Having just bowled the VMSBT event at US bowl this past Sunday, I will agree that the lanes and approaches are great, especially the textured approaches. However, the place still needs a lot of improvement. I doubt that 5-10 minutes went by without a service call during the 6 games. Anything from racks dropping pins, not setting a full rack, 180s, scoring problems, etc. Those who were there can blame me for the announcement about not putting towels, etc on the monitors (which was promptly ignored).
On top of that, at the end of 6 games, my left hand (I wear a glove on the right) was almost black from all of the dirt and crap my ball picked up from the lanes and ball return. Until they take care of the machines, I'm not sure if I'll bowl there again. The ONLY reason I was there this past week was because of the new lanes. Had the old wood been there, I would not have set foot in the place.
Yes they have had PBA reagionals there, I was at he last ow SR Regionals there, and the general consenus afer the last one was never again.
As for the other two places, Bowl America Shirley is almost always a high scoring shootout, and it's been a few years since I've been in AMF Annandale, but I think it's like any oher AMF house.
Colin
