How NOT to run a bowling centre (Kevin Brawn should be told)

[wchester]

Today I took my little girl bowling for her very first time. We walked into Bendigo Bowl this afternoon and sat down to watch some other families enjoying a game or two. I should mention here that my little girl is not yet two years of age so this was to be a HUGE event in her life.... ( ok..in MY life! lol) All morning long she'd been asking me to take her "pin bowl"

After watching other little kids bowl using the ramp and bumpers I figured it was time for Carly to have a turn on the lanes. After checking the ball racks for 6lb balls and not finding any, I proceded to the control counter and asked our friendliest customer service attendant Barb, if I could have a six pounder for my daughter to roll to me on the concourse for a few minutes before taking to the lanes....Imagine my shock, horror, and disgust when she told me that the manager, Norm Lindrea had removed all the six pound bowling balls because they "caused too much machine trouble"

Now this is a centre owned by one of our National Coaches, Kevin Brawn. How do we expect the sport of tenpin bowling to grow without allowing the very youngest participants to experience the thrill of knocking down their first pins. Yes, we could have used an 8 pounder on the ramp, but I wanted my little girl Carly to be able to pick up the ball by herself..(can't have daddy doing everything!)
I wonder how many other families were put off upon finding no six pounders available for their child's use...

I could have posted this anonymously, but I'm not afraid to speak the truth..in the hope that someone gets the message and does the right thing.

 

[micky_macca]

Just intrested waht kind of damage would a 6lb ball do to the machines,and how would it do it?

 

[androooo]

What a joke... the only way a 6lb ball could possibly damage a machine, is if it is a Brunswick A2 machine, and it throws the Accelerator belt off, for which there are plenty of mods that can be done to avoid the problem. I may be wrong, but as far as I know, Bendigo has AMF 82/30's, which could handle them without a problem

 

[Pipes]

LOL u cant be serious....i love the 6 pound balls!!!
cant always be serious at a bowling ally i mean lets be honest THERE IS NOT MUCH TO DO!!

they should bring em back for the bowlers that get bored!!
ohh and the kids

what a out rage!! shame shame shame is all i can think about at the moment
absolutly shatted....how can they expect to make money (as that is all they care about) if they cant accomidate everyone

 

[Andrew S.]

Hi Wayne - This has absolutely nothing to do with your post above, just thought I'd tell you that the official paperwork for the National AGM is out.
Nomination forms for directors etc.
If you do make the board we've got a suggestion or two..

 

[cobow]

6lb balls do no damage at all to machines. the only problem is they require fine adjustment on the posative ball lift to return them with any consistancy back to the front.
cobow

 

[spence]

6lb bowling balls dont do damage to 8230's if you read the first post it says they were removed because they caused 'too much machine trouble' which is quite possible because they are a pain in the ass.. in 8230's there is a mechanical paddle that clears pins out of the ball exit allowing the ball to exit and return to the front end.. now bear in mind a pin weighs in at 3lb 3oz to 3lb 6oz not much less than a 6lb ball, so if it can push a weird shaped pin out it could and does push light balls out too, it is hard to adjust the paddle to allow the ball in and keep the pin out, if it pushes the ball out and the timing is right by the time the ball is back at the exit the paddle has travelled to the other side and back closing the exit again this can go on forever which then causes a trouble call and repetitive calls pain in the ass for bowlers, front end and the techs, however still no reason to remove the light balls.. small adjustments and tweaking individual lane can cut trouble calls down.. if your worried about 6lb balls bowl at elizabeth you'll be lucky if you get any balls back and if you do you'll be lucky if they're still in one piece.. anyway just a technical side to think about.. have fun
:lol:

 

[froggy]

well atfer reading this post i was quite shocked.
While i was in year 12 at school, i was a party supervisor at my local bowl. During this time, i came across quite a few young kids (including 7 & 8 year olds, not just 2 year olds) who found 8 pound balls to heavy. Bowling alleys need 6 pound balls to keep young kids in the game. 2 pounds might not make much difference to people our age, but think of a little kid!
If you start getting rid of lighter balls, you will lose alot of social bowling through families.
I agree, young kids love the thrill of actually bowling the ball down and hitting pins, not just pushing it on a ramp. And the looks on the kids faces when they actually hit pins is priceless. I took my neice bowling when she was just 2 years old, and she refused to use the ramps!
I think taking 6 pound balls out of a bowling centre is ridiculous.

 

[androooo]

small adjustments and tweaking individual lane can cut trouble calls down..

Correct, any DECENT tech should be able to make ANY machine return 6lb balls, with a minimum of fuss. Trust me, it doesn't take much.

 

[Sinisterx8]

6 pound balls

Does any one agree that the reason they took the balls off the racks is because older kids who should know better keep pounding them down the lanes like theres no tommorow??
But i agree totally its pretty poor. Why would you take away the fact that you would make a child smile???? isnt that what we all want????

 

[Graham]

Yes 6 pound balls shatter when used by the "older kids". However at Chermside we used to keep them on a rack around the corner. Balls still got damaged occasionally, but they were still there for the little kids.

 

[Anita]

i'm sorry but i'm disgusted.
ok i'm not very old and not all that strong,
i bowl over 6lb obviously but i'm only on 11 and i know a few pounds makes all the difference.

because i'm young and my aunts bowled for as long as i can remember, i actually vagually remember and embarrassingly enough have photographic proof of the first time i bowled, not that long after i learned to walk. putting an 8lb ball on a rack, well someone doing it for you and helping to push isn't the same as two handedly carrying it yourself, in my case on a piece of carpet that had been spread half way down the lane so i had the strength to make it reach the pins. and achieving eventually knocking a pin over all by yourself

put those 6lb'ers back out there and let the kids have their fun because no effort is to much when you please a little child and maybe giving them a memory to treasure and get them wanting to come back to make that 1 pin 2 and perhaps eventually 300.

 

[SNEEZY]

Yes I agree. It is such a shame that a centre has to resort to taking a certain weight ball off the racks because they may be damaging the equipment.

I wonder if the centre had actually looked at the reasons why 6lb balls were such a problem. If the machines are being damaged because older kids are ditching a 6lb ball down the lane like theres no tomorrow then they should be diseplind by the centre (getting thrown out). :x :x

Why should families that take there kids for a game of bowls be disadvantaged just because some idiot had thrown a 6lb ball down the lane at 70kph and shattered everything in sight. Lets hope that Bendigo bring back those balls so that no one is disadvangted. :idea: :idea:

 

[jimcross]

I was tempted to reply to this post,and say that all balls below 14lbs should be banned,but I decided not to.

 

[Datsun's rock]

hahaha nice one jim

people you guys need to god damn chill out ... what does it matter to you personally if ONE bowling center in the whole of australia decides to take there light balls of the rack

lol geeze

 

[bowlrig]

hey Datsun's Rock

The answer to your question is that most of us are here for the betterment and the future of tenpin bowling thus without light balls a future league bowler or possible Australian representative may take up a different sport all together. Then we all lose.




Rob

 

[Vipercat]

Easy as

8) WEll speaking from a tech point of view working on AMF 82/30 machines I can say that yes sometimes the 6 lb ball is a little fiddly to get it to return with the P.B.L. but nothing that a 10 second adjustment wont fix and all 24 of our machines return the 6lb balls just as easily as the 15lb balls .
As for the problem with bigger kids hammering the balls down the lanes we solved that by drilling the finger and thumb holes in two very small sizes so that bigger kids and adults cant get their fingers in

 

[spiffy]

Wayne,
Thanks for the news.... my little two year old (and a few other family members) won't be bowling there.

 

[Datsun's rock]

OH MY GOD

 

[Roo Boy]

Really could u expect anything more from a guy like him?????????????

That's all i can say.

Roo Boy :wink: