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Author Topic: Handicap killing the game ?  (Read 689 times)

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Handicap killing the game ?
« on: August 20, 2004, 01:05:01 AM »
I know this is a Sawbones question, but I was having a discussion with our centre manager last night and he was telling me the situation in the UK at the moment.
Its like this, "this could be the last British Open", his words. I was flabergasted. He went on to say that all of the scratch tounaments could soon be lost espescilly the ones sponsered by AMF.
Why run a scratch tourny when all you get is the same people week in week out. Sponsering an event like this is meaningless, it fetches in no new revenue.
Handicap tournys may take over from them, but would top scratch bowlers want to bowl in them when you get 190 av bowlers bowling 220+. I dont think so.
I only started playing this game a 2 years ago and I see big changes since then. At 2 centres (AMF) the leagues have been told that they are no longer wanted as they are taking up the lanes when the centre can make more money on open play.
I think soon a lot of the higher av bowlers will lose interest as they struggle to beat the 180-190 bowlers in handicap tourneys and then loose total interest in bowling altogether. Why try to get any better when all you do is to get punnished?
We now have 5 leagues in our centre 2 scratch and 3 handicap, 2 of which are just fun leagues for the OAP's and it looks like they will be diminishing at the end of the season.
I know you have similar problems in the US and was wondering if you blame the handicap tournys for the decline also.
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Happy go lucky bowler from the UK.
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Happy go lucky bowler from the UK.
Specs. 430rpm,18mph off hand. 11-12deg Tilt, 50-60 deg Rotation. PAP 5 1/4 by 3/4 up.
                   R.I.P.
Mo Pinel. The Guru.
Larry Matthews “The Bowling Professor”
Sawbones.
Thong Princess.
Thanks for the FUN times.

 

Pinbuster

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Re: Handicap killing the game ?
« Reply #1 on: August 20, 2004, 09:43:49 AM »
Handicap tournaments were the strongest base of the game during it’s hey day here.

When you run a scratch tournament you are catering to 10% of the bowling populace. You are leaving out an awful lot of potential customers who might bowl with handicap.

But handicap tournaments are dying over here.

Sandbagging is part of the problem but I feel a lot of the problem is because averages have become so condition specific.

 They bowl on a condition they don’t match up well on and then go to a tournament on a condition were they do match up. In today’s scoring environment they suddenly become 20 to 30 pins a game better. Then if they happen to bowl a little better with it they suddenly shoot lights out and with the handicap given they post scores that most can only dream of shooting.

Until we can figure out a way to make averages portable from condition to condition then I see no end to this trend. Golf does it with a rating system for each course. But I have no answer for how bowling could do it.
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