Hmmm, I have to admit that I'm not exactly sure. I really did
struggle in the league, only to piece it together during fun
bowling.
Here goes:
Dryer on the outsides, wetter or longer in the middle 15-ish
boards. Couldn't really tell if it was a slight christmas or simply
heavier oil the middle. What was certain was you could get much
more hold simply by playing across the middle part of the lane.
This is not a lane with "long oil".
The backends didn't exactly qualify as "flying", but there was
certainly a decent amount of it, until the latter part of the
second game. A more inside line didn't work because my ball
couldn't eat through the carrydown. Playing too far outside, on the
other hand, caused my ball to roll up early, going in flat through
the nose, or, leaving silly flat 10s.
Here's my stand. You can certainly start from deep, but you've got
to cut down on your speed, else you're going to squirt through the
break point. If you start from outside, You've got to keep the
speed up! And abandon it altogether after the first 15 frames.
It'll simply roll up too quick. A nice line between 13-18 at the
arrows was comfortable for me. Too bad I only found that out after
league. A polished ball would be nicer to use than pearls outright
or dull ones.
For Kevin Phua, he had great length with his Super Power from deep,
but the backend was uncontrollable because of a combination of his
semi spinner release and the ball starting the break too late (very
flippy). For him, he had to send it really way out yet be very
careful on his speed. He abandoned the outside line early.
Overall, not a difficult pattern, but at times unpredictable and
more than a little patchy. It doesn't help that they oil it early
and people bowl on it for about 1.5 more hours before league
actually begins.
