I can't believe this was ever possible, but what we encountered this past Wednesday evening was nothing short of ridiculous.  We had the unfortunate chance happening to be assigned lanes next to two teams from Wautoma, Wisconsin, who decided to travel hundreds of miles to bowl league.  At least half of the participants appeared to be intoxicated prior to taking the lanes, and continued to drink heavily during the tournament.  Several of the participants fouled, fell, or crossed the foul line during their competition.  One of the competitors split his pants and continued to bowl with parts of his anatomy visible every time he bowled.  As bad as that appeared to be, their significant others in the stands made ridiculous howls everytime one of their team members did something significant on the lanes, like the ball not going in the gutter.  At least 5 other teams in our area, and our 2 teams complained to the USBC tournament supervisor on hand, who did nothing to correct the situation.  If this is how the USBC is going to allow conduct on the lanes than they have a bigger issue on their hands than they think.  Selling beer to competitors during the tournament is not a good idea, and why have tournament officials on site if they're going to allow this behavior to happen.  If this were to happen at a NEBA, State, PBA, TNBA or nay other sanctioned tournament, the competitors and their significant others would have been removed from the tournament, after being warned.  When the official on site was questioned after the squad, she saw nothing wrong with their actions. 

I understand our participation in this tournament is not going to threaten anyone's day job, but in the past we've finished top 15 in the tournament and have three former touring pro's out of our 10.  So we're not at our first rodeo.  This is my tenth tournament, and our companion team has over 80 years combined and none of us had seen these actions before.  And yet, the USBC doesn't want to hear about it?   Everyone on site questioned didn't want to accept a complaint. 

What are my options?  I'm not looking for refunds or anything like that, just want to stop what happened to us from happening to anyone else...

Thanks for the rant,

Bill Daley
Better Bowling Concepts
Turbo Grips Regional Staff

What else is new.  Civilized behaviour is a thing of the past it seems.

If they were drunk before they started selling beer while they were bowling didn't matter.

More arguments for separating USBC's tournaments into an Open Championships with Open and Women's Divisions that is the "serious" Sport tournament and a Classified (choose whatever name you like) Championships with Open and Women's divisions that is more for the "recreational" bowlers.

I can't believe this was ever possible, but what we encountered this past Wednesday evening was nothing short of ridiculous.  We had the unfortunate chance happening to be assigned lanes next to two teams from Wautoma, Wisconsin, who decided to travel hundreds of miles to bowl league.  At least half of the participants appeared to be intoxicated prior to taking the lanes, and continued to drink heavily during the tournament.  Several of the participants fouled, fell, or crossed the foul line during their competition.  One of the competitors split his pants and continued to bowl with parts of his anatomy visible every time he bowled.  As bad as that appeared to be, their significant others in the stands made ridiculous howls everytime one of their team members did something significant on the lanes, like the ball not going in the gutter.  At least 5 other teams in our area, and our 2 teams complained to the USBC tournament supervisor on hand, who did nothing to correct the situation.  If this is how the USBC is going to allow conduct on the lanes than they have a bigger issue on their hands than they think.  Selling beer to competitors during the tournament is not a good idea, and why have tournament officials on site if they're going to allow this behavior to happen.  If this were to happen at a NEBA, State, PBA, TNBA or nay other sanctioned tournament, the competitors and their significant others would have been removed from the tournament, after being warned.  When the official on site was questioned after the squad, she saw nothing wrong with their actions. 

I understand our participation in this tournament is not going to threaten anyone's day job, but in the past we've finished top 15 in the tournament and have three former touring pro's out of our 10.  So we're not at our first rodeo.  This is my tenth tournament, and our companion team has over 80 years combined and none of us had seen these actions before.  And yet, the USBC doesn't want to hear about it?   Everyone on site questioned didn't want to accept a complaint. 

What are my options?  I'm not looking for refunds or anything like that, just want to stop what happened to us from happening to anyone else...

Thanks for the rant,

Bill Daley
Better Bowling Concepts
Turbo Grips Regional Staff

So, who was the wiseacre that decided to hold the 2012 U.S. Women's Open Championship finals in a Reno dust bowl. What do they call this circus - extreme bowling.

I hate to see bowlers work that hard to make the final five only to be part of some TV sideshow. I would expect the USBC to reduce our fees next year if this is what they do with our money; how about a membership wide vote?

The USBC officials have as much control as they choose to exercise. They rode our team for bowling too slow.  The monitor threatened to disqualify one of our team members if he answered his cell phone again. I know it was against the rules and he pissed me off as well, but it goes to show that it all depends on who is monitoring.

All and all it was a good experience to me being my first time goIng. Did not break 500 but that was my fault. I had not bowles much since the end of league in May and dropped down in weight from 16 to 14 due to problems with my hip.

Cleanest backends I have ever encountered. I wish someone had told me to bring urethane. With 10 people playing all over the place it was over under hell after the  first five frames of team. The only consistent shot was straight up 5/6 to the pocket with no miss right. No way I could execute that line  sing consistent and accurate.

Russell, as far as I remember bowling with Wojner in a tournament around Chicago, and numerous other accounts of his behavior, he's not exactly Mr. Polite. In fact, I found him kind of a dink. I actually seem to remember ticking him off, I think. I said something to the effect of him sucking, or some such thing.

Seems that those people will find each other, and bowl Nationals together. Reason being, if you're a jerk, I don't care how good you are. Don't be one on my team, or go bowl with someone else.

Good bowler, bad people skills when bowling.

Good points about the recreational bowlers supporting the prize fund.  In addition, brackets have been a license to steal for most of the top caliber bowlers until the last 3 or 4 years when recreational guys got smarter.

I started bowling nationals in 95 while it was still possible to bowl the Masters and nationals at one venue on the same trip.  It was the only way the tournament really could be justified to me money wise.  I continued after 2002 because the bracket money had gotten so good.  However the last couple of seasons everything about the tournament has made it less attractive to serious bowlers from my perspective. 

Brackets are hit & miss with the number of classified teams (which appear to be going up).  It's really luck of the draw.  Luckily my squads have allowed me to pay for the entire trip plus some the last couple of years

I try to use one-lane courtesy at all times at the Open Championships. I like to bowl FAST
However, my teammates don't all practice one-lane courtesy. And many people we've bowled around through the years don't, either.