ungreatful league bowlers, they want easy, pristine conditions, and a lower rate than open bowlers.
Anyone ever play in a league that doesn't oil pre-league?
I showed up early to league tonight and there was a guy practicing on our lanes. My concern was that:
A) If he was an opponent, he's not allowed to practice on the same lanes he is going to bowl on before league play.
B) He's messing up the lanes for my team by playing on freshly oiled lanes.
So I go to the front desk and ask if they have free practice lanes. He said I have time for one game. I asked if they were going to oil them then and he said they already oiled. I then asked why a guy (and others) was bowling on them if they were oiled for league…and he replied; "They don't oil them before league anymore. They just put a lot of oil down in the morning and thats it…once per day."
I was kinda taken back my that. I mean, okay, the temperatures are cooling down…so less evaporation. School is back in session so less kids during the day. But on Tuesday,s I think there is a small league in the morning and a small league in the afternoon. If those lanes are only oiled in the morning….and are flooded…then the 9:30AM league must have a HELL of a time…and then those lanes are bowled on ALL DAY…primarily house balls pushing the oil further down the lane…so by the time the 30-team Tuesday league comes in…they are playing on some kind of hybrid longer pattern and everybody is probably playing on different patterns.
I tried to consult the USBC Rulebook but found virtually nothing on lane surfaces or a requirement for a fresh pattern. It boggles my mind that it would be perfectly okay to have a house run a league and not have at least a uniform pattern from lane to lane.
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ungreatful league bowlers, they want easy, pristine conditions, and a lower rate than open bowlers.
Thats how one of the houses here is. Best case scenario he puts down the oil the afternoon the same day. But the lanes can be pretty difficult at that house sometimes, even though it's a "THS". There's a reason there hasn't been a 300 there in 2.5 years....
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City League Average: 186.5
WTBA Sport pattern League Average: 172.9
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John
The house that I usually bowl in oils every afternoon before the evening leagues start. Except for when the leagues take up all 56 lanes, they keep open bowlers off the fresh oil. I think that they might also oil before they open in the morning for the senior/daytime leagues. They do however have at least 4 leagues that start around 9:00p.m. after the early evening leagues. These late leagues get no fresh oil. I bowl in one of these and basically you get used to the condition. In fact there have been a number of bowlers in the league who struggle on those rare occasions when, for some reason, the other league hasn't bowled on one of our pairs. There is also a situation where a small 4:00p.m. league precedes a large 6:30p.m. league. In this case, since the 4 o'clock league is mostly social bowlers who throw plastic, six teams face a rather unpredictable lane condition while everyone else is shooting on fresh oil.
John
The league I bowl in doesn't oil very often. We bowl Fridays at 1 o'clock and they oil Friday morning or maybe Thursday night. The lanes are usually pretty dry but we were told "it's the same for everyone". There's a good house 45 minutes away but this one is only 15 minutes so I stay there.
My alley is pretty good about oiling the lanes before leagues, Ed will oil
The lanes 2-3 hours before league and won't let anyone on them, usually there are a few lanes extra for open bowling. (Unless there's 2 or more leagues going at once)
It's not in the Rule book, it's in the Equipment & Spec. manual. Technically the house isn't required to oil the lanes at all, just if they do there has to be a minimum of three units of oil.
For those that want to know:
"A "unit" of oil is defined by the American Bowling Congress (ABC) and Women's International Bowling Congress (WIBC) as 0.0167 cubic centimeters of oil evenly spread over a 1 sq. ft. surface, which equates to a film of oil about 7 millionths of an inch thick."
Example: a piece of typing paper is about 400 units thick.
Last edited by bowl1820; 11-12-2014 at 09:36 AM.
Right handed Stroker, high track ,about 13 degree axis tilt. PAP is located 5 9/16” over 1 3/4” up.Speed ave. about 14 mph at the pins. Medium rev’s.High Game 300, High series 798
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The leagues I bowl in now both oil before league begins, but I did bowl in a league in which we were second squad. It was probably one of my favorite leagues to bowl in - you show up and have no idea how the pattern was broken down and the lanes could change very quickly. It was nice to show up and actually have to read the lanes when you arrived if you were going to score well.
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