We're a four person team - me and my pal just started bowling again after a few years and we have two ladies that just started bowling (their first league). We joined a small, non-competitive 10 team summer league to have a good time and introduce the girls to league.

We ended up clinching the league, much to the dismay of a handful of house teams who came up with every excuse in the book about why we didn't deserve to win (sandbagging was their hot topic). Yes - it's true that we're not that consistent as we just started up bowling again - but we're not sandbagging. We knew these teams complained to the house, but we shrugged it off. We figured they were just sore losers.

Despite the USBC rules and the league's bylaws, no prize fund was ever distributed until the second to last week of bowling. By this time we had already clinched the league. What we got was the flattest prize fund I've ever seen, with only a $30 difference between 1st and 2nd place. Let's just say we were really disappointed with the distribution and wished we had a chance to propose a prize fund from the start versus having this prize fund pushed on us in the second to last week of league.

I went up to the desk and asked the obvious questions - why wasn't the prize fund voted on? why wasn't it distributed earlier? why was it made so late (we know it was made in the 2nd half of the league because a team dropped out and the prize fund reflects that - and all the numbers are even so its not like they just took the money out equally). There were no answers to any of these questions - just an attitude as if I was wrong for questioning it.

I told them that I would be filing a protest with the USBC due to mismanagement of the league (the house runs the league and fills all officer spots). I was told, point blank by the house, that if I do that I can expect several written protests against my team for sandbagging and that we'll end up getting nothing.

Wow.

So we wanted to get all of the score sheets to prove that we weren't sandbagging. We were going to recalculate all of the points based upon much higher averages and prove out that we could have averaged much higher and still won. We asked the house for the score sheets. They gave us the score sheets cut in half, with only our scores visible. They refused to give us the entire sheets.

Wow again.

So tonight is the last week of league. We bowl last place because we clinched - and totally expect attitude from every team and the house. There's no win in filing a protest against the house because at the end of the day there is a rule that the president has all authority over the prize fund if it was not voted on by the league. So we have at least found some humor in it - check out our video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ED94ahjOPn0

And remember - ALWAYS make sure they follow the rules about the prize fund. We think the house was out to screw us. It's the only reason things have panned out this way. Interested to hear if anyone else has had similar problems where you have teams influencing how the house runs leagues/make decisions/favors bowlers/etc...

TG

Flat distribution in a summer league is pretty much how it's done these days.

However, their refusal to provide you with records is a different matter, as is their accusation of sandbagging against your team. You're not going to get any relief on the prize fund but you might get the house in trouble for violating USBC rules as part of its role as league secretary. Either way, you're not going to get much.

Jess