This post was originally started by Gene Kanak about 6 weeks back, but I asked him to remove it at the time for a couple of reasons. I've decided to resurrect the topic and ask for some more insight.
I am currently sitting in second place at the Hoinke doubles this year. (The tournament is over. The final results, which were pending verification of averages, should be made official over the next week or so). My partner and I had taken over the lead in the Doubles event with about 3 weeks to go in the tournament. To the surprise of many, a doubles team edged our score in the final week by five pins. I came to learn that this doubles team from North Carolina was getting 260 pins handicap, meaning we beat them by over 200 pins scratch.
http://www.hoinke.com/tourstandings.htmlBeing a bit curious about the handicap team that beat us, I did a little research on one of the guys posted on the leader board. I was unable to verify the identity of the second bowler since his hometown isn't listed on the leader board and many people sharing his last name and first initial have established averages posted on bowl.com.
The Hoinke Tournament only accepts averages of 42 games or more, and they don't recognize averages established in summer leagues, even if USBC sanctioned. Follow this link and look at one of the two bowler's average history. His Hoinke tournament entering average is 168. I'll let you be the judge on whether this is legitimate.
http://members.bowl.com/SearchUSBC/ViewMember.aspx?prefix=1717&suffix=614Also notice the award score, which I may say is quite impressive for a 168 bowler. Another impressive note: I was able to dig up that he finished in 2nd place in the 2005 Las Vegas mini-eliminator (a scratch tournament!) for $15,000.
www.minieliminator.com/news-results/news-results/Final%20Results%20with%20Scorecard.pdfThe tournament office has this information, yet I've been told there may not be any adjustment of his entering average. The tournament's stance is: when going through the tournament rules, if an average re-rate won't hold up in court, it won't happen. So, unless he slipped up and can be average-adjusted based on some specific tournament rule, he is going to walk away with the $30,000 first place Hoinke doubles prize. I can't say I blame the tournament office, as they've been taken to court over re-rates in the past. While they want to maintain the integrity of their tournament, they won't take any action that could result in legal fees.
I feel this discrepancy of average vs. ability is blatant, and I feel as I am about to be cheated out of a fairly prestigious trophy, along with a significant amount of prize fund. Yes, deep down I feel as we did win the tournament. Unfortunately that will be lost as years from now no one will care or know about about who should have won it, but only who did win it.
Does anyone have any comments or insight? Is there any action I should or could take, or to quote Jim Carrey, do I just "bend over and take it up the tail pipe"?
Your input is appreciated.
O
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Dominic Pelc
Edited on 1/12/2008 6:54 PM
