It seems this 100% handicap league is pretty recreational. The summer league I bowled in was essentially like that... it was 90% of 220 and was actually called the Lousy Bowlers league. I was doing it for practice for this season but I had a ton of fun despite our team facing a pretty substantial handicap deficit every night out. In a way I'm glad we had that deficit because it really helped me not to look at the numbers but I knew I had to focus on every shot and bowl to the best of my ability along with my other teammates to win. It was strange... for the other team it wasn't competitive per se and for us it wasn't either yet it still forced us to keep sharp and on the top of our game to have a chance to overcome the handicap a lot of nights.

What also helped is for me to experience the handicap issue from both sides... I went from being the 3rd best bowler on that summer league team that had the lowest handicap to being the anchor and captain of this winter season's team that is almost always getting pins. Seeing the issue from both sides gives me a much greater tolerance of it because as much as I used to whine about giving up so many pins in that summer league I quickly learned that unless you bowl at least to your average it really doesn't matter what the handicap says. Now I don't even add up the pins during the game... the only time I look at the pin total is after I finish my 10th frame. The only thing you can control is your own bowling. If the other team makes shots then you better make them too. If you don't, you have nobody but yourself to blame for a loss.

Your anchor bowler actually gets 8 extra pins in which he can miss his average and not get penalized. So because the cap of the handicap is below your highest average bowler, its not a fair situation. The cap for a handicap should cover the highest average in the league.

I guess if the league were to increase the cap so he'd get 2 pins handicap (increase it to 220) they'd all complain that he was getting 2 pins, right?

Erin

It's always a "lose-lose" situation when someone is averaging over 200 and they get handicap. The league complains because Mr. 218 gets 2 sticks and "he doesn't need them" and Mr. 218 loses because he's placed under the base. If he's only one of 60 bowlers on the league, they don't need to jack up the base because of him.

I could see raising the base if it's an 80 or 90 percent league, but how often to you see a stacked (very high average) team win in a 100% league? Not as often as in an 80 or 90 percent league.

I think that's why they did it.

One could almost call my team stacked (lowest average is a 160 or so). The rest of the teams are around 120-140.

It forces us to stay on top of our game, so it's nice in taht respect.

Hey Angel, guess what? Remember the 88 average bowler on my team? Well, he is up to 113, and goes through highs and lows. Last week, he had a game of 67 and a series of 288.
Last night, he shot 456. Another team member and I took him to practice last Sunday. Changed his sometimes 5-step, sometimes 7-step approach, to a manageable 3 step approach. Focused on rolling a straight ball, and aiming. He shot his highest game of 169.