I have had an idea for a little while now--I like to think outside the box at times--, which discussions on here about oil or mainly the lack therof brings back to my mind. My idea is to have lanes that have the oil pattern built into them.....much like those table games that have a triangular shape where you can rotate to either pool or ping pong or whatever to the top....What if lanes could be made that way where you ould have 3 "bulit-in" patterns based on the surface of the lane materials used, parts of it that were slicker to simulate oil, and less slicker parts of the surface to simulate friction, and then one could rotate between whatever 3 patterns you'd have just by turning the actual lane to the other patterns available.

Of course you wouldn't have the lanes changing during play because they'd play the same all the time, so once one was lined up all he or she would have to do is consistently execute. That would take some of the challenge and guesswork out of playing lanes throughout a series or tournament----however ball maintence would be much less necessary because there would not be an actual oil applied to the lane so balls would not get "oil soaked" , and would last longer. The bowling centers themselves would save on having to buy conditioner--that is assuming that whatever materials the lanes surface is made up of would be durable enough that a lane coating would not be necessary.

What do you guys think of this idea???

Brad