Here's an interesting piece about sport bowling and the efforts to find the right balance between equipment technology and sport integrity in bowling.

Sport bowling is a lane-oil procedure developed and promoted by the American Bowling Congress (ABC) in an effort to bring back scoring integrity to league and tournament bowling.

On a normal "house condition," more oil is applied to the center of the lane and progressively less and less to the outside boards. Therefore, when a bowler misses the target to the left, the heavier oil lessens the ball's hook and guides it to the pocket. If the target is missed to the right, the drier boards allow the ball to hook more, also sending the ball to the pocket.

Combine this area created by the oil with the explosive bowling balls on the market today and it's no wonder the scores are tremendously inflated. Many bowlers across the country now average 240 and higher. A few years ago, one bowler actually averaged 262 for a league season.

In a sport bowling condition, the oil is applied evenly across the whole lane, with only a small buildup in the center. A pulled shot (left) goes high on the head pin. A shot to the right may miss the head pin altogether, or leave a "bucket" spare. The bowler who averages 190-plus on this condition is doing very, very well.