Years ago I was over at Orange bowl in Lakeland for a tournament, old wood lanes with old guardian overlay. Those lanes were toast, I was using my plastic ball after the first few frames.
Dry Lanes.. Whats your worst story?
So, what's the worst lanes you have bowled on with respect to dry conditions?
The worst I have ever had was when I was really getting into bowling about 12-15 years ago. I bowled at a wood house center and they were known for not oiling the lanes. Went in for league one night and apparently they hadn't oiled that week.. yes week lol... first indication of this was the ball making the turn left shortly after the heads. Finished the night going back to true beginner style and just going straight down the middle.
My worst in recent times was this past weekend at a tournament in Orlando area. It was a multi day tournament with 2.5 days of qualifying and the finals being sunday evening. They had 4 qualifying blocks Sunday morning with 5 bowlers per set of lanes. By the time the finals started, they were running behind and didn't have time to reoil. At the start of the finals there set of lanes had 60 games on them (5 bowlers, 3 games each, and 4 squads). Needless to say there wasn't much of a shot left. It started as the PBA Chameleon pattern.
Years ago I was over at Orange bowl in Lakeland for a tournament, old wood lanes with old guardian overlay. Those lanes were toast, I was using my plastic ball after the first few frames.
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
"Talent without training is nothing." Luke Skywalker
In the mid 70's I bowled a Junior College tournament at The Bowling Center of Riverside. They were dry, if there was oil there was no evidence on the balls when they came back. I actually won the singles by "suitcasing" the ball and pushing it down the lane. One of the guys on the opposing team was my teammate the next year at CSUF. We got to talking about that tournament one day and he mentioned that his one teammate asked "How is he doing that?" referring to me.
Funniest dry lane bowling I ever saw was at the Pro Tour Qualifier (Rabbit) at the Gable House in the early 80's. They were dry and the late Jeff Mattingly threw his first ball and it immediately hooked left and rolled out. He kind of had a wry laugh at it. He was a fairly large guy and he used to shovel the ball on the lane and got a lot of revs and a lot of hook and did well when there was a lot of oil on the lanes. By the second game he was doing so poorly he plugged in a pinball machine and started playing that between shots. He said he didn't care if they fined him or not.
I'm in vacation in San Antonio and visited a Bowlero. My first tip that it wasn't going to have oiled lanes was the fact that when I called they said they don't have leagues but just open bowling. My guess is they probably oil once a week if even that. So went there and brought my Cyclone with me. Basicallly stood at left gutter and threw towards right gutter to even have a chance at the pocket. Otherwise if your ball was anywhere towards the center of the lane it was going to slide into the left gutter. After three games I didn't see a single oil streak on my ball
Place where I bowl at here in NW Ohio, they only oil the lanes once a week. So I never see oil on the ball. I usually either have to go hard and straight or back-up bowl to hit the pocket.
one night for mixed league with a THS
the teens oiling the lanes weren't paying attention with the machine and didn't set the drum in correctly
so the machine went down, cleaned and striped correctly, but dumped all the oil on the outside 8 board
the right lane they oiled correctly
ball hooked as soon as it hit the lane inside 8, 8 and out it skidded to 38' then snapped hard left if it didn't skid off the lane first
Beyond Revs Pro Shop Staffer. West Valley and Riverton, Utah.
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I wasn't there but saw on TV a tournament in Reno it was outside and the had a sand storm. It should have been canceled but it wasn't. You could actually see the track of the ball where it picked up the sand. It was crazy.
That reminded me of another time where the center got a new oil machine and put oil in the cleaner, and cleaner in the oil tanks.Originally Posted by LyalC52
Bowled at one of the local AMF's today and midway through the first game was standing left of 20 and throwing my plastic spare ball. It's disgraceful!
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Had a league night after the ownership changed at the center. Lane machine had a malfunction and stripped the lanes but never put down a drop of oil. New owner never noticed, but when practice started, it was obvious.
Well, he said he didn't have time to figure out what happened and get the lanes oiled for the night. So everyone bowled on wood lanes with no oil. Funny thing was the high game was a 280, bowled by my teammate, with mostly Brooklyn strikes.
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