As many of you know, one of the houses in town has recently applied Laneshield to their old wood lanes. My opinion of this has positively increased each time I've seen play on them, although I haven't bowled on it much myself. However, it's the cheapness of the alley owner that makes this a diamond necklace on a pig.
They resurfaced the approaches during the installation of Laneshield, now it feels like I'm sliding on sandpaper. Other people don't seem to notice, but some like me do. The ball returns are semi-above ground and capped. Makes it impossible to play deeper than 4th arrow on the right lane. They only painted the caps. The ball returns themselves are old and moderatly kept up. The gutters were all replaced with the bumper systems you see in most new synthetic houses. However, they're not computerized, a pin attendant (just to be PC here, lol) has to go down with a hooked rod and pull them up. The monitors and general scorekeeping system, while easy to understand and navigate, is from the days of DOS and beyond. The pits routinely chew balls up, and I'd say their pro shop does more free plug work on damaged balls than anything else, because they have no pro shop operator mainly.
However, the owner did purchase a brand new Phoenix lane machine, top of the line, and really expensive. He finally listened to the myriad of complaints over the last few years and broke down by installing Laneshield. I was surprised he actually bought new gutters and kickbacks as well as painting the return capping and freshening up the approaches. All in all, it's a decent improvement, but the many things he could and should have done in the process that were overlooked still irk me. Just his general overall attitude to things is what makes most people the maddest. This may not sound like something to get up in arms over, but if you were in the situation, I'm sure you'd agree with the masses.
Or maybe it's the incredible attention the manager of the most popular and newest alley in the city gives to everyone and everything. It's about a 6 year old house, with 18 holes of mini golf and a go kart track. It's home to the pro shop I work in. His high attention to detail and relationships with his bowlers make it an excellent place to bowl, even though the carry sucks, lol. Money is a driving force, of course, but it seems to not be an object if something is needed or asked for. Great guy.
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Forget Kung Fu, I know Ron Bahr!!!
The only difference between youth and adult leagues are that the big boys are allowed to whine. They're more entertaining anyway.
