Well the kiddo and I had a nice outing this past Sunday! We've only lost one game so far out of 12, so we're doing well there. First game he bowls a 122 followed by my 179. Second game he bowls lights out in the 10th for a 132 followed by my 192. I had to breakdown and start throwing my spare ball as the lanes were drier than a camels mouth after eight days in the desert... Everything I used just ended up grabbing too early and rolling through Brooklyn. Though I made the decision a little late, I still had a nice finish. Hope everyone had a nice and safe Memorial Day weekend, and thanks to all the Vets!

the lanes were drier than a camels mouth after eight days in the desert

I like that analogy.

LOL I hoped someone would!

Well one last chance at the Shark tonight. I have not been very consistant on this pattern, its hit or miss (mostly miss)so far. I am going to try a different approach tonight, taking a few pearl balls ( particle and reactive) with me and shining up my BW Bite to the OOB finish of 4000 abralon. Its at 2000 now and breaking a little early.
It should help that my left hand is almost back to the normal size after last weeks incident with the cat. Looking forward to the challenge, and hopefully finding out next weeks pattern so I can do some homework.

I pre-bowled for this past Tuesday since I was just getting back from Nationals. I got a text yesterday morning from one of my teammates. He is a good bowler but hasn't bought a ball in about 8 years or so. He is currently throwing a Thunder Storm and a Trauma Response. He is having problems once the lanes start to break down. It was the Cheetah the past 2 weeks. Once we start getting into the longer patterns, he is going to start having even more problems. We were talking in the chat room about what he should get. I was thinking 2 balls. 1 drilled to roll up early, 1 drilled up to roll late. I was thinking a Cell and a Gravity Shift. A few of the guys there suggested 2 Cells. Any thoughts?

Boy I wish I had the money to have joined a PBA Exp. league this summer. Oh well, hopefully things will work out for next summer! For now I'll just stick to practice and the adult/youth league.

Eraser, I found the Shark to be more consistent then the Viper or Cheetah. The problem I found was that it magnified my own inconsistencies. I rarely rolled two balls the same, and I suffered because of that. A minor difference in speed, or rotation created some very interesting results.

My conclusion: It wasn't the ball. It was me.

Two Cells might not be a bad idea, you can make those things very versatile with the different drilling patterns. I found out how well my Cell does, on Monday, when put through a lot of oil and a longer pattern! I have mine drilled for max hook. Even though I was a bit squirty with my accuracy, it still did well at sniffing out the pocket. My coach knows a guy that had six different Cells drilled up lol...

Last night, the lanes were oiled in a reverse pattern, and buffed to the pin deck. Really don't know what that means, but that is what I was told.

What I found was more slide in the back corners than normal. Strike balls couldn't complete the axis of rotation and were hitting flat. Had to play the extreme outside. That caused single pin leaves.

Then, when I left a 7 pin, there was absolutely no friction in the left rear corner. I missed 4 in the second game, sliding to the right each time. I was afraid that I would go past the 7, so I kept moving right to hook into it, and it never happened.

We all applauded when one of us finally picked one up.

Games: 218, 157 (7 pin misses), 207 and 200.

One of our bowlers had to quit for family reasons, so we bowled a man short, and gave away 30 pins in cap. Got killed when two of the opponents rolled over 900 for the set.

We are solidly in last place after 3 weeks.

Need a bowler, fast.

Dennis,
I am coming to believe that my trouble with the Shark is also me.
Last week I just plain missed everything, I was not focused at all. The week before I did a little better, actually stringing a few strikes together. I found that if I slowed my ball speed down just a tad, I had a better look. The trick was staying at a consistant speed. After I struck a few times it seems I would get a little amped up and started to jack up the speed, resulting in not so great shots.

Its a work in progress. I am learning, and that was my intention in this summers PBA league.