We just returned from bowling in Reno last weekend.  

I had the best reaction with my 3.5 with a 2k surface, no polish.
Team event, I had a really nice look starting 12 at the arrows and slightly bellying the ball out to around 8-ish at the break point.  I actually had several boards area at the break point and really seemed to carry well most anywhere around the pocket.  I couldn't, however, miss inside as the ball would take off.  Shot 220, then lost any sort of consistancy for a game and a half and sprayed the ball pretty much everywhere, then settled down again for the last half of the 3rd game.  Ended up shooting 550...  not great, but considering some of the shots I threw during the second game, it was probably higher than it should have been.  By the 3rd game, I was inside playing 16-18 and swinging the ball out to 8-10 range.

The next afternoon we shot singles/doubles.  The TEAMS (both working together) on the pair ahead of us really broke down the lanes well and made the shot play more like a house shot than a USBC open shot.  We had lots of friction on the outside.  Started inside with the 3.5 playing 18 out to 5-8 board.  Pretty much everything came roaring back.  The issue I had was actually getting far enough left and keeping the speed up.  Any let up and the ball checked up early and took off.  Had a number of splits when the ball took off and missed a couple rather easy spares.  Shot 550 again.  Switching pairs for doubles, we found that initially the lanes played significantly tighter.  I was about 12-15 boards further right, throwing the same ball.  There was quite a bit more out of bounds area to the right as well.  Towards the end of the first singles game, the oil seemed to absolutely disappear.  I couldn't get left enough and quickly found myself on top of the ball return.  The center part of the lane in the heads and mids were so toasted that the ball just started jumping/hooking seemingly as soon at it touched the lane surface.  I switched to my least aggresive ball and still couldn't get it to push down the lane.  As a last attempt, I moved far outside (outside of 1st arrow) and found a little oil.  I managed to throw a couple out there, but it was VERY touchy to speed/revs/angle.  Certainly not the best part of the lane to play.  Ended up shooting under 500 and glad to be finished up.  It was a struggle.  


S^2
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After an 18 mo. hiatus, I''m back...