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Author Topic: Is scratch bowling alive in your neck of the woods?  (Read 3214 times)

mumzie

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Is scratch bowling alive in your neck of the woods?
« on: June 21, 2004, 08:35:32 AM »
It seems that the word is getting out. Scratch bowling tournaments as we knew them in the northwest are dying. Seems as though they are at least terminally ill.
The home of the greats - Dave Husted, Hugh Miller, Chris Warren, Ernie Schlegel - is suffering for lack of participation.

The Portland Master tournament, open to anyone in the Northwest, was "postponed" this past weekend due to lack of entries.
The regional program here has had 6 events (not counting a member-non member doubles), and 2 senior events. The regular events average 44 entries. The senior events have had 16 entries in one, 17 in another.

The PWBA regional program died here a year before it died every where else.

The "replacement" Ladies Classic Tour doesn't seem to even be interested in holding events here.

"My" women's tournament group, NWWCBA (www.nwwcba.com) has averaged 17 entries per tournament for the past 2 years.

What's it like in your area?
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MSC2471

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Re: Is scratch bowling alive in your neck of the woods?
« Reply #1 on: June 21, 2004, 11:40:20 PM »
Scratch tournaments? In my immediate local area- none. The days of marathon tournaments and sweepers is non-existent here. In Massachusetts, there is a chance to bowl a tournament once a month called NEBA (New England Bowling Association). It's a 5 game qualifying tournament, they cut to the top 32 to 48 (depending on the number of entries) and then bowl 2 game matches til there's a winner. These tournaments take place over the course of a weekend (qualifying on Saturday night, two squads on Sunday morning/afternoon, matchplay follows) and the houses are across Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. Goof1073 bowls them on a regular basis, and I hope to hit a couple sometime down the line...

Otherwise in New England there are a ton of singles/doubles/team format tournaments, you could probably hit one or 2 a month if you are willing to travel around to all 6 states...

Matt
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TheBowlingKid25

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Re: Is scratch bowling alive in your neck of the woods?
« Reply #2 on: June 21, 2004, 11:41:37 PM »
Scratch? Whats that? The only scratch we have around here is when your balls itch!! No but seriously, it sucks, there isnt CRAP for scratch bowling here. not that im good enuf ne wayz but still!!!
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RevZiLLa

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Re: Is scratch bowling alive in your neck of the woods?
« Reply #3 on: June 22, 2004, 01:41:14 AM »
Scratch died an ugly death here. There aren't enough people with the guts and confidence to bowl scratch. Now we have to bowl in handicap leagues and tournaments and be called thieves when we win
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Brickguy221

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Re: Is scratch bowling alive in your neck of the woods?
« Reply #4 on: June 22, 2004, 01:48:21 AM »
There are hardley any Tournaments scratch or handicap either one anymore in the OKC area.

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Strider

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Re: Is scratch bowling alive in your neck of the woods?
« Reply #5 on: June 22, 2004, 03:13:24 AM »
For those of you in the Loisianna/Texas area, check out http://www.allbowling.com.  Plenty of scratch tournaments.  Not a whole lot in my area, but only a 2 hour drive to New Orleans.
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MTFD24

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Re: Is scratch bowling alive in your neck of the woods?
« Reply #6 on: June 22, 2004, 03:15:55 AM »
Fortunately we have many GOOD scratch leagues and a few tourneys here in Western NY (Buffalo area).

Right now we have 2 scratch shoot-outs in progress, one at Transit Lanes on Tuesday nites, and one at Thruway on Wednesday Nites. There are approximately 75-100 bowlers a nite at each.

There are several scratch travel leagues as well during the winter. I am bowling this coming year in a scratch league at one center, and next year will add a 50 and over scratch league on Wednesdays as well. Thjis is why I was so glad to see "Bakes" get a 5 year exemption, now I'll be free of him for a few years


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MichiganBowling

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Re: Is scratch bowling alive in your neck of the woods?
« Reply #7 on: June 22, 2004, 03:49:00 AM »
Well in Michigan, we have too many scratch tournaments, so the bowlers are spread too thin.  One thing that I've noticed that has hurt some of the better scratch tournaments in the state was that they opened up their "regional bowlers only" rules.  In other words, Bay City had a tournament that only drew bowlers from that area, and a few from 45 minutes away.  They were filling the house at 120/event.  The word got out that there was easy money in Bay City, just show up and beat the locals, and the big boys started to roll in.  The locals stopped bowling.

The structure of the tournaments around here is a problem, and the prestige is completely gone.  Michigan Majors used to turn people away.  They would have 2 qualifying squads on Satruday with match play on Sunday.  People wanted to bowl Michigan majors because it meant you were one of the best in the state.  Now they're lucky to get 30-40 bowlers.

Part of the problem I see too is that there are no heroes anymore...nobody that we look up to.  In house shot tournaments we watch guys shoot big scores, but most of us know we can shoot those scores too.  The bowlers who bowled best on that day is no longer rewarded.  Things are changing up here in Michigan...ask this question again in 2 years.
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drillbit

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Re: Is scratch bowling alive in your neck of the woods?
« Reply #8 on: June 22, 2004, 04:32:06 AM »
I'll have to agree with MichiganBowling, especially about the Majors. Of course, they also used to have a televised final, and when they lost that, a lot of bowlers lost interest. As to the U.P. of Michigan, there are some scratch events, but turnouts are rather poor, from 20-30+. Not too many years ago, 50 or more was a fairly common occurrence.

drillbit
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Pinbuster

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Re: Is scratch bowling alive in your neck of the woods?
« Reply #9 on: June 22, 2004, 08:49:22 AM »
Scratch bowling lives but at a reduced level around here.

I know of two uncapped scratch leagues. One last year was a 5 person traveling league; the other was a 3 person league.

There are at least a couple of capped scratched leagues and some limited (maximum handicap that can be given) handicap leagues.

With the college programs we have a pretty good infusion of scratch bowlers each year. But most of the leagues consist of long time scratch bowlers in the area.
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Bowlers Alley Nick

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Re: Is scratch bowling alive in your neck of the woods?
« Reply #10 on: June 22, 2004, 08:52:06 AM »
We need to do something to get more people intrested in our sport. We really do. It is dying and its not good..
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MichiganBowling

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Re: Is scratch bowling alive in your neck of the woods?
« Reply #11 on: June 22, 2004, 01:00:05 PM »
One thing we've talked about on this board is how non-modern centers are hurting, and how modern centers are flourishing.

With that said, wouldn't a modern tournament flourish as well?  I'm talking about quick cut scores, smooth operation, big screen tv(s) that show results after each match, live scoring on the web and maybe even a webcast, and other things like this.  People don't get excited about scratch tournaments because there is nothing to be excited about.  There's nothing new about them.

What about media?  Why do our newspapers not make headlines of the big scratch tournaments?  Bowling may be down, but it is still the #1 participation sport in the country.  Any one of us on this board can hassle our local newspapers to start giving scratch tournaments some regular headlines in the sports section at least once a month.

There's a lot that can be done!
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Edited on 6/22/2004 12:57 PM
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Brian
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pin-chaser

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Re: Is scratch bowling alive in your neck of the woods?
« Reply #12 on: June 22, 2004, 09:20:33 PM »
Nothing serious or consistant here in memphis. There is a monthly scratch marathon (9 games)in Nashville (4 hours away) but beyond that I am not aware of anything.
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ThongPrincess

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Re: Is scratch bowling alive in your neck of the woods?
« Reply #13 on: June 22, 2004, 10:04:11 PM »
In the immediate area, San Fernando Valley, CA,scratch tournaments are hard to find.  The WWPB, Western Women's Profwessional Bowlers, have several tournaments a year.  Like your area, the Ladies Classic Tour seems to not like our area either. There are a few scheduled not too far away.

As for scratch leagues, almost every center in the Valley has 1 or 2 unfortunately most of them are on Monday night.  I would like to bowl more scratch leagues, but with the cap the leagues I am too high for their low bowler (typically 150-170 range) and too low to be one of the high bowlers (typically 200-230 range).  So basically I am shut out of most of them.
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B Pirnie

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Re: Is scratch bowling alive in your neck of the woods?
« Reply #14 on: June 22, 2004, 11:17:28 PM »
Omaha area has plenty of scratch events. Some on walls some on very challenging conditions. Most are single squad and are running 50-70 entries. Even a 9-pin no tap on a 41 ft flat pattern.
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