Should ladies get eight pins start in tournaments?
by Dom Gall
In European Bowling Tour events and some others, it has become normal for even the greatest lady bowlers ever to get an 8 pin start. This does not play well with a lot of male players who argue that on certain lane patterns, ladies cannot be beaten and some of the best female bowlers are now equal to the men.
If it is not a question about two handers, it’s Lefties and when not them it’s ladies bonus. Being a male, one handed right hander can be tough it seems.
The tour is run by the European Tenpin Bowling Federation. In all the tournaments, men and women compete alongside each other, with women receiving a handicap per game. In these tournaments there is only one prize fund (not split for men & women), however some tournaments offer additional bonuses for the highest placed woman, which is often in addition to any of the regular prize money.
So sometimes, not only do ladies get a start, they get a chance to win more than a male player could win!
This one divides opinion, that’s for sure. Me, well I think scratch is scratch no matter what your age or gender. It seems some agree as when I posted the cover photo meme on social media, I received a reply from Three time World Champion and UK Tenpin Hall of Famer Zara Giles who stated..
“100% agree, sport is elitist, that’s the whole point of it. It certainly made it easier for me to cash a few years ago but also meant that even when I won without the bonus, people always assumed the bonus is what did it. In my opinion it’s only holding the elite ladies back, stopping them pushing harder to be equal and is very hard to swallow for men further down the pack making them less likely to enter.”
I know some of the men are not keen on the rule but what do other female bowlers think?
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