Good conversation - I initially read the thread and said "Well obviously you must fill when you have the opportunity", but Jaz is right. They truly are fill balls to get a complete score. However, that's the point. You have to finish the game.  I'm reminded of the World Bowling Tour finals when Dom Barrett was awarded 300 for 10 strikes in their "experimental" system... That didn't feel like a 300 to him, or probably to anyone. Is it just our conditioning or are the last two strikes "fill balls".

Bottom line, would you rather blow a 10 pin in the 9th, or on your count ball in the 10th.

 
The answer is obvious, but that's not the real question.
 
Is a game really clean if you have 2 chances to knock down all ten pins, and fail??

so then the front eleven followed by a nine count is not a clean game??

Are you allowed to shoot at the remaining pin?

point taken, but others on this post said if you went 9 then spare last ball needed to be a strike?

 
It depends on how "pure" you want to take the definition. Personally (for me), unless I see a strike or spare on every possible shot, I don't consider the game clean. That means if I throw a spare in the tenth and follow with a 9 count, then no clean game. 
 
This purist definition rubs a lot of bowlers the wrong way, so it will never be a generally accepted definition. But to me, it's a no brainer to require all 10 pins to be knocked down if you have 2 chances to do so. Otherwise, the game isn't really all that clean, even if the failure is in the 10th.

Brooklyn's count the same as flush strikes.  Pocket 7-10 punishes you more than a beaker that caves in the right side leaving a single pin.  Nothing wrong with being s purist, but the USBC is logical even if it doesn't meet the purist standards. 

Bowlers can hold themselves to higher standards.  But to insist the USBC perception of a clean game is incorrect and impose a different set of rules is another thing.  It is getting to the point where everyone is so divisive in their perceptions that anything that differs is wrong.

Ten clean frames is wrong?
Using two hands is wrong?
Lofting the gutters is wrong?
House shots are wrong?

Next thing you know if you throw a Brooklyn it doesn't count as a strike, you know, due to "integrity of the game."  Pins bouncing out of the back to pick up splits is against the "integrity of the game."  Not using urethane is against the "integrity of the game."

It is getting out of hand.  Bowlers can no longer allow each other to enjoy the game the way they want without being bombarded with condemnation for not following some inane know-it-all telling them they are wrong.

So you walk up to a guy who just shot 299 at Nationals to finish a 30 clean set.  You tell him that the 9 count fill cost him his 30 clean.   REALLY?

To me that's clean as he doesn't have an opportunity to spare up. 

Quote from: Luke Morningwood on September 11, 2017, 01:24:31 PM

So you walk up to a guy who just shot 299 at Nationals to finish a 30 clean set.  You tell him that the 9 count fill cost him his 30 clean.   REALLY?

To me that's clean as he doesn't have an opportunity to spare up.

 
Exactly. But if you have 2 opportunities to knock all 10 pins down and fail, why would anyone want credit for clean?? That's what doesn't make sense.