Boy I wish the men's got a BONUS payout!!
EJ, I am not having a go at you, I think your doing a great job both with the bowl and the tournament and I think your tournament will be a great success.
This bonus payout for ladies format has been a pet hate of mine for a while and something that I feel is somewhat unfair to the men, for the following reasons;
Male Bowler A makes it to the final 12 and after averaging 236 in matchplay finishes in 4th position and earns himself
$1000.
Female Bowler B makes it to the matchplay and after averaging 203 finishes in 10th position and earns herself $600. She is also the top placed female so she earns a bonus $500. Meaning that even though she has finished nearly 400 pins behind Male Bowler A, she pockets
$1100 ($100 more than 4th place). This just doesn't seem right or fair.
I feel the fairer way to go is similar to what Burdekin and Mount Louisa do with their Opens. The women have the choice of paying a reduced entry fee and only bowling against other women for a seperate prize fund, or they can pay the full entry and bowl against everyone and receive the appropriate prize fund (e.g. in this example Female Bowler B finishes 10th so she receives $600).
To take my example to the extreme a few years ago Ann-Marie Putney came up and bowled the Sun City Open. Now this woman is one of the most talented bowlers Australia has ever seen. So if she was to come to Innisfail and predictably finishes in 1st position she would receive $3000 ($2500 + $500). Yet the maximum any male bowler can achieve is $2500, even though they paid the same entry fee.
It is bad enough guys get disadvantaged when you go to a tournament in a really hot centre like........CAIRNS!! and in Matchplay the girls are allowed to wear shorts, yet the guys are required to wear long pants.
I realise that some people will disagree with me for a variety of reasons which is totally cool, as everyone is entitled to their opinion (Obviously most women would have a vested interest in keeping this format
). But considering that in almost all NQ tournaments men make up at leat 75+% of the entire field (Food for thought!!)
I recognise the need to encourage more females and juniors to bowl tournaments to further develop our sport, so maybe their could be encouragement awards for top placed female and top placed junior (i.e a new ball etc)
Once again I must re-iterate that in no way shape or form is this a personal attack on EJ, the Innisfail Open or anyone associated with the bowl. I know a hell of a lot of hard work has gone into organising and promoting this tournament by E-J and his family and I will be there with bells on.
Cheers
Steve
PS If you are a female bowler who is incensed at my comments, and are thinking of replying with some form of witty response and your name is NOT down to bowl in the Innisfail Open (especially if you are from NQ), then give yourself an upper cut and ring EJ and put your name down or post a new entry under my post with the words "EJ can you please put me in A or D Squad!!)