Bowling ball mishaps

[Rowey the li'l lefty]

Ok...I'm dedicateing a forum to all the mishaps that have happened to bowling balls over the years. What have people done to their gear? Here's a few of my stories...

One time my friend was bowling with his spare ball, and the pin spotter and gate were starting to go down...somehow the spare ball got itself past the gate, and got caught in between the pin spotter and gate.

Another time a guy bowled on lane 1, and sent the ball off the lane and down the back to the machinery.

A league bowler bowled his ball, and hit the gate...which probably sounds normal...except the ball split in half from the force of the shot.

Another time a bowler bowled a shot, and ended up hitting the gate hard, causing the light fitting to fall out from where it was, and making the light smash all over the pin deck.

One time when watching the skins at a tourney in Orange, a social bowler bowled his ball, hit the bumper, bounced the ball onto another lane and...struck.

One time while practicing, I was going for a 4-6 split, completely missed to the left of the 4 pin, hit the back part of the lane, bounced the spare ball back onto the lane, hit the 4 pin, and sent my ball in front of the 6 pin and up the gutter a little bit.

Another time, a guy who bowls at our centre bowled his bowling ball, and it fell off the track. They couldn't find it anywhere, and were trying to figure out what had happened to the ball. The lane he was bowling on was lane 8. 2 days later, they found his ball under lane 24.

That's all I can think of at the moment, but if anybody has any at all, post them up here.

Bubye

Rowey

 

[Easy Tiger]

President's Shield Roll off 2002, Nerang - Ball skipped out the back of the machine, into the wall, rolled 6 lanes behind the machines on the concrete. I still have that ball.

President's Shield Roll off 2003, Kedron - Ball skipped out the back of the machine, hit the wall, and rolled. The ball was fine..

Another time, bowled on lane 1 at Kedron, everything was normal, when the ball hit the ball cushion, the pit light smashed and collapsed for no apparent reason.

 

[piequat]

When I was learning to bowl my thumb got stuck in the ball... Ball went probably 15-20 ft in the air, hit the left gutter and bounced straight back out right into the right gutter, I dont think it touched the lane at all, and I had fallen onto my arse after trying to rebalance myself.

 

[~Mrs STORM~]

One time when watching the skins at a tourney in Orange, a social bowler bowled his ball, hit the bumper, bounced the ball onto another lane and...struck.

Gotta get it right Rowey...
It was a bowler in the tournament who bowled. Their ball stuck to their hand, flew onto some social bowlers lane, hit the bumpers twice and then struck for the social bowler...Remember?
That was the same year Matt Sing hit a pin in the gutter that bounced into the masking unit and took a nice chunk out of it. HaHaHa!!

 

[mongoliantreesloth]

Another time a bowler bowled a shot, and ended up hitting the gate hard, causing the light fitting to fall out from where it was, and making the light smash all over the pin deck.

I saw a similar event in my Thursday night league once. Also I've seen a thumb get stuck to the extent that the ball was released on an upward trajectory. It hit the head pin as it was coming down from its second bounce.

 

[Rowey the li'l lefty]

Gotta get it right Rowey...
It was a bowler in the tournament who bowled. Their ball stuck to their hand, flew onto some social bowlers lane, hit the bumpers twice and then struck for the social bowler...Remember?
That was the same year Matt Sing hit a pin in the gutter that bounced into the masking unit and took a nice chunk out of it. HaHaHa!!

The year I saw it happen was 2002 I think Maybe that happened twice. If so...WOW!

I think I'll mention this one...Matt Sing was bowling practice in Strikezone Youth, and somebody rolled a bouncy ball down the lane accidentally, because they dropped it...Matt line up the ball, and aimed for the bouncy ball. He hit it, sending his ball airborne, but didn't strike. No damage done.

Bubye

Rowey

 

[Rayzer]

How about some social bowler using an 8 lb ball and "Apparently his fingers got stuck"... ball went up into the air and hit the ceiling (there are still broken ceiling board over the lanes!)

 

[*'TOPHER*]

Ive seen similar rayzer, late one tuesday night a group of social bowlers(30 or so..i think it was a church group) were mucking around, lofting the balls, hitting the sweeps etc. Then one young man proceeded to launch his ball into a flurescent light tube on the roof, sending glass fragments over 4?lanes. The group just kept on bowling! Needless to say they were all kicked out of the centre and rightly so

 

[Rayzer]

Some of these ocial bowlers just don't have much of a brain do they... after they get kicked out they also like to play with our fire hydrants... lol
R

 

[AdrianS]

Its fun when plug falls out of your thumbhole between shots. Happened with my old wine u dot yrs ago, its a wonder it didnt slice my thumb to shreds when i let it go!!! Needless to say that was practice over for the day(didnt have 20 bowling balls lying around in those days!!)

 

[Tiger]

When I was about 12, I was rolling some practice games down on 23-24 at Moonah.
Left a 7-10 split or something and grabbed an 8lb Amflite houseball, went to fire it really hard at it and it locked up on my thumb totally, going into the celing lightly before pounding down onto the edge of the gutter on Lane 24 and rolling down the mechanics walkway and smashing into the door.
Dislocated my thumb in the process.

About two years later (1989) on the same pair I was practicing before Sponsors League, and I was on 23.
Left the 4-6-7-10 late in one of the games, I wasn't bowling all that good and wasn't in the best of moods and fanged it hard at the 6-10.
Problem was, on 24 there were a family of social bowlers who were letting their little kids run amok.
As the ball was nearing 40 feet down the lane and really travelling, one of the little kids pressed the button on the front of the ball return.

SMACK!!!

Completely totalled the sweep, pushed it right back into the pit and put 23 out of action for the rest of the night and the next morning.

Had a fair bit to say to the kid's parents that's for sure.

 

[Beanie]

A friend of mine 'lost' a ball during a tournament a couple of years ago. They eventually found the ball - on top of the pinsetter. I don't think anybody has figured out how it got there, but there was only 1 little chip out of the ball (which got plugged up fine) otherwise it was good as gold.