Bowling Party Fundraiser Part 1

[philipdooman]

Hello,
I am organizing a Bowling Party fundraiser for the Elks club that I am a member of. I will have averages for most of the people that will be there that I recorded last time we played. Any new player will "self-report" their average. We are going to be giving out prizes for top teams so I want to make the teams as fair as possible. I am going to try to split up the best players among the teams and then evenly distribute the other players. I have two questions: 1. Since most of the people there are not very good (100 to 120 average), would it be most fair to do 90% of the difference of the person's average subtracted from 200?
Secondly, the format is going to be teams of 4, but I don't know how many people are coming. If I need to put a 5th player on a team, would I calculate 90% of the difference of the player's average subtracted from 200 and deduct that amount from the total handicapped team score each game in order to make it fair?
Would greatly appreciate feedback.

Thanks!!!!

[bowl1820]

I have two questions: 1. Since most of the people there are not very good (100 to 120 average), would it be most fair to do 90% of the difference of the person's average subtracted from 200?

Fair is a loaded term and assuming this is supposed to be a fun type affair...

For the scratch figure instead of 200, go with one that is equal to or greater than the highest entering average.
Example: Say if the highest average is 234, you'd go with 235.
If you don't know what the highest average is, basically take a guess maybe use the the highest house average there..

That's fairer and a lot of leagues and tournament's are doing it now.

As for the percentage: 90% is pretty standard and most of the time won't cause any problems.

Now USBC has been suggesting using 100% of the difference, to make it "fairer". Now 100% is ok with me, but lets face it, You'll hear complaints before and after the tournament if you use 100%.

Secondly, the format is going to be teams of 4, but I don't know how many people are coming. If I need to put a 5th player on a team, would I calculate 90% of the difference of the player's average subtracted from 200 and deduct that amount from the total handicapped team score each game in order to make it fair?

Instead of adding a extra person to a 4 man team and creating one 5 man team.

It would be better to take 1 person off of two other teams and create 3, three man teams and use a vacancy/bye for the 4th position on those team.

Subtracting some amount from a teams score really wouldn't be fair, to that team or the others.

The only other alternative I can think of for a team with a fifth bowler would be, is after they bowled. Drop the lowest bowlers score and handicap. But I think the other idea is better.

[J Anderson]

As Bowl1820 points out, asking about "fair" handicaps is really a loaded question. 200 was fine as a base number 30 to 40 years ago when 200+ averages were few and far between. The problem is that when raise the basis to 220 because of the guy with the 211 average, some of the lower average players are going to complain because the big fish is being given pins.
Since this is supposed to be a fun fund raiser with mostly casual bowlers, you should be able to get away with 100% handicap, without too many complaints.

I would suggest the possibility of adding vacancy scores to adapt to the actual number of bowlers. For example if you have 11 bowlers, you could have two full teams of four and one of three live bowlers plus a vacancy score of say 125. Or you could do three teams of 3 and one team of 2 plus a vacancy score, so you would have an even number of teams.