When you find out the real story on the house shot

[Tony]

I have bowled at the same place a number of years and was always told that certain leagues had different versions of house shot applied.

Experienced and accomplished bowlers who played in many different leagues were insistent this league or that league had a longer / shorter/ heavier / lighter pattern.

The conversation came up again on my Friday league about who and what leagues had more oil, except this league has the center owner, GM, Counter mgr, and head mechanic bowling in the league, the GM said flat out they put the exact same house shot out for every league, and still guys argued it was different because of the guy putting it down or handling the maintenance on the oil machine or the machine itself.
Upon further conversation the machine is only a couple years old, they purchased it and another machine from the womans tour when they came for a season end tournament and were getting new ones, the machine is serviced, adjusted, setup, and maintained by one guy and the other guys just fill it with the oil he has prepared for them and run it down the lanes. So they have controlled as much as possible everything except conditions like weather, humidity, and temperature.
Even with all that, the way the lanes play from league to league or night to night still seems a little different, I guess the uncontrolled environmental conditions really make a difference.

Now it makes even less sense that sometimes on fresh oil the ball reaction from the same ball thrown in the same place can be so different.

[Amyers]

Could it be that your bowling on different sets for each league. Even though the oil pattern being put down for each league maybe the same the lanes you are bowling are not.

[Sche3067]

the pairs are all playing different. In my house 1/2 are vastly different from 3/4 and 5/6.

[1VegasBowler]

The topography is a factor that nobody considers either.

No 2 lanes will be identical at any time, especially over time. While they may look flat to the naked eye, there are peaks and valleys that you cannot see. And given the fact the USBC specifications has an allowable range for this, you'd be surprised at what's out there.

[Tony]

Could it be that your bowling on different sets for each league. Even though the oil pattern being put down for each league maybe the same the lanes you are bowling are not.

That can be true in some instances because the one league is much larger, so even though we bowl at the same end of the house we only use the first 12 lanes in one league while we use the first 20 plus in the other. There are some difference in the lanes pair to pair, they have kept the stats over the years and there is one pair of lanes that outscores the others consistently over the years.
For my own case it doesn't matter that much, I'm a much bigger cause of my own bowling problems that any of these lanes are .....

[LOUVIT]

well honestly when I was 17 real long time ago I was the the guy that oiled the lanes and repaired them, there were no machines that did it, so guess what lanes had no or little oil back in the day. remember that was plastic and wood and we were cankers....

[1VegasBowler]

well honestly when I was 17 real long time ago I was the the guy that oiled the lanes and repaired them, there were no machines that did it, so guess what lanes had no or little oil back in the day. remember that was plastic and wood and we were cankers....

Since I have no idea how old you are, in the days of wood lanes and oil were more about protecting the wood than anything else.

Today's urethane lanes hold up much better, hence the multitude of oil patterns.

And yes, I do remember when you had 2 choices of bowling balls. It was either rubber or plastic..lol

[RobLV1]

Synthetic lanes started being used about 25-30 years ago. As they started to wear out, they were covered by synthetic "overlays." The overlays just picked up the depressions and bumps from generation one, and magnified them. We getting ready to start on generation three. Does anyone really believe it's going to get better?

[bowl1820]

Synthetic lanes started being used about 25-30 years ago. As they started to wear out, they were covered by synthetic "overlays." The overlays just picked up the depressions and bumps from generation one, and magnified them. We getting ready to start on generation three. Does anyone really believe it's going to get better?

I've seen old wood lanes have overlays like the "Guardian Overlay" placed on them or had synthetic lane panels placed on them And yes if the lanes were not cut down properly beforehand the depressions would come through.

But I don't think ever I seen a synthetic lane have a Overlay placed on it or have new synthetic panels placed on top of the old ones though.

[RobLV1]

Come to Gold Coast in Las Vegas. Original synthetics: 1988. Overlays; 2002. This is according to someone who, for sure knows, but I won't name to avoid getting him in trouble.

[billf]

End lanes near outside walls will always play different. USBC specification for flatness is .040" for every forty inches. So if there is a depression of .040" at inch two and a peak of .040" further down the end reading is...... .0.00". Flat by spec but truly not the case.

If the lanes are old and/or the local association doesn't really check them then they may not be anywhere close to spec. We needed new lanes for at least five years. Being the only center in the county the association was left with the choice of looking the other way or not having a place for members to bowl. All the counties next to us have their own associations. I was lied to about this for years until I was elected to the association board.

[Amyers]

End lanes near outside walls will always play different. USBC specification for flatness is .040" for every forty inches. So if there is a depression of .040" at inch two and a peak of .040" further down the end reading is...... .0.00". Flat by spec but truly not the case.

If the lanes are old and/or the local association doesn't really check them then they may not be anywhere close to spec. We needed new lanes for at least five years. Being the only center in the county the association was left with the choice of looking the other way or not having a place for members to bowl. All the counties next to us have their own associations. I was lied to about this for years until I was elected to the association board.

And there comes the rub. It's easy to sit here and type on a key board that all lanes should be checked for topography at least every couple of years with a surface scanner and if they need repaired which I think any of us that spends a significant amount of time in bowling alleys know the answer too should be repaired. The down side to this and why it can't happen is that pretty quickly we wouldn't have anywhere left to bowl at least here anyway.

[okfoz]

I have been told that lanes will have a memory... Where I bowl they will put down any oil pattern you want for $5.00 for the pair, you just have to call ahead to have it ready for when you get there, and it has to be when the lanes are available. As it turns out, there are 48 lanes, and 99% of the time lanes 1/2 or 47/48 are the only lanes that get the sport shot, unless there is a sport shot league.

Interestingly Lanes 1/2 and 47/48 are the toughest lanes in the house, they never seem to bowl quite the same as 3-46. Even though the lanes are reconditioned before every league with fresh oil, and the vacuum is supposed to remove all the old oil and put down new, there has to be to some degree of memory left over from the previous sport shot. The shot holds up for a while, but when it goes away, it does so differently than the rest of the house.

John

[okfoz]

Dbl Post

[JaxBowlingGuy]

There is a "memory" of the shot. If you go to multi day sport shot tournaments it's likely (but not always) the scores are at its highest at the beginning. To get a "true" shot the pattern has to be laid 2-3 times.

As for the end pair being the hardest, it could be that they are not burning a pair when they oil thus the pattern they are laying (even if house pattern) isn't truly the same as the other lanes. My center and most locally will oil the first two lanes, then start over and oil them all.

[RobLV1]

Historically, end pairs play significantly different than any other pairs in the house. I believe that it's a combination of factors that cause this: end pairs usually get let play, they are oiled either first or last, they often have a walkway next to them with people walking by and stirring up the air, and they often get hit with extra air conditioning as the air circulates, changes direction, and hits them again.