Ebonite man

Had the league preseason meeting followed by a free practice session on the new lane surface. Brought both Ebonite and new equipment to see what was the difference in reaction. Started throwing the Storm and something about the pitch didn't seem right. Couldn't get real good lift unless I cupped the ball-- an unexpected fly in the ointment. Even with a fairly weak release throwing the Storm, the ball reaction was very clean and both lanes played almost identical. Switched to the Ebonite Big One the second game and felt much better about the release and revs. Ball reaction was quite good, even for this older ball, and the result was a 234. Bowled with a guy in my league who plays the same area of the lane, so it was interesting to see that the lanes did not transition until the 3rd game. When the transistion started, it was very abrupt on the left lane while the right lane seemed to hold up quite a bit longer. Had to move 5 boards left on the approach and a move 3 boards left with the target. Still was throwing the Big One through the 3rd game and had a 214. I decided to continue alone for another 3 games and the shot started to break down on both lanes. The heads were drying up and went back to the Virtual Energy at this point. With the weaker release and more skid through the heads, this ball worked very well the rest of the way and finished game 6 with a 7 bagger. I wasn't as concerned about scoring the last 3 games as I was doing quite a bit of experimentation, and even though the shot initially was very nice, the abruptness of the transition is disturbing. Hope the lanes don't behave this way during league, but I'll bet if there is alot of play in the same area of the lane, it wouldn't be a surprise. I may stick with the Ebonite arsenal right out of the gate this year and leave the Storm and Roto Grip in reserve. Got to figure out why I can't seem to get a strong release with these and may have to get them plugged and redrilled if the pitch is indeed way off. This year I won't be waffling between the Ebonite and new stuff like last year. This will hopefully get me off to a better start than last season-- don't want to be accused of sandbagging!