A lot of people love to play - and love to have leagues, but don't know a fair way to set it up. Obviously everything can be tailored to the people playing, but here is my proposed setup so that you can start your own leagues. Feel free to tell me about you league and use the forums to post all your league information. I can add your players in to your own thread so that only your league players can post about your results / handicaps / schedules / etc...

My proposed league:

You will want to set your handicap at an 80% of 230. This will somewhat eliminate the difference between the good players and the bad players and make it fun and fair for all. (If you base it on a 200, a player that averages 220+ will basically win the league) For instance, you run a 5 series qualifier to get initial averages. So you take the average of the 5 games. You have 10 people with teams of 2. You find the average of every individual player so that everyone has an individual handicap. If someone has to bring in a sub, then you use their individual handicap if they have one, or you give them a 50% of the handicap from their average on their card, down to 0. Now, you do a round robin, so that every week each team plays a different team (play each team twice total), so it would be 8 weeks. Everyone pays $10 (or whatever) entry per week. Highest score every week has the option of winning $20 or so. At the end, you pay 50% to 1st, 30% to 2nd, and 20% to 3rd. You recalculate the handicap after every week to include that weeks series scores and the 4 series before (this eliminates sandbagging on qualifying. On a weekly basis, the team with the highest combined score, per game, gets 1 point. For ties, both teams get .5 point. You get a bonus point for winning all 3 matches. Total points throughout the league determine the top 3 places.

Handicap example:
Player1 shoots 5 series - 650, 600, 550, 580, 620 for a total of 3000. 3000/15 = 200 avg per game. (230-avg)*.8=Handicap, so (230-200)*.8=24 (Always round to even number).
Player2 shoots 5 series - 480, 420, 500, 500, 480 for a total of 2400. 2400/15 = 160 avg per game.
(230-160)*.8=56
So, if Player1 were to play player 2 straight up, then Player1 would add 24 to their score, and Player2 would add 56 to their score. So if Player1 shot a 232, and Player2 shot a 201, then Player1 total is 256 and Player2 total is 257, so player 2 wins the match.
For team, if Player1 and Player2 are on the same team, then the combined handicap would be 24+56=80, so they would have 201+257+80=538 vs the other team they were playing. The team with the higher total wins the point.


So - the structure ends up like this:
10 people - $100 per week into pool.

Team 1
Player 1 = 170 avg = 48 Handicap
Player 2 = 185 avg = 36 Handicap
Team 1 total handicap = 84

Team 2
Player 1 = 230 avg = 0 Handicap
Player 2 = 220 avg = 8 Handicap
Team 2 total handicap = 8

Week 1 Team 1 vs Team 2, Team 3 vs Team 4, etc....
Game 1 - Team 1 shoots 180 and 200 for 380 combined, Team 2 shoots 240 and 180 for 420 combined. Team 1 wins 464 to 428, and Team 1 gets 1 point
Etc..... For 3 match points and 1 bonus point IF 1 team sweeps the other team.
Player1 on Team4 has the highest score for the week with a 279 and wins $20. $80 goes towards the prize pool.

Week 2 Team 1 vs Team 3, Team 2 vs Team 4, etc.....

Etc...

At the end of the 8 weeks, $640 is in the prize pool.
Team 1 has 10 points
Team 2 has 14 points
Team 3 has 16 points
Team 4 has 10 points
Team 5 has 16 points

Team 3 and 5 tie for first, Team 2 gets 3rd
Team 3 and 5 play a finals match against each other, consisting of a series (or first to 3 points, etc...) to determine 1st and 2nd place. Team 5 wins and gets $320, putting Team 3 in 2nd for $192, and Team 2 wins $128

..............................

Feel free to ask any questions if I didn't make this clear!
Have a GREAT league!!!

Telly

Telly,
Starting a league Sunday night. I used most of the suggestions save for the teams. I'm looking at 12 people with each person being their own team. I am using a 60%, 25% and 15% for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd. There will be a pot for 50 cents for missed spares and gutter balls 2.00 for an under 100 games (doubt that would happen). The high game handicap for the night gets the pot. I'm thinking the pot should run anywhere from 8 to about $25 a night. The other bonus would be a one time (per player) $100.00 bonus for a 300 game. The $100.00 bonus comes out of the end of year pot while the weekly pot bonus is independant of the end of year monies. This is the first try at a league, so wish me luck. PS. this is me being selfish because without this I think the bar would lose the SSB machine shortly. Hopefully this will pick up the interest in the game, and allow me to keep this part time job of mine!

Good luck!

Fun additions!

I bowl in regular, actual bowling leagues . . .have for 30+ years . . .why I love bowling AND Silver Strike . . . .in league rules...handicaps are NOT rounded UP ....if handicap comes to 24.6...you get a 24 handicap . . .read USBC (US Bowling Congress) league rules in regard to handicapping . . . should be the same in Silver Strike . . .