Please note that these rules have now been updated for the 2020 Season
Presented by: TPT Admin team
Issued: January 2020
BTBA Tenpintour 2020
1 Introduction
Membership of the Tenpintour continues to grow and we have become the victims of our own success. More events in 2019 needed Saturday squads and with more participants and fewer centres with enough lanes we expect to see Saturday Squads for every event in 2020.
Playing on a Saturday highlights the problem caused by operating a qualifying round and then a finals round. Everyone prefers to bowl on Sunday afternoon because every other squad must hang around for hours, or overnight, to find out if they have qualified to come back for a further 4 games. The cost of bowling Saturday or early Sunday will in many cases also need to include an overnight stay adding to the overall cost per event.
As a result, we asked bowlers to choose between, keeping the status quo, reducing the number of games played or changing the format and removing the final round. The responses received were overwhelmingly in favour of switching to a straight 8 game shootout. We will be implementing this change starting with the first event of the year which is now being held at Newbury. We expect this decision to remove some of the pressure on the Sunday afternoon squad but still expect it to be the preferred squad so we will continue with the 100-mile distance for priority that we used in 2019.
Prices increased last year as a result of higher lineage and in spite of this we still ended up with a sizeable surplus at year end which we added to the income stream for the 2019 Masters. Even with the extra games being played this year we are happy that we can leave the entry fee at £50.
Membership of the Tour remains open to all members of the BTBA and members of other UK National Tenpin Associations that are affiliated to the BTBA. There will be no additional fee for becoming a member of the Tenpintour. Last year we changed the age qualification so that bowlers that were 45 before Jan 1st, 2019 would be eligible to play. This year players need to be 46 before Jan 1st, 2020. Eventually we will be back to over 50’s only.
All information i.e. squad details, results etc, will be made accessible on the Tenpintour website which is available as a link from the BTBA website www.btba.org.uk. Regular emails will be provided to all those members who register their interest via our mail chimp registration page. Please use the link here to register, update your personal information, or unsubscribe from receiving any further emails.
https://us14.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=37aeca69577e9636113665f2e&id=6a519afc50
Please Note: We are unable to accept communication regarding entries etc in any format other than through the “contact us” page on our website.
Please do not contact us via Facebook, text, messenger, phone or email, other than the address below, as we are unable to guarantee receipt in time for us to respond. [email protected].
2 Playing rules
2.1 General rules:
These tournaments will be sanctioned by the B.T.B.A. and their General playing and Tournament rules will govern this event, together with the following special rules.
- All bowlers shall bowl a single 8 game block, moving lanes after each 2 games. In most cases we will be playing at doubles pace, but this will ultimately depend on the number of entrants and lane availability.
- Final placing will be determined by total pin fall plus handicap and bonus pins.
- In the event of a tie for any of the cut positions, the bowler with the highest last game (including bonuses) shall be awarded the place. Should this result in a further tie, then the penultimate game shall decide the placing and so on.
- If there are any ties for prize places, the prize money will be shared equally among the competitors involved.
- A provisional ball must be rolled if a dispute relating to pin fall cannot be resolved immediately.
- Protests must be made within 30 minutes of any infraction occurring and confirmed in writing within 72 hours to the Tournament Manager.
- The Tournament Management Committee reserves the right to reject any entry and their decision on all matters shall be final, subject to an appeal to the B.T.B.A.
- The consumption of alcohol is forbidden during a Squad.
- The consumption of tobacco including electric substitutes is forbidden during a Squad.
- Bowlers are asked to wear Bowling attire that has their names visible on the back.
- Bowlers will be expected to be in the centre for registration at least 30 minutes before the squad time. Practice to start 10 minutes before the scheduled squad time. Late bowlers will start at frame in progress when they arrive. Previous frames will count as Zero.
- Bowlers will move lanes after each 2 games played with left lanes moving left and right lanes moving right. To reduce disruption when moving lanes all bowlers will be required to remain on their lanes until all games are completed and they are advised by the tournament manager to move lanes.
- For 2020, members must be 46 years of age before the 1st January 2020.
- Squads will be allocated on a first come, first-served basis with priority for Sunday PM squad will be given to bowlers travelling more than 100 miles to the event. This priority window closes at the end of the preceding TPT event or when all spaces have been filled by priority bowlers, whichever comes first. Bowlers not being allocated their first choice squad will be offered an alternative place based on the time and date of their entry and payment receipt.
- No entries will be allocated places unless both the entry and the payment have been received.
- Details of squad allocation will be provided on the TPT website. Initially updates will appear on the website 10 days after the event opens. A subsequent update will appear 7 days later, and any further updates will be released as appropriate.
Entry FeesThe entry fee for all Tour events will be £50.00. This will include £2 BTBA Sanction fee and £5 for the Order of Merit. Payments must be sent by Bank Transfer to the following account.
- Account Name: BTBA Tenpin Tour.
- Account: 20-44-22
- Sort Code: 20709794
Please ensure you use the TPT event and your BTBA number and surname as your payment reference, For example: TPT1 GC000509 Griffin
2.2 Handicaps:
The BTBA Tenpin Tour will be played as Handicap events and will also provide Bowlers with a Pin Bonus based on previous individual performance in Tenpin Tour tournaments.
- Handicaps will be calculated from a different scratch basis for Men and Ladies as follows:
- Men’s handicaps will be calculated using a Tour Average of 220.
- Ladies’ handicaps will be calculated using a Tour Average of 200.
- The Bowlers Handicap will be 75% of the difference between their Individual Average and the Tour Average. Individual Bowling Averages will be adjusted before every tournament and will be published on the TPT Website.
- Maximum handicaps for both Men and Women will be set at 50 pins.
- It is the responsibility of all bowlers to ensure their handicap is correct, as this will NOT be INCREASED after play commences.
2.3 Individual Averages
Individual Averages shall be determined from existing bowling averages in the following precedence:
- Current Tenpintour tournament average over 18 or more games played within the previous 10 Tenpintour events (9 TPT events and the Masters).
- Tenpintour tournament average over 18 or more games played during the previous season i.e. back to January 2019.
- Certified current highest league average (minimum 21 games).
- Composite tournament average for events played in last 12 months (minimum 21 games).
- Bowlers without current averages may enter the tournament with a handicap of scratch and their score will be used to determine their future Tenpin Tour Handicap after 18 games have been bowled.
Players that only have averages based on Sport or Challenge patterns will be re-rated as follows. Challenge score +5%; Sport only +10% (combination of sport and challenge will be calculated pro-rata.) - Where bowlers are unable to provide a Tenpintour average (options 1 & 2) their average will be reviewed after the initial 8 game block. If the average of these 8 games is more than 10% above the entering average, the players entering average will be re-rated to 2/3 of the difference between the entering average and the average bowled in the initial eight games. Example:
- Entering average =180
- Bowled average =210
- Re-rated entering average would be =200
- Players will use either their entering average or their current Tenpintour average whichever is higher until they have achieved a Tenpintour average over 18 games. (options 1 & 2 above)
2.4 Bonus System
Bowlers will carry forward a Bonus from one tournament to another based on the following criteria:
- Bowlers who fail to cash will receive 1 bonus pin in the next tournament up to a maximum of 6 pins.
- All bowlers who cash will lose 100% of their accumulated bonus pins.
2.5 Prize fund allocation
- Each entry will contain a payment of £10 for Prize fund and this will be the minimum amount that will be paid out at the end of each event.
- Prize Funds will be distributed by online payment into individual bank accounts within 3 days of the results being received by the administration team.
- All bowlers that finish in the top 33% (Approximately) will be have their prize money of £10 paid back.
- The top finishers will receive a position bonus in addition to the £10 paid for qualifying using the following proportions.
- Men: 1st 30%, 2nd 20%, 3rd 15%, 4th 10%, 5th 8%, 6th 6%, 7th 5%, 8th 3%
- Ladies: 1st 42%, 2nd 25%, 3rd 18%, 4th 15%
- Plus, the winners in each section will receive a BTBA Tenpintour Winners bowling shirt
2.6 Order of Merit
Order of Merit (OOM) ranking points will be awarded throughout the year based on final positions at each event.
OOM points will be awarded as follows:
- Men: 1st: 100 points, 2nd:99 points, 3rd: 98 points decreasing to 1 point for 100th place.
- Women: 1st: 50 points, 2nd: 49 points, 3rd: 48 points decreasing to 1 point for 50th place.
- Final Positions in the Order of Merit will be taken from your best 6 appearances from 9 events held during the year
In the event of tied positions, the prize money will be shared equally among the competitors involved and complementary entry into the Masters will be as follows.
- The bowler with the Highest Individual Average at the conclusion of the season
- The bowler with the highest individual Scratch High Game during the season, or the next highest game and so on.
2.6 Proposed Order of Merit prize list
3 The BTBA British Tenpintour Masters (summary)
At the conclusion of the season we will be running the BTBA British Tenpintour Masters.
This will be a handicap event based on your Individual average at the conclusion of the season.
Eligibility for the event will be the same as for all BTBA Tenpin Tour events but you should have participated in 5 (five) events throughout the season to qualify.
Depending on the number of entries received, we anticipate that there will be a separate Men’s and Ladies section.
The event will run from Friday to Sunday. Each bowler will bowl two qualifying blocks of 5 games, one block must be played on Friday and the other block can be played on either Friday or Saturday. Re-entries may be available from Friday afternoon and throughout Saturday.
Any bowlers that have significant difficulty bowling on the Friday should contact one of the TPT admin team to see if we are able to assist in any way.
Full details of the Masters event will be published within a separate brochure later in the season
At the conclusion of the season we will be running the BTBA British Tenpintour Masters.
This will be a handicap event based on your Individual average at the conclusion of the season.
Eligibility for the event will be the same as for all BTBA Tenpin Tour events but you should have participated in 5 (five) events throughout the season to qualify.
Depending on the number of entries received, we anticipate that there will be a separate Men’s and Ladies section.
The event will run from Friday to Sunday. Each bowler will bowl two qualifying blocks of 5 games, one block must be played on Friday and the other block can be played on either Friday or Saturday. Re-entries may be available from Friday afternoon and throughout Saturday.
Any bowlers that have significant difficulty bowling on the Friday should contact one of the TPT admin team to see if we are able to assist in any way.
Full details of the Masters event will be published within a separate brochure later in the season