February is a very important month. The annual Council of Delegates Meeting will be held on Sunday the 27th at the Willow Tree Inn, 19550 Montgomery Village Ave., in Montgomery Village, Md. All league delegates should attend, as we will ask if you want to merge with the Washington, D.C. Area Women’s Bowling Association and the Vir-Mar-District Junior Bowling Association of the Young American Bowling Alliance.
Last year, the delegates directed us to vote for the merger on the national level, so now the delegates need to confirm the merger at the local level.
I recently attended the 36th annual Invitational Tournament conducted by the Vir-Mar-District Junior Bowling Association. This great tournament was attended by 244 juniors. While walking through the crowd, I heard a lot of complaints, such as, “It’s not fair my son has to bowl against the wall for four games.” “It’s not fair my son was assigned a bad set of lanes.” “Why don’t they move after each game?” and “Why don’t they have one for girls only?”
Those who complained did not come forward and offer to help or didn’t volunteer to run a tournament for the girls. The tournament volunteers gave up many hours of their time to conduct this event, and I think they did a damn good job.
One complaint I heard did have some merit, in that many times during the first day of the tournament, several announcements were made that “No bowler is allowed to wear a hat.” However, the tournament director, who was making the announcements, was wearing a hat. As a youngster, I was taught that only ladies were allowed to wear hats indoors.
One suggestion to the tournament staff is that it should consider having the bowlers move to a different pair of lanes after two games. This would not cause much confusion, as the only people that would be required to move would be the bowlers.
Due to recent security restrictions at Bolling Air Force Base, several leagues had to stop bowling at Potomac Lanes, and some of these leagues, at least in part, were able to relocate to other centers in the area. There likely will be some problems with averages and prize lists, so if your league is one of them and you need some help, feel free to call our office or the WDCAWBA office. We will be glad to answer your questions or find the answers for you.
Leagues start ending in April and May, and I would like to remind secretaries that they are required to submit final averages to the association office(s) at the end of the season or not later than June 20, 2005, whichever comes first. We will send the secretaries a list of the bowlers for averages; please use this form, as we don’t use nicknames like other computer programs.
If you have any questions about rules or league operations, feel free to call. We don’t mind answering questions and like to hear from you.
Punxsutawney Phil, seer of seers, saw his shadow February 2 when he emerged from his borrow on Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney, Pa. This means that we will experience six more weeks of winter weather, so keep bundled up and drive carefully.