Would a backup ball be necessay on THS alley leagues?

[Hammer]

I have a urethane Blue Hammer that I use for the strike ball and for picking up spares. I never got into getting a plastic ball for spares. Is it necessary to have a backup ball for THS alleys when the oil patterns are usually the same every league night at our house? I can see having a backup ball if you bowl on alleys that have medium or heavy oil. If I was to
get a backup ball how would it be different in layout as compared to my Blue Hammer? Would it be setup to hook later or earlier or setup to play deeper? The deepest I play-being left handed-is with my slide foot arch, which is my right foot,
on board 28. Believe it or not but I can throw my Blue from there and hit between board 5 and 10 and hit the pocket.
That is how dry it is on league night.So what kind of ball would be a good compliment to my Blue and what kind of layout
would it need?

[Tampabaybob]

Well, I just had an answer for you and then lost it because this thing signed me out, so here goes again.

As long as you're not having problems making spares with the Hammer, save your money and don't buy a plastic ball until you feel the need to have one. Chances are you home house THS is a medium oil pattern, so the only need for another ball would be a more aggressive one that you'd use for heavier oil (if you're shooting in tournaments or different houses with longer oil patterns). The benefit of having that type of ball though, is if your home THS shot get's fried, you would have the other ball to go to to play more in the middle (heavier oil).

Check out bowlingball.com's perfect scale for the hammer and see where it falls on that scale. Then decide how much of an aggressive ball you want to go to and look at the numbers of the balls above that of the hammer. You probably don't want to go from mild to wild just yet. Something in a high 190 to a low 200 scale ball. Also, a month or so ago Rob Mautner had a good article on building an arsenal in "Bowling This Month" magazine. If you haven't seen the article let me know and I'll shoot you a copy. (Rob is our age and I think a bit older) If you don't get this magazine, I highly recommend it for any caliber of bowler. It has great info in it every month and everyone that bowls can get something out of it. You can go to the website and get a free copy of next months issue: http://bowlingthismonth.com

[striker12]

if you want a ball that would go down the lane and have a strong move on the backend you could go with a track ball and get your balls drilled for increased length with strong backend on it thats how i got all my bowling balls drilled and i can make them hook perfectly on any oil just depends on how deep i have to play.


but a nice ball would be eather a 300C or a 508A or a503C something that has polish on it. but mostly go for a track ball that has a C on it because it will go down the lane more.


all 3 of thease balls here are ment for medium- dry lane conditions

[Tampabaybob]

Hammer... Hope you got the pm I sent you. Sorry about having to break it into thirds but this site will only let you do 5000 characters at a time. Hope the article helps you decide on a backup ball.

[billf]

Given that your ball works at your home center and the shot doesn't change week to week and you can convert your spares with Blue, I wouldn't worry about another ball.
Now if you want to alter your line or style then that's a different story.

[Hammer]

Hammer... Hope you got the pm I sent you. Sorry about having to break it into thirds but this site will only let you do 5000 characters at a time. Hope the article helps you decide on a backup ball.

When you talked about BTM in another post back in November or December I decided to call for a free copy sample and got the January
issue with that article in it. Then as luck would have it my daughters asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I told them a subscription to Bowling This Month magazine. As far as a backup ball on league night I can play my Blue with my slide foot on board 28
and getting the break point between boards 5 and 10. The backup would have to play more straight up the boards. Maybe my slide foot
arch on board 16 and throwing over board 5. Sounds dangerously close to the gutter but I use to play my strike ball over board 5 for a long time when I had my old Blue Hammer. On certain league nights that aren't so dry I can usually throw my Blue with the arch of my slide foot on boards anywhere from 16 to 20. So the Blue is pretty versatile depending on lane conditions for the night. Maybe I don't need a backup ball.