Drawings of new lane types proposed by WMF TC
18 Apr 2009 at 18:22 | Published by: JJM | Views: 10826 | News search
Technical Committee of WMF approved some new lane types for felt and eternite courses, in its winter meeting on 31 January 2009. (The new lane types must be approved by WMF Delegates Conference in August 2009, before this rule change takes effect.)
Here are drawings of the proposed new lane types. The drawings are not in official size or shape: they simply give a basic idea, how the new lane types look like.
Sticks without the last stick
Similar to the traditional "optical illusion" lane, but the last stick is omitted, which opens more possibilities for passing the hole on left side, or using a zig-zag shot from the walls.
Diamond
Similar playability as in traditional lane type "tabula rasa" (straight lane without any obstacles), except a straight shot without walls is not possible.
Closed V
Similar to the traditional V lane type, but the bottom of obstacle is closed, which ensures that the ball cannot slip through the obstacle with a good shot. The lane can have a sloped green in uphill, or the whole lane can be in uphill.
Salzburger V
Similar to the traditional V lane type, but the sides of the obstacle are thicker in triangle shape, which makes the lane much more difficult to play. The lane can have a sloped green in uphill, or the whole lane can be in uphill.
Flat volcano (straight lane with target hill)
The center of green is shaped like a small volcano, similar to lane 8 of beton courses. No other obstacles.
Ramp
Modern version of the historical "scales" lane type. The original version of this lane type included a moving part, a sheet of metal that was normally in uphill position, but turned into a downhill when a heavy ball was played to the uphill with correct force.
When the moving obstacle was banned in minigolf rules at the end of 1980’s, many minigolf course owners simply fixed the metal sheet in place (making it into a ramp in uphill), and removed the wall behind the uphill.
International minigolf federations have always been quite flexible about unofficial lane types: this yet unofficial lane type was used at Juniors European Championships 1990 in Landshut, Germany.
Narrow drop (stationary scales)
Another example of the flexible lane type policies of WMF: narrow drop was used at World Championships 2001 in Vaasa, Finland (lane 3 of the felt course). The ball must be played onto the narrow bridge with correct force, so that the ball does not bounce back from the wall behind the bridge.
Middle green
A lane type that has been used in Sweden and Finland for some years already. Typical playing options are:
- straight to hole
- from a side wall to hole
- from the backside and one side wall to hole
Canyon (passage)
Another lane type that has been used in Scandinavia for many years (also seen in the main photo of this news article). The easiest playing option is usually hitting a 20 cm bouncing ball to side wall before the uphill, then rolling over the hill, to backside of green and then to hole. A more risky playing option is a hard shot with a slow ball, using spin to get the ball to hole from the backside of green. » memorandum of WMF Technical Committee meeting 31 Jan 2009
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