Amateur, there don't have to be gaps between the boards. The shellac will naturally shrink between them, leaving a minor depression. Your ball rolling across the boards hits the edge of each board it crosses, out and back. And, that happens to be in your Track.

Well then, it looks like I might have to pass on bowling there this season then. My equipment I currently throw is only 5 months, 3 months, and less than 2 weeks old. They at least have a chance to live longer if I stop using them there now. Unfortunately, my other equipment I quit using rolls pretty poorly so I won't be able to score at that center. To me bowling there would be a no-win situation.

Ok, apparently my last post here never went through, or I forgot to hit submit.

I don't think think its the lanes if its an overlay over wood, unless its a partial overlay and the backends are still wood. The overlay is a synthetic, its a cheaper way of going to before having to completely redo the lane beds.

I don't know if the center is doing pro anvilane or some other form of synthetic, but they're putting new lanes in next summer. I believe they've used this overlay for 5 years now. Before that they were plain wood for 20+ years I think. The overlay is over the whole lane, but are you sure that's going to keep it from scratching balls up?

The overlays are decently thick for what they are, so unless the overlay is worn through I don't see the wood causing an issue. I'm still not sure I understand what you mean by scratches. What I might consider a scratch, could be something different than what you are referring to.

well I guess there's different types of scratches. I'm talking about semi-deep scratches, not just little ones that I would consider normal(which is quite shallow) for a bowling ball to have on the bowler's Track. I guess the easiest way to describe it is just about as deep as an engraving on a ball.