Tournament results

Posted on behalf of Ken Dowling.

A bowler enters a tournament and claims to have an average that is well below what should have been his actual entry average. More than a month after the tournament, the cover letter accompanying the final standings apologizes for being late due to the resolution of the dispute over the entry average. The final standings indicate an entry average of 225 and tournament average of 224. The bowler is rewarded with second place team, second place doubles, and first place team all events. No explanation in the cover letter by the tournament committee and nothing on the tournament.

Comments

[Ken Dowling]

Thasnk you, Larry for getting me started. Here is my entire blog as I wrote it:

A bowler enters a tournament and claims to have an average that is well below what should have been his actual entry average. More than a month after the tournament, the cover letter accompanying the final standings apologizes for being late due to the resolution of the dispute over the entry average. The final standings indicate an entry average of 225 and tournament average of 224. The bowler is rewarded with second place team, second place doubles, and first place team all events. No explanation in the cover letter by the tournament committee and nothing on the tournament website. In effect, 94 of the 98 bowlers in this inaugural event have been fleeced. 94 of us who paid hundreds of dollars in fees, sidepots, and bracket money; traveled in some cases hundreds of miles to support this group in their initial attempt; and by the way; who submitted honest entry averages.

I am not trying to speak for all 94 of the fleeced. The tournament committee should have had the balls/tits to do that. Whether that was to stand up to the USBC for us; or to air the dirty laundry to us in an explanation of how and why they let this happen!

Ken Dowling, Santee, CA
That event was Chuzapalooza

[Skip George]

Ken,

I totally understand where you are coming from on what seems like an integrity and ethical situation with this tournament. Please read Ron Suttora's article on the IGBO homepage about entering averages. If the tournament was not sanctioned by USBC and if they did not have anything in their rules about disqualification for false averages submitted then unfortunately there is no recourse other than let the people with the tournament know you will not be back. I hope you are able to find some resolution to this issue. We all hope that our IGBO member tournaments are operating as ethically, and with as much integrity as possible.
Yours in Fellowship, Unity, and Commnication,

Skip George Co-Chair Tournament Directors Forum

[Zonafd1]

Dear Ken and Skip,

I know this is late in coming but today is the first time I have seen your comments regarding how the event was handled I have never been in the blog portion of IGBO site until this was forwarded to me this morning.

Trust me as a first year tournament this was not something we thought we would have to deal with at all. We had hoped for the upmost integrity of all the bowlers in attendance. As soon as we were informed of the bowler in dispute the brakes were put on and the investigation began to verify the information that had been provided to us.

I can assure you that all of the remaing 95 bowlers were not fleeced. The person in question was totally disqualified and did not recieve any of the prize fund monies nor trophies for the tournament. The trophies were returned and distributed to the appropriate bowlers as well as the prize winnings.

Skip, in response to your comment regarding ethically and with integrity that statement must also apply to all the bowlers who enter these events. AS I stated above, we trusted that everyone was forthright and honest regarding thier entering averages and unfortuantely we were the ones that took the fall in trusting. I can assure you as a committee this was a very serious issue that many countless hours was poured over on making a final decision and we have looked ahead to make sure that this type of action will never happen again at our Tournament.

Ken, In regards to your coments of no explainations, trust me I was exhausted by the time spent working through all of this and to throw into the mix, not that it for many people may be valid, I had to deal with a critically ill parent. As we were trying to finish the bowling on Sunday and pull things together I was also having to get a parent into a hospital for what became a 4 month fulltime care position for me. As many were having fun at the banquet I was sitting in an emergency room.

I hope this explains some of where we are at and that the bowler did not get away with anything and we did take the integrity of the remaining bowlers to heart and that is why we stood our ground and diqualified the bowler in question. If you would like to talk to me futher regarding the issue you may email me directly.

I do hope you and other bowlers will return this year as we are moving ahead for MLK weekend in a new house and adding additional events, and I can assure you we are looking through the rules and regulations with a fine tooth comb to prevent this from ever happening in the future and I hope any other tournament that is new or on going never has to go through what Chuzapalooza did in respects to the integrity of its bowlers who attend.

Sincerely,

Kevin Wheeler
Tournament Director
Chuzapalooza