friendly league

[chubbz95]

so i bowl in this league and it seems to be a friendly league with the exception of a few teams because these teams have high handicaps. I personally don't mind I just enjoy bowling I often get edged out by someone with a large handicap but hey its bowling. Do high handicaps bother you? I mean especially if the person needs it I can honestly see why a lot of bowlers need there handicap.

[dj_devillish]

It can be frustrating at times...

I bowl in a couple of leagues - 1 is purely handicap (All pinfall, prizes for high scores etc. are inclusive of handicap) - The handicap is based on 80% of the difference between your average and 225 with no capped upper limit!
This can be very difficult at times. Last Friday, we had a trio's total of 40 Handicap up against their total of 185! This means you cannot afford many mistakes! We managed to edge the first 2 games in the tenth frames so there is an argument that the system works. The last game we bowled just under 730 scratch so won comfortably. We have the highest scratch game in the league - 780-ish but we have been beaten by another team that had an impressive game but had a higher handicap. This in itself isn't so annoying but when we got our high game they came over and gloated that we hadn't beaten their score even though we had beaten their score by approx. 40 pins scratch!

The other league is both Scratch & Handicap, this feels like a much better way of doing it! Prizes are awarded for positions/scores for both scratch & handicap so it doesn't hurt as much when you put in a good scratch performance only to be beaten by ridiculously high handicaps!

Sean

[J Anderson]

so i bowl in this league and it seems to be a friendly league with the exception of a few teams because these teams have high handicaps. I personally don't mind I just enjoy bowling I often get edged out by someone with a large handicap but hey its bowling. Do high handicaps bother you? I mean especially if the person needs it I can honestly see why a lot of bowlers need there handicap.

I'm surprised. In my experience the teams with really high handicaps tend to be there for the social benefits of bowling. They tend to be very friendly and easy going.

Usually the unfriendly teams are the ones that think they're great bowlers, and act like every first ball is a matter of life and death. They complain that the handicap isn't fair no matter how few pins they're giving away, but don't have the nerve to bowl scratch.

[ssclary]

Most off the teams with high handicaps at my center are good people and just enjoy bowling. Looking ahead, we have to make up 150 pins a game on this Thursday night. I actually enjoy that part, it pushes me to play better. Only bad part about handicap league is there are those types of people that feel the need to "sandbag". First week setting a handicap they roll all 130 games and now they get high game/series 200 plus pins a game. I would rather beat someone straight up, rather than winning because my team has a "system" of keeping one bowlers average low for the handicap points and then that person with a 108 average gets a 600 series. Thinking of doing a scratch league after this one. No excuses...


Sorry about my rant, still bitter from last week

[Perrin]

handicap doesn't bother me... it's a great way to level the field and make it more even for people getting into the sport to bowl in leagues. (usually 90% in this area so even tougher on scrath bowlers)

sandbaggers bother me...

[scottymoney]

It doesn't bother me much as our team is middle of the road. There will always be weeks where those with huge handicaps find their spots and just bowl really well, but the next week it will just be the opposite. In the end, it isn't worth complaining over. We have teams that start off with ridiculous handicap, but as much as it hurts to see that many pins down before you start, most of the time you can see why during the series.

[got_a_300]

Having handicap leagues is the only way bowling is going to
survive if you take away all the handicap leagues then all of
the social bowlers are not going to want to bowl scratch.

We used to have a Wednesday night mens scratch league that
I loved to bowl in years ago but it is no longer. They all decided
since less and less new bowlers were willing to bowl scratch and
they were loosing bowlers that they would just go ahead and open
it up to all bowlers and make it a handicapped league.

Yes I hate giving up anywhere from 50 pins to 100+ pins per person
or up to several hundred pins per game but if league bowling is going
to survive then that is the only way, we'll all just have to smile and go
with the flow I guess.

[chubbz95]

I'm surprised. In my experience the teams with really high handicaps tend to be there for the social benefits of bowling. They tend to be very friendly and easy going.

Usually the unfriendly teams are the ones that think they're great bowlers, and act like every first ball is a matter of life and death. They complain that the handicap isn't fair no matter how few pins they're giving away, but don't have the nerve to bowl scratch.

sorry if I worded it wrong but the teams with the high handicaps are friendly. It's the ones that are really serious(scratch bowlers) that show a bit of attitude towards these people. I don't mind the people with high handicaps hell you have to start somewhere right. I remember when I first started bowling I was only about a 150 average now im a lil over 200. I only brought this up because we had a meeting the other day about complaints and its funny because its not like the people with high handicaps are always winning pots or even their points.

[GeoLes]

In my league, one of my friends is now bowling her second season and has made great improvements. She started as a complete non-bowler and is currently standing at the foul line, aligning her shot and doing a one-step release. This season she finds the pocket about 50% of the time and occasionaly closes a frame. I was congratulating her on her progress, but she expressed the fact that she was pressured by the team mates, who are anxious to win. No one has said anything to her directly, but she senses their need for her to score and it gets in her way.

I hear this story so many times in league play. I told her I am able to discount that, leaving it to my team mates. I am there to bowl my best regardless of others expectation. I don't even follow my score until I have complted the game. I record my roll, think on how to improve, go up, bowl repeat. I don't know which team is ahead or anything. I just bowl for me.

She finds the pressure hard to ignore. Hopefully, she will either learn to ignore it, or change teams next year. She is making great progress. It would be a shame to ruin her progress by making her feel inadequate.

[billf]

My Monday night league figures HDCP at 80% of 220. So, as long as I'm within ten pins or so of my average then the 150 average bowler has to be OVER their average by 5 pins to win. They have to be 14 pins over average to tie my average score. Umm, sounds fair to me! They can be over and I'm under and still win?
Derrick rolled a 719 last night (I had to look it up). His opponent bowled a 747 with HDCP. It happens. We still congratulated the guy on his personal high game and series. It's that guys third year bowling and we are glad he is there.
What's odd is my average is higher in the HDCP leagues than it is in my scratch league (by ten pins).