Hey everyone, looking for some input here on a potential ruling that affects two teams in my league. It is a mixed league that requires at least one member of each gender on the team for a legal lineup and subs must keep the lineup legal. This is in our bylaws, the rule was just reinstated this season after a few years where it was mixed, but not required to have at least one of each gender. During the second week of league, there was one team with an incomplete lineup, 3 male, one female, and a vacancy. For that week, they had a male sub for the female bowler who was not there that week making their lineup 4 men and a vacancy. During the third week of league on Friday, another team was questioning the legality of that lineup and the team that had bowled the team with the lineup in question brought it up to the league president. There is now a potential forfeit for that week for the lineup in question.

This brought up an interesting debate to be resolved at a captain's meeting before league next week. What is the gender of a vacancy in a mixed league? Our league president believes that it isn't considered either gender. The woman who runs our desk on league nights, who has been involved in bowling for a very long time believes it is considered to be both genders and this shouldn't even be an issue. There is nothing about the gender of a vacancy in our bylaws. One of my teammates brought up the point that a team with four of one gender and a vacancy trying to find a fifth bowler of the opposite gender would not be able to compete until they found the legal fifth bowler, which seems extreme.

What do you consider the gender of a vacancy score? Is it neither or both? On a side note, this is a handicap league and not a money league. Not that it changes the answer about the gender of a vacancy, but I'm always amazed at the rules issues that we have in what is supposed to be a fun league.

Mark