Last Night, Went into league, thew my fisrt ball, ball broke into its roll, and it literaly backed up at the head pin. Talked to few guys in the league, same thing. League shot, where people were scoring quite well, was completely gone !
The left sides backend end was totally clean, while the right looked like the double oiled and not strip. I have heard and bowled on tougher shots, bowling for over 35 years, and never seen anything like this, except at the Peterson !
To top it off, the left lane was sweeping away spares, and when it kept spares, you had to hit the reset and wait a whole minute until the reset was recognized by the pinsetter ! We got done about 45 minutes late ! The league secretary is trying to get our lineage back, because of this situation. We must have had to hit the reset about 50 times ! The girl at the counter stated that they knew abou the problem with that lane ! These things should be taken care of before a league starts, it was happening the day before !

One, the lane guy and mechanic must of screwed up, this was not a sport shot, this was worse. Axewelder (John) bowls with me on this league, and he is a guy that can hook the lane, and his ball was also backing up !

If anyone has a number to a Brunswick rep, for the Northwest Chicagoland area, I would love to talk to him about the malfunnctioning lane, and his inept lane mechanic, who definetly needs a talking to !

This house does not cater to league bowlers, and neither does brunswick, unless you have a birthday party or cosmic bowling ! The league bowler is crap to them, these days !
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Thirtyclean (Well maybe 29, or 28, most of
the times !)

Dan,

You must know that Brunswick doesn't care about real bowlers any more than McDonalds cares about your health.

I'd be interested in hearing if they actually respond.
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Classic Rock and Blues Net Radio

So you didn't have free hook at 37 feet, so what? :-)

What did you shoot on the night?  I'd be interested to see what the league scores were for this week compared to what they were last week and the week before.

Also, lanes break down, things like that happen.  Yes, it should've been taken care of the day before, but maybe they were waiting for a part?
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Andrew Loose

"Technology is anything that's really cool that you don't know how it works, and if it breaks, you have to buy a new one!"

I suspect each house has the responsibility to take care of their own lane pattern... The machine most likely malfunctioned, but again, that's the responsibility of the mechanic to keep it running properly, not corporate Brunswick.


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Lane Carter, Strike Zone Pro Shops - Salt Lake City, Utah
Brunswick Amateur Staff

There are alot of houses that have gone to just a fill shot for league play. Stripping and oiling is becoming a thing of the past for 1st shift!
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Tracy

Bowlingchat.net

Andy,
There is a difference between free hook, and a ball actually backing up at the pocket ! This is either a machine malfunction, or a house lane guy trying to tweek a house shot, without knowing what he is doing ! The previous poster is right sometimes, you have to grin and bear it sometimes. But when you paying about 12.00 out of your weekly fee, to the house, you expect league conditions, to be fair and somewhat consistent. This might not be a Brunswick problem, but the lane guy is working for Brunswick ! The manager works for Brunswick. I bowl four nights a week and I have not seen an insane lane condition in 35 years, except the Peterson. The lefty next to me shot 730. I am 218 average and shot
500 ! Fair is fair ! The three other houses I bowl in are very consistent in there lane maintenance and consistent conditions.

I did buy the excuse that they could be waiting on a part for the 50 resets that we had to endure. The mechanic has a car, and there are numerous Brunswick Zones in the area !

If it was a birthday party or Cosmic bowling, the lanes would of been fixed right away. If the pizza ovens were broken, or the pop dispensing machine, it would have been addressed right away.

The lane mechanic should be making sure that the machine was properely maintained, working, and dont expirement with an insane shot during league play !
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Thirtyclean (Well maybe 29, or 28, most of
the times !)

If you have bowled long enough, you can see some pretty weird things.

I was watching the oil machine before Saturday morning league go up my lane, and the machine popped off its cable and landed in the pit. I'm pretty sure it laid oil out all the way down because that lane was WAY straighter than the other lane on that pair. I kept waiting to hear the overhead pager say "Machine Return on Lane 19. Machine Return on Lane 19." or something like that but it never happened.

About 30 years ago, I bowled a city tournament at Hall of Fame Lanes in Long Beach one year where the condition was so dry, my rock-hard AMF Hugger was in the gutter halfway down the lane on a normal shot. I think I needed a Jubilere ball that day.

Bowled at Java Lanes in Long Beach about 19-20 years ago and they resurfaced the lanes that day but short-oiled them to 24 feet. My urethane equipment hooked right off the lane unless I threw the ball as hard as I could. So the following week, I brought in a hard plastic ball and a hard pearl urethane, only to find that they never stripped the lanes during the entire week. My ball went straight as an arrow through to the pin deck all night.

Let's see, at Plaza Lanes in Long Beach, they used a bug sprayer to oil the lanes, plus they had those overground ball returns that I kicked practically every shot. (NOTE: That's another idea for a PBA Tournament - the Bug Sprayer Open, with lanes oiled using the old sprayers and a wipe. Even better if they could find a house with the overground ball returns.)

Not to mention various times where pinsetters were consistently offsetting the pins and the management wouldn't do anything about it.

Ah yes, the good old days.
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Official Member of the BrunsTrackColumStormHammEboRotoBuzzAMF Nation!

As said worker, let me first of all go and defend my comments, since they were obviously misconstrued.

Apparently the smiley face after my "free hook" comment wasn't enough to warrant taking said comment in a joking, fun manner, rather than the serious manner in which they were taken.

Also, this kind of thing HAS happened before in the very same house, Dan, why do you think that the Grennan Heights league bombed?

And, Dan, have you oiled lanes before?  Can you tell when there's twice, three times as many units on a particular area?  You and I have been bowling for quite some time, is that really something you could expect us to be able to do?  I know I can't...so then do you think the "janitor" lane mechanic can?

If it was a birthday party or Cosmic bowling, they would've moved pairs...if the actual lane itself was broken, which it obviously was since it kept sweeping the second shot.

As for the representing the shop comment, i'll take the high road on that one and just mention that yes, I work in the same shop you do, we work with the same customers, and though I don't go plastering the shop's name all over the site (and neither do you) I do represent the shop, however, because of that, I would venture to guess that approximately 95% of the people on this site (that I post at VERY infrequently by the way) wouldn't associate me with working at a shop.  There's you, and John, and I think that might be it...

If my remarks don't sit well with you and John, that's fine, i'm a big boy and I can handle a little disagreement, but for you to air THAT in a public forum is a little disappointing to me especially since you're getting on ME for airing my opinions in a public forum.
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Andrew Loose

"Technology is anything that's really cool that you don't know how it works, and if it breaks, you have to buy a new one!"