I just got back from our women's state tournament, and it was one of the most enlightening experiences of my bowling career to date.

First off, it was a horrible, dingy, dirty old house.  The lane surface intrigued me.  I've heard rumors of an "overlay" sort of thing, but this was my first experience with it.  The lane foundation was reportedly old wood, but there was some sort of plastic overlay applied to it.  It looked like nothing I've ever seen before, and I've bowled in more than 100 houses since taking up the game three years ago.  The surface of the first pair we bowled on was even curling up at the edges near the foul line!  Is this "overlay" thing used in many houses?  Does anyone else bowl on something similiar?

Now for the enlightening part ... We bowled the first set on fresh oil.  As practice started, one of the husbands with us pointed out that the path of every ball thrown could be seen all the way down the lane.  Yep, the oil moved out of the way, and you could watch your ball track the whole distance.  Since I was the only one bowling the left side, I was able to study multiple shots by looking at how the tracks differed.  I discovered that I am very accurate at the arrows ... less than half a board difference over a whole game.  I was also able to see how my hand position changed the way the ball rolled from shot to shot.  About 45 feet down the lane, a good hand position had the ball driving into the pocket, while a lazy shot would break a few feet farther down the lane never making it to the pocket and a pulled or over-rotated shot would break at around 30 feet and fly past the head pin.

If I lived closer to this place I'd bowl in this horrible house just to practice repeating proper hand positions.  What a great learning tool!

We bowl D/S the first day and team the second day.  My partner and I are currently in first place in our division with a 60+ pin lead over second place.  This is likely to change since there are three more weekends to go.  Guess we'll see what happens.

Anyway, just wanted to see if anyone else has had experience with these types of lanes and to let you all know how the tournament went for me.

Deb

<sigh>  I really hope that your comment wasn't meant to be sarcastic, stanski, or I've possibly just made my last post.

I'm not a great bowler.  In fact, I'm average or below for a woman.  Hitting a mark 12 feet away isn't that difficult.  It's a consistent release and knowing how and when to make changes to all sorts of things that make a good bowler.  Those elements are what I lack.  I thought I made it clear in my post that it was easy to see my mistakes.

Regardless of my talent for the game, I take it seriously and work hard to improve.  I was trying to share my experience with this lane surface and the tournament.  I was amazed, myself, to see where my ball crossed at the arrows and how consistent it was.  I have no deluded fantasies that I'll ever be a scratch bowler or good enough to be anything other than a league player who enjoys tournaments for the experience.  I'll likely always be a prize fund donator.

My apologies if my post sounded like I was on some sort of ego trip.

Deb

Yep, as TrimMan said, the 'overlay' is called 'Guardian'.

It's a common and a cheap way to protect wood lane, usually they are put down from the foul line to 15 (ish) feet.

IMO, well-maintained wood lanes with 'Guardian' front are some of the easiest scoring lane surface, providing the lane men know what they are doing.

If there is enough head oil is put down, it takes no effort to feed the ball to the right!  My favorite.
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The Angry Bowler