In reference to Sawbones post about the good old days, I noticed several remarks about "cheater balls", "easy lane conditions, i.e. the wall", and more pleas to put the integrity back into the scores.  So often we hear bashing of the easy house shot, but I don't think the oiling of the lane is the biggest factor.  Next time you're at league, really watch how people are bowling, and the carry they are getting out of the high tech equipment that is available.  Half the people shooting high scores do not accurately bury the pocket on most of their shots.  Anything light will carry, through the nose will carry (except for the hard core crankers), and brooklyn will carry.  No longer is being accurate as big a benefit as it once was.

Maybe it is time to up the weight of the pins a few ounces.  Since the equipment technology is already allowed, it can not be banned.  Therefore, the easiest solution to putting some "integrity" back into the scoring is to increase the pin weight to help combat the stronger equipment.  At the same time, though, limits have to be placed on future ball technology, otherwise the manufacturers will just build an even stronger ball to obliterate the heavier pins.

What do you think?  Would making centers use heavier pins rather than trying to enforce stricter oil procedures be the easiest solution to help curb the scoring spree we currently have going on?  Maybe this could be phased in over a couple of years so the houses wouldn't be put into a financial bind right away.  Pins only last so long, so when the center has to replace the old ones, only make the heavier ones available to them.  Eventually every center will be using the heavier pins.  Just an idea...

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Why, WHY won't the last one just fall??  It's WIGGLING for cryin' out loud!!

Sorry, Doug, but now you're going to be leaving 5-7-10's!!  LeftyCrank does have a good point about the oil.  I was just thinking along the lines of how tough it would be to get houses to put down a tough shot (and police the patterns).  Any other ideas?

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Why, WHY won't the last one just fall??  It's WIGGLING for cryin' out loud!!

Right now we are in a catch 22 situation.  None of the houses are going to put out a tougher shot than the other houses in the area and risk losing customers.

I have to disagree about oiling pattern not having that much affect of scores.  Try bowling with even 5-10 units of oil on the outside boards.  On edit, in my opinion, the balls help the carry, the lane conditions help funnel the ball to the pocket.  It seems to me like the pocket is almost impossible to miss.

Problem is ABC has already tried legislating oil patterns before, most of us remember the short oil fiasco.  Doubt very much if they will try it again.  I'm still puzzled where they came up with the 3 unit minimum outside.  That's next to nothing.

Even if they did change to rule to more oil outside, how many houses would abide by it.  I've ran into quite a few that won't put that much outside.  They do have a legal shot programmed into their oiler, just only use that shot when the lanes are going to be inspected.  Without the ABC going back to inspecting the lanes after an honor score, legislation isn’t going to matter.  It’s going to take having a few honor scores disallowed before houses will start complying.

Whats a shame is I was talking with some old friends that own houses and use to run tournaments.  Wasn’t nothing to have 200-300 people show up each weekend.  He was talking about how that loss of revenue really hurt his business.  He now runs a monthly scratch tournament that might have 30-40 entries and was wondering what he could do to get the entries up.  I mentioned putting out a tougher shot. He said if he did that he would lose all his business.  What’s puzzling is this is a scratch tournament (400+ for 10 games is the norm).  If you are attracting scratch bowlers, what difference does the shot make.

I felt if the scores dropped into a more reasonable range (220) some of the 205-210 averages might give it a shot.   Before the scoring explosion it usually took around 100-150 over to cash.  During that time we had lots of 180-190 averages coming out to give it a shot.

Oh well, sorry for the long rant.  Just frustrated about the way the game is going today.


Edited on 5/4/2003 5:07 PM

You're preaching to the choir.

What happens with the tougher shots is all of a sudden consistency, especially speed control, and accuracy come into play instead of area.  Some of the higher averages I've run across can run the big strings but can't cover a corner pin.  Take away their area and they can't compete.

I've found the milder equipment to work best, something you can keep in play without any over reaction.  Would love to have a Viper or pro-purple to use on this condition.

I've used a hard rubber ball in a league before and carried plenty of off hits with it on a house shot provided the backends were stripped.

I still think the lane conditions are the most critical factor in the high scores. Put me on a shot where I can hit the pocket all day and sooner or later I'll match up the right speed and angle to shoot some big numbers even with a hard rubber ball.

We have travelling leagues jensm where bowlers bowl in different houses different weeks, but from what I've heard about your conditions from the people at the Foundation who set up tournaments over there, your "house shot" is a lot tougher than the walls that most Americans compete on.

Proprietors here know that we are used to and like to get high scores and they do their best to make the shot as easy as they can legally get away with to keep us coming back.

Soft corners were a part of the game back in the seventies when I started. I learned to stroke the ball because that was what worked. With today's material, I can hit the ball much harder because I know that it will find friction when I need it. The best thing I could do on oily conditions back then was to increase the angle to the pocket and play a straight line. Today it's easier to carry well without increasing the angle to the pocket.

Perhaps the combination of walled league shots and strong bowling balls may give the impression that this is all there is to bowling today. But there's more, trust me.

Regards,
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jensm