$12 For a summer NO Tap league and the lanes are burnt up after the 5th frame. 3 games 4 people per game. $56 per pair and the volume is probably about 30% the normal house shot vs. the fall No Tap. I love a challenge but I can practice on burnt lanes for free all week. Only joined the No Tap for my wife to build confidence. I was going to use it for med/heavy oil practice for myself and for my wife she wants practice with her Cell pearl I just got her. My question is this: do I make a stink or just quit? Money wise it will only cost my wife $2 per game and me $1 per game to practice (due to other leagues we are on), so $4 per game for no tap is no real deal. It is more the principle of you should get what you pay for but I don't want to be "that guy" either. Help???

Is there anything in your league contract with the lanes that specifies that you should get fresh lanes, a specific pattern, etc? If not, best you can do is ask, and fix the contract for next year.

What portion of the $12 is lineage, and what is going to admin expenses/prize fund?

I know there is nothing about oil conditions because it is a non sanctioned league. The prize fund is like $1. It is not the breakdown of fees but the fee itself. What would you do? My goal is to enter every event I can next year, how many of them will require us to bowl on burnt lane conditions?

That's pretty much expected for a non sanctioned, 9 pin no tap league. If you want actual practice for yourself, it would have been better not to bowl in a 9 pin no tap league, whether it's oiled or not. The money would be better spent coming in and practicing.

Non-sanctioned or not, your league and the lanes have a contract. The center guarantees that a certain number of lanes will be available for a certain amount of time. In return, the league agrees to pay a certain fee per week. Often included in these types of contracts is that another pair will be kept open in case of a breakdown, and that fresh oil will be applied that will not be bowled on before the league. If you don't have something about the oil in your contract, you should fix that next year.

There's really nothing you can do. Most of the league probably doesn't care about the lane conditions. And the management is probably not going to change and decide to oil the lanes based on your complaint or the entire league's complaint for that matter.

Its true that finding that condition in a tournament is rare. But it does happen. When you have many squads in the day, and there's no time in between to oil, you might get third squad and find the condition pretty dry and burnt.

Erin

I bowled in an ABT years ago and had that happen. When I got there, it was the 3rd squad and they didn't re-oil. I asked about it and they said that there wasn't time to re-oil. Needless to say 75% of the top finishers were in squad 1, 25% in squad 2. I mentioned it to the director afterward, he told me that next time I should make sure I got there earlier then. That was my 1 and only ABT.

It is such a shame that our sport is treated like this. In golf if it rain you know what to expect, if it is windy you know what to expect. I feel for all the beginners that are learning to hook the ball. There is no way that they understand that the ball is not hooking because there is no oil. It is almost contrary to science, but it all happens in such a short distance it is almost impossible to see. How discouraging for those that are trying to embrace the sport only to go home frustrated even though they did everything right. Would you go golfing if they said you can only pay in the sandtrap? How about tennis if they said you have to use ping pong rackets? There should be 2 parts to every center. Sport and Leisure. Bowling it the #1 participated sporting activity in the US and yet they treat it like a joke. Way to go USBC.

I'm not quite sure what your trying to say. It sounds like you're complaining about a non sanctioned league and blaming the USBC. And, honestly, there's nothing easier than a house shot, even if it is broken down. That is the leisure part of the sport.

And now I'm sure that when you plan a tournament you try to get the first squad. Most higher average bowlers do so because they learned exactly what you learned at that ABT tournament.

Early in my tournament bowling experience I too got a rude awakening. I was on the first squad, someone had already taught me that little tid bit. But the oiling machine broke. They used the old bug sprayer technique of oiling the lanes, and didn't really know how to do that well either. Since we own an old oiling machine and it was in storage, we got it out for them for the second day of the tournament. But the bug sprayer condition was BRUTAL.

Erin