Southern Lanes
Fort Gordon
This week we used pattern 4B (41 feet) for the practice session. After the practice session was over, it was decided to use pattern 4C for the rest of the tournament. The only thing this changes is the volume of oil that the machine lays down throughout the entire pattern. The total volume increased by 2.9 microliters. This was done because 4B proved to be too dry for this surface. The surface was Armor Plate and is very old with a lot of scratches, especially in the first 20 feet of the lanes. The change was needed to protect the proprietor's lane surface.Older surfaces with a lot of scratches tend to pull the oil off the brush in a slightly inconsistent pattern. This showed up this week with the left side seeming to have more oil in the first 15 feet of the lane. It did stabilize quickly after it got past 20 feet as indicated by the graphs.
Is this the reason 6 lefties made the finals? Who knows, that is the nature of this game. There are so many variables that effect the travel of a bowling ball, there is no definitive answer. All we can do is to keep searching. In my opinion they bowled pretty damn good. Patrick Allen and Chris Hayden are two of the best left handers around. Both do a lot of work on their games.
The left handers this week played 2 areas of the lane. They either played up the gutter or in about L12 to L14. It is a little hard to tell the trajectory with these graphs. In the future I will take a mid lane graph on this pattern to get a better indication.
The right handers on 'A' squad were a little scattered in the 15 feet area. 'B' squad was a little more defined, but not much, playing them a little more to the right. In match play you can see the 2 areas on the left that the lefties played and where the majority of the right handers played (R14 to L18). A few right handers tried to play the gutter but were not very successful.
The scores were a lot higher on Sunday, which proves that if the lanes are broken down in a more consistent pattern, scores will always tend to accelerate.
Norman Simard
Laneman for the Southern Region
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A Squad before bowling
A Squad after bowling
B Squad before bowling
B Squad after bowling
Championship Squad before bowling
Championship Squad after bowling