Ebonite man

Decided to go with the Ebonite equipment to start this season based on the end of last year's good performance. The lanes were oiled and stripped fresh so the thinking was to start with the Big One which picks up the roll a bit earlier than the NVS or NV. This was obviously not going to work as every ball kept coming in light. Switched to the NVS with a slower ball speed straight up 6 board. This ball also came in light, but was at least getting light hit swishers. Last season, not a single 7-10 split was left during the last 8 weeks. Tonight made up for that drought big time. Left 3 in the first game alone, all on decent light hits. Guess the entry angle was just too weak to consistently carry the light hit. Didn't want to waffle between new and old equipment, but it looks like I will need to use the Mutant Cell early on to get a stronger backend reaction and avoid this problem. The final 7-10 tally on the night was 4, and considering this, scoring was not too bad with a 588. Shooting 7 pins were also an issue as the heavier oil led to skidding by 2 on the night. Once the heads start to transition, a switch to the NVS will most likely do the trick. Alot of the big guns in my league struggled with ball reaction and scoring overall was quite low for the first night. Only 1 guy managed to shoot better than 6 in the league. The pair I was on had previously been a fairly high scoring pair (31-32), but I think all the scouting reports will need to be thrown out. The same general pattern with the left lane being tighter was still there, though. All in all, starting a bit on the low side at 196 is not out of the ordinary. It usually takes me about 4-5 weeks to really get back into a comfort zone. Don't know what pair awaits next week, but I think trying the straight up 6 line is a good starting point.