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© Copyright 2003, Jim Loy
I bowled the following two series last week:
Heaven = 769: This was my high series ever, so far. I arrived early enough to throw one practice game on lane 4. I was in a hurry and bowled a bad game (about 140). I was mainly trying to get the stiffness out of my body, and shoot at a few ten pins. Then we warmed up for slightly more than 10 minutes on our lanes (15 and 16). My ball was not finishing, probably indicating carry-down (oil on the back end of the lane). So I moved just a little bit right (less than half a board) and threw about half a board right and started grooving strikes. I was still getting oil on my ball. I started the first game with five strikes, and got a 279. In the second game, my ball came up too high twice in a row, once on each lane (luckily no splits). So I moved left. My ball came back with lots of oil on it, and had almost missed the head pin on the right, even though I had missed my spot to the left. So, I deduced that I had moved too far left. I split the difference and moved right. This line worked fairly well and I got a 225. In the third game, I had to move left several times. When I threw too far to the right, my ball was coming up too high, but I got strikes there. I even threw one to the right, and came up Brooklyn (a strike). I thought I was in trouble. I moved left slightly, making sure I threw the ball out wide with plenty of speed, and started grooving the pocket again. This game was a 265. This game was lucky, as I threw several bad balls.
Hell = 480: In the singles event of the city tournament, I had great trouble. In doubles, I did OK, low 600's, on dry lanes. About the last half of the last game, I couldn't find the pocket, missing on both sides. We moved to even drier lanes for singles. Right away I was standing far left, throwing far right with lots of speed. Many of my balls were going Brooklyn. Not only am I not used to dry conditions, but a small miss to either side of where I was aiming ended up way off when I hit the pins. The situation was chaotic. I tried three different balls, they were all hooking too much. I have one fairly oily ball, but I had recently cleaned the oil out of it, and it too was hooking too much. The first two games were 140 and 137. Near the end of the second game, I switched to my fourth ball, my hard rubber ball that I use for spares. I normally throw this hard with not much lift, and it goes very straight, sometimes appearing to back up (it doesn't back up). I threw one ball from the far right, as I thought this ball would not hook much. There was a huge amount of oil there, and I missed the head pin. I moved to the center of the approach and the ball hooked too much and went Brooklyn, no matter where I threw it. I soon found a line I could hit. I was standing about six inches to the left of center, and throwing over the third arrow (from the right), and the ball was hooking very nicely, about how my reactive ball hooks on oil. I had to move left a little bit, twice. The last game was a 203, saving me from taking last place. This series was pure torture (a pleasure for us masochists), but it was also educational and thought-provoking. I still struggle with dry conditions. But, I have increased my options.