Well I gotta tell you guys about this one.

My PBA league president told us we would be bowling on the Cheetah Pattern tonight I show up for practice grab my Hole Pounder Pearl which I figured would be a good ball to start with on a pattern like this and throw it, result ball almost went into the ditch I repeated the process one more time then went way right and wound up playing at about 13th board straight up to the break. We had alot of out of bounds 6 to the gutter. This didn't play like the Cheetah pattern did last year it has never had out of bounds, you guys think they put the wrong pattern down? It was more like the Shark or Scorpion pattetrns IMO I really think they laid the srong pattern.
--------------------
Mainzerpower

I bowled on the Cheetah pattern in a tournament last weekend.  There was an out of bounds if you played inside too far and tried to swing it to the outside.  I had the best line after I moved all the way to the right and went straight up 3.  If you tried to swing the ball at all, you left a 2-10 or something similar.  Also we were bowling on synthetic lanes.  I have not found the out of bounds to be as noticeable on wood lanes.

No, I think it was the right pattern.  If you're not playing the right area of the lane, it can definitely give the impression of having an out of bounds.  Although the Cheetah is the shortest pattern, it has a very high oil volume.  We bowled our first night of PBA Experience last night and a bunch of people were trying to swing the ball towards the outside.  They did have a very good look and ended up either in the ditch or leaving big wash-outs most of the time.  I drew the same lane assignment as our local regional pro...  he and I played up the 2-3 board all night (actually had to move our feet a little right at the end of the 2nd game due to some carry down) and hit the shot fairly well.  My biggest issue was speed control.  If I let up a touch on the speed, the ball jumped through the nose... and if I got a little quick, the ball pushed down the lane a little and almost guarenteed a wrapped 10 or a weak 7 pin.  

S^2
--------------------
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
The perfect qb/receiver combo in Miami:
Ginn & Juice
(Ted Ginn Jr and Cleo Lemon)

I can't speak for Mainzer, but I'm pretty sure I wasn't on Cheetah.  I've bowled on the PBA patterns at plenty of tournaments.  I threw on all parts of the lane and know what to look for.  I thought it was kind of funny how they couldn't tell me what pattern was coming up, they couldn't tell me what I practiced on at the time, but the same people suddenly remember what we practiced on 6 days ago.  It didn't really matter because it was only practice, but it would have been nice to know for sure.
--------------------
Penn State Proud

Special thanks to Dynothane, Visionary, and Lane#1 for donations to the Ballreviews Get Together.

Ron Clifton's Bowling Tip Archive

Well, I got a note from someone saying that they run tapes to make sure the machine puts out what it should.  I know what some of you are saying about the "memory" of the THS pattern.  The tape should show whether the lanes were stripped and oiled correctly, right?  Or is it possible that it might still play differently because of the memory?  The lanes look good, so I doubt there is any defined track/trough to worry about.  There was practice today (couldn't make it over), on Viper (our first pattern).  We'll see how it turns out.  For me, I just think they got mixed up on what pattern they put out the week before.
--------------------
Penn State Proud

Special thanks to Dynothane, Visionary, and Lane#1 for donations to the Ballreviews Get Together.

Ron Clifton's Bowling Tip Archive