In league play

Tigerbait007

New Member
I play in a 36 week league. It is broken down in to 18 weeks per half. The first half the oil was really lite but now the oil is really heavy. Can the house change the thickness of the oil on the lanes?
 

9andaWiggle

Addicted Member
They can change a lot of things... how often they strip the lanes, how heavy they apply the dressing and where. They could cover every inch from foul line to the back of the pin deck if they wanted. All depends on who's running the machine.
 

AlwaysWrite

Addicted Member
I play in a 36 week league. It is broken down in to 18 weeks per half. The first half the oil was really lite but now the oil is really heavy. Can the house change the thickness of the oil on the lanes?
Dear Tigerbait007:

There is nothing in USBC rules to deal with lane-condition changes from week to week, month to month or half-season to half-season.
 

MI2AZ

Active Member
Last season our league and the house agreed on having two different patterns put out. One for the first half and the other for the second half. In reality, we had many more patterns than that.

The house has three lane machines, each about a decade apart in age. When the primary one, the newest, would break down, they had to use the next oldest one but that one could not put down the same patterns as the newest so the pattern would be different (it was programmed with an older pattern from years ago). When that one broke down, they had to use the oldest one which was a much older pad type and it had a different pattern pre-installed. Not to mention the couple of times that the mechanic accidentally hit the wrong button and put a different pattern out on the primary machine (which can hold dozens of patterns).

In the end, it doesn't really matter as you are bowling against a team bowling on the same pattern. The only times it would be of concern would be if a different pattern was put down for a team doing a pre-bowl or a make-up so the two teams bowled on different patterns, one of which would/could be an advantage to one team.

As to the volume (thickness) of the oil varying - there are a lot of other variables such as weather or humidity that can change each week making a difference too.
 
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