I had planned to use this summer league to work on becoming more consistent without worrying about my average. For the most part, so far, so good. I stopped trying to force myself to do too many different things and just concentrate on locking in one approach, getting my delivery and body in sync, and repetition. I've finally gotten to where I don't have to worry about mechanics too much... well as much as possible for recreational bowler!

The downside is that the lane conditions have been a mess! The back-ends have been very inconsistent, a couple of bowlers (whose opinion I trust) have described it as "squirrelly". The first game of the set goes fine, after that, they are fried. Since I don't throw enough revs to overpower the lanes and don't have an arsenal to choose from, I have been pulling my hair out. I have manged to maintain a mid-190 average, but my 3 game scores are all over the place.

Last week was particularly bad, going from a 230 to a 140 back to 190. Moving inside and staying inside of 10 was dicey at best, if I missed right the ball would not come back. If it did, it dove high or would washout. Trying to increase my speed and playing to 7 was worse, I couldn't keep the ball right of the headpin. The last game I said "what the heck" and threw my White Dot straight up 5. Nice... consistent line and reaction, couldn't miss the pocket! Pretty bad when a plastic ball drilled to go dead straight moves 10 boards. So this week I left my Cell Pearl in the bag and only threw the White Dot... 600 series and a low game of 195... go figure!

Sorry for the rant/post, but it's beyond frustrating to throw 2 seemingly identical shots and get 2 drastically different results. I do know that there is going to be a different result missing 1/2 board or a minor speed variation... no excuses there. But I don't throw 400+ revs @ 20 MPH, you miss and there's liable to be a mess LOL. I would expect with my rev rate and speed (or lack thereof) something where I go "yeah, I deserved that", not "holy [censored] I've never seen THAT left before!"

Most centers don't take very good care of the lanes during the summer so they can save money. Once the winter leagues start the centers will put more oil on the lanes and bring out the better pins. Most of the larger winter leagues will complain and threaten to go elsewhere if conditions aren't up to par.

Sounds like you were bowling on really fried lanes which can be frustrating when trying to use reactive equipment. With bowling sometimes you need a short memory when it comes to bad games and move on. Sooner or later at all levels we have that bad game/night which comes around.

I wonder just how much the lanes are saving? The laneman is still on the payroll, and is paid whether he oils or not. So, how much is 24 units of oil, per lane?

If anyone has a clue, please inform us.

I wonder myself. Being cheap with oil just keeps the more serious bowlers with reactive equipment away. Currently I'm driving about 30 minutes out of my way to bowl because the center near me is being cheap with oil, pins and air conditioning. Nothing like bowling on dry lanes with broken pins while sweating and sticking in the ball - good times.

I think we figured this out one day. Its about $6/lane each time you run the machine. In oil. Not in electricity and labor, you have to add that on.

Thanks, always wondered what just the oil/lane cost. The cost of electricity around here is ~16 cents a kilowatt hour. So if the machine uses a 1kw and runs an hour that would be $.16 and the labor is already there anyway.

Wow, $6 per lane!! At 40 lanes in my main house, that is $240 per day. I see now. I know the lanes are usually under $800 gross per day for open bowling, without leagues. And, a third of that comes from shoe rental at $3.79.

Daily bowling at this center is $1.29 per game before 6 pm. They pay as much for shoes as they do for bowling 3 games.

Dennis, and you also have to remember that some houses (my local house) oil once in the morning and then again before league starts. I am in a 40 lane center as well so at roughly $6 a lane to oil, twice a day that comes out to $480 dollars. Not cheap by any stretch of the imagination so if you figure if the center cut the oil volume in half, that is a savings of $240 for my local center (they do not change to light volume in summer) or $120 for you center if they are only oiling once a day.

Insane to think that the oiling for league costs that much money.

At practice yesterday morning, we had bowlers walk off the lanes because they didn't think there was enough oil. The lanes had not been bowled on when the lanes opened at 9 am. Yet, you could see ball marks where the balls had dropped on the lane about a foot from the ball line.

The manager walked down the lanes and looked from the pin deck down, and said there was oil. He wouldn't let anyone else walk down, to see if carry down tracks were left.

Supposedly, the lanes are oiled in the morning, as there are leagues using 20 lanes, at 9:30. My bet was they only oiled the 20 league lanes being used. Normally, there is oil on all 40.

So, they saved some oiling money, but lost some open bowling money.

The unfortunate thing is straight ball, house ball bowlers would not know this. Only the better bowlers are being hurt.

BTW, I stayed for 4 games and shot 830. I did find the shot inconsistent. But, was able to carry for 1 game, 21?, 23?, 190, 190. Don't really look at scores.

Nice to see that it's a widespread issue, not just an evil plot to mess with my head
I'm sure most houses have to do whatever they can to maintain some sort of profitability in this economy. Our house has 99 cent bowling all morning followed by Cosmic bowling foe the better part of the afternoon. All 48 lanes were full from 9 thru noon, and probably 2/3 full when I left. The upside is they are making money during the weekend, which helps offset the weekday lulls. It could be worse, at least they can keep the doors open rather than shut down like a lot of houses.
I'll tell myself that the next time I'm bowling on an abralon pad LOL