanes so no biggie... I hit the call button, let em know ball return on 3 and wait.  No ball.  I hit it again and I hear the 'ball return on 3' again over the loudspeaker... nothing.  

Finally a guy comes out from the back and says they cant find my ball in the return and asked me a few things about it.  Waited... he came back again saying 'they're looking for it'.  He even went and pulled up the floorboard behind the ball return and looked under.  Then he saw it.  The damn thing jumped the return and somehow ended a lane over.  Took em 35mins to get the thing out.  So almost an hour from when I called in 'ball return on 3' I got my ball back.

No idea how it ended up jumping the track.  I dont even know how they have the return tracks setup.  If anyone wants to enlighten me on how that'd happen then great.

Gave me enough free pases to last me a month...lol.

Random story.  I'm tired.  Carry on.
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Scolai

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Re: It happened... ball hopped the track and went under!
« Reply #1 on: February 17, 2005, 07:17:38 AM »
Ball return tracks are no real mystery.  There is a metal ramp that transitions to a pair of plastic rails that are spaced about 4" apart and are about 1/2" high (some houses use wood instead of plastic).  The ball comes down the metal ramp and eventually has to make the transition from the metal to the plastic/wood rails.  If a ball is going to "skip the tracks", it will likely do it in transition.  We've actually had balls jump the transition, fly out onto the lane, and roll all the way back to the foul line.

And I've also had a ball skip the tracks and end up lost.  Took about 20 minutes for the crew to find and extract my ball.  We didn't finish that league session until after 11:00 PM.
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Scolai

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thfonz98

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Re: It happened... ball hopped the track and went under!
« Reply #2 on: February 17, 2005, 09:53:01 AM »
ive seen one hop the track coming down from the back and hitting the rake from behind
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Brickguy221

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Re: It happened... ball hopped the track and went under!
« Reply #3 on: February 17, 2005, 10:09:31 AM »
I had one jump the track and end up on the lane next to me and it rolled on that lane all the way back to me just this past week.

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Ragnar

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Re: It happened... ball hopped the track and went under!
« Reply #4 on: February 17, 2005, 10:21:34 AM »
We had a Jr.s tournament here a while back and the pro-shop ended up offering one kid a new ball.  His had jumped the track and could not be found.  Eventually it turned up 8 lanes away, underneath.
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