Anthony,
You have nothing to apologize for, so lets get that straight right away.
The way they did the averages this year hammered a few teams, NT and TAS in the mens and the SQ ladies in particular. That's an unfortunate part of this year, but i think it was better than in previous years. The idea of it was so that the winners would have to bowl to the best of their ability to win, thus use the higher of the averages.
QS Men had the best average of the tournament - a mere 223 (3 pins over average). We had our chances and bowled well, but we didn't win the big games. We are more of a team of party animals with a bowling problem than serious bowlers. Congrats to the winners, and thanks for your comments.
There are moves next year to take the average of those 4 criteria mentioned earlier. I think this could be a good move too.
NT and Tassie did the right thing, as did many others (I know we did). It's unfortunate that there are accusations of sandbagging, but it's talked about every year at De Veer.
And yep... we see the same guys in the restricted masters field every year. I tried to get into the field, shot 40 over my avg and never looked like getting a run.
My current league avg is 183. I bowl at a newish centre with good conditions that make for good scoring. If I went down the road to bowl at another centre in Brisbane (no names) I'd probably buy myself about 20 pins. I wont do that, I have too much pride in being able to say that my avg is over 180, and a lot of people are the same. But ... why should I have to give someone who is of equal ability 20 or 30 pins just because they bowl somewhere thats hard to score at?
Maybe we need a committee of one person from each state to handicap the other teams properly? Taking into account league averages, roll off avgs, state and national all events and previous De Veer campaigns.
Just an idea.
Mate, I hope you will be there next year. I hope to again be involved in the SQ team. And I'll buy you a beer next year at the DD. Just don't try to steal our Monkey, like those girls from NQ.
Cheers
Peter Martin.