Have two questions regarding the same situation...will post the other in the miscellaneous section.
Had a dispute with the owner of the establishment that was the home house for our traveling squad. There's a very old local house that someone is attempting to re-open, so we moved our team there to both get away from the other proprietor and to help out the guy attempting to salvage the old place, even though none of us had bowled there in 25 years. (Yeah, I know, most of you probably weren't even born then.)
So, we show up the first night not knowing what kind of shot we'll have and find that the guy's conditioning machine is as old as the house. Long story short -- there's practically no oil on the lanes at all. Strike that, the lanes are essentially a prototypical reverse block. No one could keep their ball on the right side of the head pin if they threw anything inside the 10 board. And outside of that -- the ball absolutely would not move. I generally carry a green Gargoyle and an orange/black Ogre, and use a weakly-drilled Insite Prophesy as a spare ball. Spent a good part of the evening attempting to finesse the transition area around the 10 board. Eventually gave up and threw a straight ball to the pocket. Out team lead the league in average last year, generally throwing somewhere around a 3100 in a THS. We threw a 2300, and took two of three games and the series. The proprietor says he can't do much with the shot, so that's what we can expect the rest of the year. So...
I had all intentions of replacing my Gargoyle with an SS Ogre. I'm pretty sure, though that the SS will be way to strong a ball for this condition. I seriously doubt I'll be able to get it far enough down the lane no matter how far left I move. That said, I'm debating whether to now purchase a green/blue Centaur and take it to 1400 or so, or to attempt to find a slate blue Gargoyle. Alternatively (sorry, Jason) I could go with a plastic ball, perhaps pick up a White Dot.
Suggestions?
