can i smell a come back ???
G'Day Craig,
Great to hear from you too! I was driving past the bus terminal at Dickson the other day and thought of you... ;-) (And that slacker Doug Bear is out there too!)
I'll answer your question in my usual roundabout fashion...
It's tremendous to see so much positive feedback regarding lane conditions at SPC and a variety of styles making the grade. It also seems that more oil is being applied to the lane surface and as I have always stated, this has to happen for the players in this country to be able to compete overseas. If the SPC conditions are indicative of things to come, then there's hope in terms of the game becoming open to a variety of playing styles. This can oly be a good thing. Species that specialise are forever in danger of extinction.
The situation of blocked lanes, short oil and reactive resin made me walk away from bowling in 1993. The game was dominated by straight shooters with "hook in the box equipment" that allowed folks to bump up against the block and the ball does the rest. If these bowling lanes were golf courses, a lot of greens would be funnel shaped toward the hole. While we're on the subject, if bowling balls were golf balls, you could hit them four miles and they (ironically) wouldn't slice or hook. It sounds like theres a glimmer of hope in the blocked lane/short oil department, but the balls are still made of performance enhancing substances.
I'm afraid that there's no comeback in the offing just yet.
That said, I'd love to catch up with folks coming to the Canberra Open.