A Nights Lane Part 5 (AAARGHHH)

[bowl1820]

This was a night I was waiting for, we bowled against some more consistent, higher average bowlers. So I could see just how they broke down the lanes and how it affected me.

The other teams averages consisted of a 173m, 205f, 209m and 228m. (the team did also have a 234m ave. bowler but he wasn't there so the 205 was subbing for him.). They played their respective line consistently, with speed and higher rev's.

The nights shot was our basic THS, it seemed a little oilier again. It was a good shot, I should have done better.

While the other teams series were high, their scores fell off as the night wore on. They started off with a 902 scr.game followed by a 831 then a 762 (That's a 140 pin drop from the 1st game).

My teams score stayed pretty much consistent, should have won at least 4 points. But We lost the 1st game by 112 pins, then by 14, then by 2. I cost us at least 4 points there. (our team handicap is 253, so they were spotting us a 161 pins)



Legend:
Blue lines my team
Red lines the other team
Black line "Me"

As you can see from the diagram, everyone was playing the same area down lane. The highlighted area is what would turn into my problem area. To cut to the chase, the corner of the pattern in the highlighted area got destroyed.

As you can see from my score chart, the first two games. While not high scoring as the other team were mostly strikes and single pin leaves.

I had the speed, but just couldn't generate the carry the others did. The third game it was getting so burned up and I couldn't generate the speed needed (I didn't really have a ball to switch too), to over come it even though I moved in.

On the other team, the ones the breakdown affected the most were the 465 and the 655 series lines (173m ave and the 205f Ave.)

The 173 ave started off at a 277 pace, he opened in the 8-9-10 frames for a 202. While the 205 shot 235. they were the reasons I played that line, they were scoring well there and I felt I could play that line okay also. Their rev's made the difference, where I had to have solid hits for strikes. They had more pin action on off hits.

The 173 ave fell way off the last game with a 119 game. The 205 ave dropped to a 194 game. The 3 of us had the same problem, we couldn't control the backend.

I got remember to bring a ball to switch too for when that corner gets tore up.

The Other Teams Scores

Average	Game 1	Game 2	Game 3	Total
173	202	144	119	465
205	235	226	194	655
209	239	215	235	689
229	226	246	214	686
scr total	902	831	762	2495
handicap	92	92	92	276
hdco. total	994	923	854	2771

week29

[Tezza]

Again very interesting.

Doesn't look like it was your best night for 10 pin spares.

[RobLV1]

That area down the line that you have highlighted is the area to which I have long referred as the "Dead Zone," and Joe Sloinski calls "El Diablo." Your last sentence says it all. In a case like this where you can't realistically move left without running into the more powerful players, the only realistic option left is to "ball down" to a less aggressive piece that allows you to move in closer to the inside tracer down the lane to find some hold area.

I often run into this same scenario on Tuesday nights in an "almost scratch" league with an 865 team cap for four bowlers. A typical night for me sees game one with an aggressive ball (Mastermind Scholar or Intellect, or Melee Cross), switching to a Meanstreak Brawler for game two, and often to an LT 48 somewhere in game three. While I rarely have to resort to this many ball changes in senior leagues (even very high average leagues) where most of the players are lower rev and stick to the second arrow, it is common when bowling against the younger high rev players.

[jab5325]

I'm glad I'm lefty!

[RobLV1]

I'm glad I'm lefty!

Enjoy is while you can. Some of the new synthetic oils are moving around so quickly that I've even seen lefties who are alone on a pair having to make more and larger adjustments than ever before to keep up with the pattern.

[jab5325]

Enjoy is while you can. Some of the new synthetic oils are moving around so quickly that I've even seen lefties who are alone on a pair having to make more and larger adjustments than ever before to keep up with the pattern.

I thoroughly enjoy it!

Believe it or not, my Thursday night league has an unusually large number of lefties. Out of 10 four-man teams, there are at least 8 lefties that bowl on a weekly basis. There's another couple who sub occasionally.

One team has 3 alone every week, and when we bowl them, I do have to make quite a few adjustments. However, it's somewhat mitigated by the fact that only 1 of them really plays a line close to me. One of the 3 is a straight bowler, the other somehow manages to take a 4-step approach while throwing the ball to the arrows on his 3rd step.....while the third guy, who throws roughly the same line as me, averages 215 and is a legit good bowler in a cranker style.

In the Wednesday night league I sub in, I don't see too many lefties.

[bowl1820]

That area down the line that you have highlighted is the area to which I have long referred as the "Dead Zone," and Joe Slowinski calls "El Diablo." Your last sentence says it all. In a case like this where you can't realistically move left without running into the more powerful players, the only realistic option left is to "ball down" to a less aggressive piece that allows you to move in closer to the inside tracer down the lane to find some hold area.

El Diablo aka: the dead Zone is spot on, I went back and re-read that article.

I did a overly of our ball paths with one of Joe's examples of El Diablo and yes the highlighted area is right there.



I can say really watching the ball paths and reactions as they play out through the night yourself. Really helps bring it all together with articles like Joe's there.

It also helps when you are playing in a situation that really causes these things to happen the articles talk about and you get to see it first hand. Because the articles a lot of the time are based on how more skilled bowlers bowling together play the lanes, the same areas etc.

Where as for most of us in mixed league play, you have players of many skill levels, playing various lines/areas on a pair of lanes and you don't really see the lanes breaking down exactly the way they do in a lot of the articles. Which makes it hard when you do run into that situation (El Diablo say)