Sand Baggers

[mrbill]

We had our last league games last wed night and after we hit the bar.
We where drinking and 1 of thebowlers that were on the first place team let if slip I guess by saying that they always go into a league and bowl like crap the first few games, that how they came in first when they bowl.
My team was in 2nd place only 2 points from first.
I'm not realy sure how to feel realy it just hit me today I'm still trying to figure out how that works, if you lose how can win? I know your avg goes down but is that worth losing games?

[JAnderson]

Unfortunately, there are always those who will use handicap systems to gain an unfair advantage because they don't feel they can win or aren't motivated to win any other way.

The person you're describing doesn't sound like a card-holding sandbagger. Most leagues have some rules in place to help make sandbagging less effective and unless it is a short league, bowling poorly for a couple of weeks isn't going to help much in the long run. The only way you can eliminate sandbagging completely is to eliminate any handicap.

Card-carrying sandbaggers will work in a different manner. Yes, they may try to deflate their averages early in the season by losing and losing big, lowering average as much as possible and increasing handicap as much as possible. They'll throw off not just at the beginning of a season to lower average and increase handicap, they'll always ensure that if they win a game, they win it by as few pins as possible. That way they ensure that they win the points necessary to keep moving up in the standings and ensure that handicap is as big as it can be. They will also try to ensure that if they can't win, they lose by as much as possible. Again, keeping average minimized and average maximized.

[kev3inp]

We had a team that bagged in our league last year. They would take turns having a "good game" but once the game was in the bag, out come the oops shots. Oops, I dumped it into the gutter. Oops, I went through the nose. Oops, I missed a 5 pin. The whole league moved the next year in part to get away from them. I don't know how many times we got beat by them with less than 10 pins separating us. Both the house and the local USBC rep refused to get involved.

[manningm]

Mr Bill,

I feel your pain. In my opinion, I don't know which is worse facing a ringer or a sandbagger. I guess I can tolerate a ringer more than a sandbagger. It is price you pay sometimes when bowling in a handicap league.

Mike Manning

[ebowler]

I'm in my first league since about 1979. I don't really like handicap, but I'm still working on build my game and consistency, and when I do, I want to bowl scratch.

I average high 180's so I "managed" my games while setting, and averaged 188 which is where I belong. I subbed a couple of week at the end of the winter league to prepare for the summer league, and set a 216 average and could not hold my own bowling my true average.