Here we go again Seniors at Townsville.

[Troyza]

^ I love the way you think, CHIN

 

[Geoff300]

The unfortunate thing is you do not need a Ditch to Score.

I go back a while so I have seen some great scoring over the years, it's fantastic to watch. I remember the SPC was brought back to Bankstown in 1987. It started from the Preview Tournament, Barbara Richmond Bowls a 300, the first in the history of SPC finals, Day One of the Final and Silvano Prez shoots 248/8, there were Scores on both sides of the Lanes, Peang from the Phillipines was in the Final, the Tournament was eventually Won by Chris Batson.

I learned a lot from that Tournament, their was no Ditch, we had Short Oil 28 feet but not the American Short Oil, which had no Oil outside 10 board, we had Oil on every Board. The thing that I could do was put down a very good Blend, the Key to high Scores is the very clean Back-Ends. We had that on Day One but not for the remainder of the Tournament, so the Scoring declined but still very good Bowling was done.

The next year of the SPC was even better as the clean Back-Ends were there everyday.

I seen one of the Finals on TV at Rooty Hill, I was amazed that some of the best American Woman bowling in the Final could not keep the Ball on the Pocket side of the Lane, they were hitting Brooklyn, Ridiculous.

These are just my observations, here's another one, Easy Scoring conditions have Ruined the Game so nobody Bowls anymore, again Ridiculous! What has caused the decline in Bowling is the Prices of Games, I got out of working in Bowling Centre's after 38 years because I seen the writing on the Wall, all caused by the massive Prices. I used to observe open bowlers with their Families walk into the Centre and ask for 2 games each for the 2 Adults and 2 Children, the Control Attendant would than say that will be $80 Thank you, the common reply was we will only have 1 game each thanks. Nobody expects to pay more than $5 per game, I remember being on Holidays in Qld in 1997, I took my Son to Harvey Bay and they wanted $5 a game I walked out it was dearer than anywhere else in Australia. The worst period for price increases was when the GST was introduced, I think in 2000, what AMF did was their usual increase at Christmas 1999, than increased it again before the GST was intrduced mid 2000 because they thought they would not be able to increase for a while, than again in Christmas 2000, 4 increases in 1 year, Ridiculous!

The usual people will come out and say" It costs so much to run a Bowling Centre" that it does but most expensive thing in a Bowling Centre is an Empty Bowling Lane.

willey

Being someone who has been Bowling since 1969, when it was 35 cents for an adult game, Owned a Centre and lived through all the bullshit of ATBC / TBA

I can't argue with anything you are saying !!!!

 

[Geoff300]

Nobody ever said the lane pattern wasn't tough, see above as I believe it should be modified for seniors, but stats are stats, so if Morty and anyone else can see that on average some players are missing 3-4 spares a game and some are missing 2 single pins a game, at a minimum of 20 pins extra for those spares, would that not take their current averages of around the 170-190 mark well above and back into less whinge worthy scores? Seems to be a similar epidemic to the current crop of juniors, just plain can't spare. Having a quick look, most players are averaging around 3-4 strikes a game, so it would seem the rest of their game is letting them down.

And to be honest, a teams event is going to be lower scoring, more wear on lanes, requires a different type of focus etc.

YES !!!!!!!!!!

That is why I focus so much on teaching kids to spare
Some of the Adults are not much better lol

 

[Mistagear]

What would happen if you changed Sport Bowling, from a “game” into a “match” ?

You are probably thinking there is little difference and when you play League each week, you play three games and it is, sort of a match, but nobody actually refers to it as a “match”, right ?
You bowl each week, the season rolls on and on, never really gets interesting, then it ends and another long season begins. Nothing much changes and eventually people lose interest and fade away. Those who are left turn up each week, but the whole thing becomes more pass-time than sport. There is no need to practice or become better at the sport, just turn up, bowl and get out of there as soon as you're finished so you can do something more interesting than hanging around a Bowling Centre.
(If this is not you, you're an exception not the norm)

If Bowling could be scored so it was played as a match,
Your Average no longer matters, your win/loss becomes the focus.
If your average no longer matters, different lane conditions will no longer cause such great concern because the focus has changed from bowling against your average into winning against a competitor.
If winning against a competitor is the focus, every “match” becomes more interesting as sport, because we have added a level of competition which has not really been explored.
If we play matches directly against a competitor, it would be fairer to play against a similarly skilled opposition. So we grade players/teams and compete in head to head matches against worthy opposition, sounds more interesting and more prestigious to win each week than the way bowling is conducted now.
If we are playing matches each week against worthy opposition, why not have finals, where only the top players/teams in the competition have a series of matches to decide who is the best.
So, we have a competition which is more interesting, more challenging and more prestigious, and we are playing in the finals. All we need now is to be able to invite a couple of close friends or family along to watch our victories, and we would have a genuine sport which many more people would be happy to participate.
If we change the scoring so that bowlers, friends and family can, at any point during a match, see who is winning and by how much exactly, we have a genuine sport, that can be fun and exciting to play and to watch.
We have a sport which is then prestigious and desirable to be considered a top player.
A graded sport, where people have a reason and a will, to improve and to compete at the highest grade they can. Bowling the Nationals would then become the pinnacle for each graded level within the sport. Graded tournaments would then also assume some importance as people had greater incentive to compete. Don't dismiss this type of structured competition lightly, most other sports have similar structures and you find individuals and teams regularly practicing and competing both at home and away matches. Many people regularly travelling great distances in order to compete in their sport, usually with no prize-money whatsoever, their primary reward being the satisfaction the competition itself brings to the participants.
Copying the way other sports do things could result in a quantum leap in satisfaction levels within our sport.

Bowling could attract a much greater following than it currently does as well would lose the “not real sport” accusation.

By changing a few seemingly minor ways, our sport could make significant changes in perception and acceptance as an interesting and genuine sport and at the same time, take a huge step forward in becoming a sport which is inclusive of spectators. That single step of becoming a spectator sport would change bowling completely, bringing it inline with other modern sports, ensuring it remains vibrant and viable in today's world.

 

[Troyza]

Interesting concept, back when I was a junior, my coach & I used to play that exact format when training (highest pinfall wins the frame - if tied, replay the frame until someone wins) We'd usually do a first to 10 points or something.