First time playing old wooden lanes

[ackwdw123]

Hi Everyone, I played in a tournament this past weekend on some very old wooden lanes. One observation was the pin reaction, or lack of. I noticed how the 3 of us, who have never played together or even known each other, hit the pocket and the pins fell weird. There was very little carry regardless of left or right handed. First game was 70 pins under average for me, and 50 for the guy I was playing with. I made a ball change (Optimus to Crux) and moved from 2nd to 3rd arrow and recovered with 50 pins over my average 2nd game. The guy I was bowling with made a comment about the pins possibly being older than I am. So my question is what might some symptoms be of pins used way beyond their life span look like? Also, for anyone still playing on all wood lanes, is there a better way to play these or is playing tighter a decent plan of attack?

[Amyers]

Wood lanes and the oil patterns vary just like synthetics so there is no one fits all solution to playing them. I bowl in tow different houses that have wood lanes and they both play vary differently. Wood lane houses tend to be older than synthetic houses some are well maintained and others not so much. It could be the pins were old or it could be that the sidewalls were older and reflected the pins back on to the lanes less you are accustomed too. One of the houses I bowled out in the past that had wood lanes I averaged almost ten pins less on them than any where else to the fact that they had just used carpet on the sidewalls so you got much less pin action there. I generally think staying straighter and playing more arcing rather skid flip balls is your best bet but one of the wood lane centers I bowl at regularly scores high and if you don't generate angle your not going to score.

[BrianG]

The house I bowl at has wooden lanes and I have bowled there for a long time. Whenever I go to a synthetic house I do feel like a get better carry but that could just be in my head. I've played at a couple different wood houses and they all played completely different from one another. I think a lot of it has to do with how well maintained the lanes are. My house resurfaces the lanes every 3 or 5 years and gets new pins every 2 years I believe. When you go into a new house you should be prepared to make multiple adjustments quickly in practice to find the line that will work best instead of forcing a line that you are comfortable with.

[BrianG]

Amyers I have the same issue with the sidewalls. They don't have carpet on them but they are pretty beat up. It's rare to get a messenger to take out the ten pin unless you can throw it 20mph.

[Amyers]

Amyers I have the same issue with the sidewalls. They don't have carpet on them but they are pretty beat up. It's rare to get a messenger to take out the ten pin unless you can throw it 20mph.

I grew up bowling on those lanes and never really could figure out what the difference was the wood was very well maintained and the oil patterns were fair but the scoring was low. When they were ripping out the wood to put the synthetics in I was there and seen them carrying out the old sidewalls which were covered with gray and black indoor/outdoor carpet like people used to put on their porches then I understood lol. We didn't have speed monitors back then but I had a teammate who threw it at least 18mph and even he couldn't get a messenger.

[BrianG]

Haha that's crazy. I wonder if they just thought it was a cheap alternative instead of repairing or replacing them.

[Amyers]

Haha that's crazy. I wonder if they just thought it was a cheap alternative instead of repairing or replacing them.

I'm sure it was a money thing they had planned on replacing the wood for a couple of years before they did it and wanted to do it all at one time. So I guess the carpet was a stop gap. Bowling center owners seemed to think differently back in those days at least around here. The object was to make the bowlers really work for an honor score if you had too many in one year they frowned upon that of course it was easier to be that way when you have a waiting list to join a league.

[fordman1]

I remember the old days when I learned to bowl it was on wood lanes and everyone had plastic or rubber balls. The bowlers who hooked or curved the ball threw it slow. If you threw the ball hard it was pretty much a straight ball it never broke into a roll. Messengers were few and far between.

[ackwdw123]

Thanks for the info, and the 'no messenger' is spot-on, didn't see any of those. I wish I had made the ball change sooner, just couldn't recover from being 70 pins down in the first game. Famous last words. I enjoyed the challenge from this house, unfortunately the for sale sign on the outside of the building isn't too promising for another tournament at the house.

[got_a_300]

Back in the late 80's to 2001 our center had wood lanes and talk about
having virtually no messengers to take out the 10 pin and 7 pins man we
didn't have hardly any of them at all.

If you bowled an honor score back then you earned it but I do have to say
I bowled a lot better back then on the old wood lanes and that's when I
bowled all of my 300 games and now days I just about hate to go bowl on
the synthetic lanes we have now days.