Bowling a double shift as a makeup

[Frank Goebel]

The last time my Monday league had holidays on Mondays in December and January, makeups were bowled on Sunday so as to not extend the season.

Our league vote this time to bowl two doubles. Being a handicap league, and one that does lineups based on averages (thanks to BLS for being able to easily handle that part), scores will have to be processed between shifts...in BLS, as well as on AMF/Advantage which does not interface with BLS.

The league may vote, once it determines dates (which won't be until at least January), to waive a couple of its by-laws. I don't know if it would be legal, but they might decide to vote to use the same handicap for both shifts regardless of scores. At least, by the time of these makeups (no earlier than week 17), averages won't change much anyway, but I don't think such an act would be kosher for USBC. (Besides, I'd have to override averages for both AMF/Advantage and BLS!) They may also vote, though, to maintain lineup sequence, although I'd have to force BLS not to change lineups (leave lineups as they were) for those two weeks. That sort of act, if properly voted, I think would be legal. Speaking personally, I have no intention of suggesting either acts.

I don't even know if they will want to have the lanes re-oiled for the second shift, although the house is large enough to use a second set of (certified) lanes, in case someone comes up with the idea of doing that. I'm not sure I want to suggest it. If they do re-oil 20 lanes, I'll have enough time to process scores.

I know I put a lot there, but I wanted to give those interested in offering suggestions, cautions, or whatever, some background in what the rules are, before commenting.

If you've been a secretary (or officer) for a league that did a double shift as a way of doing a makeup, how did things go? What rules did the league alter for the occasion? How did you prepare yourself ahead of time? What unexpected pitfalls came to pass? What would you suggest to someone who faces such a situation?

If you weren't a secretary (officer), but still a bowler, in this situation, what were your observations of how things went?

If you've never been in this type of situation, but you have some insight, what would your suggestions be for someone going into this?

I have a couple pre-considered thoughts on what I might do, but I won't put them here so we might get a wide variety of responses. Remember, there are no "wrong" responses (other than to violate a USBC rule or the rights of a bowler or proprietor) so please, if you have any suggestion(s), share them with others. I have a feeling that someone who doesn't post may still take something from the discourse I hope follows.

[Patrick Lajko]

I really frown on a whole league doing a "makeup" due to a holiday. If you have position rounds, there can be a real problem. Imagine week 10 being on a holiday so you decide to do a true "makeup" in March. You skip week 10 and the following week you bowl week 11. Week 12 is a position round - so what happens how? What happens when you do a makeup a few months later. Besides all the confusion of the bowlers on what average to use for week 10.

It is better to simply adjust dates and keep all bowling sequential. If week 10 is on a holiday, then move week 10 to the next week. YOu ONLY change dates. You do nothing to alter the team pairings. Whenever you decide to bowl an extra week, just insert that date into the schedule where ever it happens to occur and move all other dates down a week. So if you decide to bowl a double shift when at week 20, then that week you bowl week 20 AND week 21. You change the dates do 20 and 21 on the same date. Now next week you'll be bowling week 22.

As for averages, if it is even a few weeks into the season, averages would change little. So I would say OK if the league wanted to maintain the same averages for both sessions. If someone had a laptop or you could use the center's computer, someone could enter scores as each pair finished. When the last pair finished, you'd be done and could print new standing sheets and recaps. There would be very little delay.

You could say to just enter your current average in the scoring system BUT keeping in mind that an average might change after the first set (when BLS processes everything) some of the team results might change if the teams were very close. A picky person could manually compute new handicaps. If you put on the standing sheet that week what a person would need to bowl to raise or lower their avarege, you'd have a quick idea what averages did change and then only recompute the ones that changed. Print an average table to make it easier.

[Frank Goebel]

I was going to wait until more responses, but the whole reason for doing makeups is because they want the season over because a significant number of our bowlers are in softball or golf leagues that would overlap; Doubles, because these guys have Monday as their "recreation" night and don't want to do another night...second leagues also factor in.

As for sequence of weeks - that is exactly what will happen, which I all but "decreed" already out of logic. We're fortunate that the first half ends (with a position round) immediately before the holidays. Three weeks later, the second half starts. And yes, the double would be sequential weeks, I'd already planned for that, once they meet and choose dates.

They'd be smart enough (gawd, I hope anyway) not to do a double involving a position round: Weeks 24, 31, 32 being them. The league, believe it or not, considered dropping the weeks but still paying the house lineage under contract. Soundly defeated. I guess they have that much intelligence.

You may not remember, Patrick ... I won't be bowling (injury disability, spinal fracture). Throwing a ball will be the last "recovery" thing I'll do, so I can enter scores easy enough as the early-finishers do. This one thing would separate my situation from any "double" anyone else might have done, but I still am interested in making whatever transpires happen as smoothly and as quickly as I can.

The most tedious part would be to change lineup order based on average so, unless a league rule is waived, it's average changes and then possible lineup changes that I'd have to manually do on the AMF/Advantage (A.M.F. = Always Means Frustration). But while they bowl the first shift, I would already know what teams would have potential lineup changes, and I could, since not bowling, observe the bowlers and watch for scores that might indicate that happening.

Always have to think ahead...which is why I started this thread in the first place. Your responses, and I'm certain whatever else comes along, have started that ball rolling.

[Jim Hough]

Our league always ran into this as we bowled on Thursday evenings and the week before Thanksgiving we always bowled a double shift. The way I handled it was everyone used the same average and handicap for both shifts and then when I got home and entered the first shift any averages/handicaps that changed were used for the next shift that was bowled. All teams were aware of the fact that the second shift standings may change due to the scores rolled the first shift. All were comfortable with this as I have been using this software for several years and they were all comfortable with it being correct. I did have a few people that could not wait and figured out the changes manually which was fine with me as along as they understood that the secreatary's version was correct unless they could prove that I had incorrectly entered a score. I would also print out a recap of the scores for both the shifts so if any questions came up the next time we met I would have the print outs of the scores to compair to what they thought it should have been. I never had anyone question the result but I was prepared just in case. This worked well for our league when we did double shifts. We did not bowl our line ups by averages however and we used a 7 point system. I would think that that should still work for your league also, as like you said the averages are not likely to change that much that far into the season. Our league has since decided to just lengthen the season as it was getting to late at night to be finishing as we have several people that had to get up the next day at 3 and 4 am for there jobs.

[Frank Goebel]

I brought this thread back up to continue as we've now actually scheduled a double, and in this case, with just one week's notice. See the "'Difficult' President" thread.

My steps to streamline:

I will only do brackets in the first shift. Only the winners would likely have enough $$$ for the second shift anyway, and with $2 handicap, I have close to 30 participants every week.

Announcements were printed in the standings. Patrick had suggested printing scores necessary to raise/lower averages in the standings, but that would be "lost" and probably not noticed. So instead, they'll go on the recaps.

Recaps for the first squad: Printed on the top half of a full sheet, bottom half blank. What I did was print a special report with those same scores (BLS can do this, thank you) needed, sorted by lane, so I can snip out about 1" of that report across the sheet and it would be a lane pair, paste that (manually) to the recap immediately below. Before I paste that though, I will print other instructions that will go below that.

Those instructions will include what those scores mean. They're important in that our league requires lineups to be low to high average, and there are a few teams that frequently change all season (at least by now, not many). They're also to bring me their sheet as soon as they record the scores for the third game...don't waste time adding this time only, as I'll get those totals at one point anyway.

The recap will also display the lane number to which each teams will go for their second shift.

I will physically take my computer to the center, and put it next to one of the two control desk registers. At least the center has a full integration with AMF/Advantage, so I can process scores at the desk, and with my computer (and printer) right there, I can compare the scores on both, and quickly make a lineup change (on AMF) on the spot, before turning on lane pairs for the second shift. As each lane pair finishes (I have ten), I can have the other register handle the checkout process for the scorekeepers and with that, process scores on the other.

The second shift should be able to start no less than five minutes after the last pair to finish the first shift throws the last ball. I will have someone time me on a stopwatch just to see and, I'll let everyone know how it goes. Again, it will be easier since I'm not bowling.

[Frank Goebel]

This will effectively end this thread, as we got through the double-shift very
nicely, and what was learned from it will be applied for the next time that
we go through it.

I went to a lot of trouble to set myself up for success - overkill, you could
say - but, I wanted to be overprepared rather than under. But in reality, I
didn't need the recaps, because I used a tool I had at hand, that being the
AMF/Advantage system. With that, I was able to grab scores from that
computer. I had already entered everyone's games one and two (again, I
am not bowling). For game three, I got those from the screens, and with
the totals matching on both computers, I was ready to go.

It took longer to go through the lineups for changes (per our rule, see other
posts in this thread), but that was easily done. I had my printer loaded to
do the recaps, and as they were printing, I perused (via the print preview
screens) the lineups, since BLS had already re-ordered based on average.
I got them done before the recaps were done printing, and the lanes went
on for the second shift just as soon as I could.

First shift began with lanes going on for practice at 6:15. The last lane to
be shut down for the second shift was at 11:30. The same lanes (by decree
of the president) were used without re-oiling (by decree of the president)
and without practice (also by decree of the president). I got many thank-
yous from league members (as well as a few complaints about the lane
conditions), but no gratitude from the president, who left before his anchor
started bowling his tenth frame. This paragraph will serve as a final entry
of the “'Difficult' President” thread, and I won't be posting this there.