I'm going to dredge up this thread because I am experiencing this same problem down to the T and there doesn't seem to be much consensus on a good solution since the original poster's alley changed up the pattern. I bowl in two leagues at my house, one is on fresh oil, the other follows a women's league with a lot of straight bowlers. My house uses a long (44ft) and light oil pattern that usually breaks down severely by midway through the second game. I typically start with my Wicked Encounter (drilled weaker) or my Frantic and find that I completely lose my carry by the middle of the second game (with the wicked) or get very sharp over/under reactions (with the frantic). Midway through this winter I purchased a tropical Heat hybrid which is drilled similar to the Frantic (pin above, right of ring finger) in hopes of finding a more controllable ball during this transition and while I find it to be smoother than the frantic on the backend, it too becomes very over under by the late-second, third game. I usually end up switching back to my wicked by the 3rd game and trying to throw it hard down 14-15 and try to take the lanes out of it. I find the dull coverstock seems to help smooth the broken down lanes out but doesn't give me much room for error. There is usually a bit more oil in the middle but I am not very comfortable playing really deep inside and tend to struggle with consistency when I do. It seems to me the best scorers in my house throw very straight down the boards with old, weak equipment but they start leaving lots of 10 pins by the last game. Things get especially tricky on the night we bowl second shift and there is often a fair amount of carry down which causes the balls that save the energy for the backend to be very unpredictable on the wet/dry carry down. You can throw 2 shots almost identical and one will snap back through the headpin and the other will come in flat. The outside boards are generally very dry at this house. I am looking for a ball I can play that will give me a fair amount of forgiveness during that transition period and when the lanes are completely toast. I find that when I miss shots, they are more often misses right (right handed) and the ball catches the dry boards and snaps back either through the head pin or Brooklyn. I was looking at the Roto Grip scream/shout or a storm tropical breeze pearl or hybrid but can't decide what my best option is. I am currently struggling to put good a series together: I tend to be higher scoring the first game (220s), very low second game (180s) and then right around 200 the third game. Any help would be greatly appreciated. If additional info would help, let me know. Thanks!
