As earlier reported the European Tenpin Bowling Federation has adopted a standardized 8-pin handicap for women on the 2006 European Bowling Tour (EBT). Former PBA champion John Forst (pictured) has stated in a previous column "After watching several tournaments and putting out various conditions, eight pins just seems to be the right number."

John, who now works for Kegel, the world's leading lane maintenance company, is one of company's most wanted 'flying lanemen'. Since starting traveling in 1999, John has visited most of the major amateur tournaments in America, Asia and Europe.

Bowlingdigital has asked John for his opinion on this topic again and to consider one of the questions that is asked during most EBT stops: "Why do women get pins at all?"

During any given tournament, it is always interesting to listen to the bowlers giving their opinion on what happened or what is going on in the tournament when they have just finished bowling.

The emotion that occurs while playing helps to form the opinion which then gives us the social answer if the tournament is a success or not. One of the questions that is asked during most European Bowling Tour (EBT) stops is: "Why do women get pins at all?"

To answer that question we need to look at the reasons why the bowlers are talking about it. Let's start with the EBT. First of all, in Europe there are plenty of smaller bowling centers (that are 12 to 20 lanes) who still appreciate competitive bowling and will host their own tournaments.

The European Tenpin Bowling Federation (ETBF) is the group who oversees the rules and regulations for competitive bowling in Europe and have a vested interest in seeing the sport grow. The ETBF started to organize all of these tournaments into what is now known as the EBT.

In 2005, there are 20 tournaments on the schedule. The top 50 men and top 50 women earn ranking points based on the final standings of the tournament. The top 8 male and top 8 female point leaders end up with an expense paid, free trip to the World Ranking Masters tournament held the following year.

Obviously, for proprietors to have a successful tournament they must have entries for the tournament in order to break even financially. These tournaments usually will run the whole week with multiple squads per day and allow multiple re-entries for the bowlers. In order for the proprietors to get entries they had to make decisions within the tournament.

One of the ways was by giving the ladies their own prize fund as there are just too few women in Europe who play competitively to support their own tournament. By adding the women's prize fund, it added a few female players - but not a significant amount to support the tournament.

The proprietors then started giving "pins-per-game" to the ladies in hopes of giving them a fair shot at making the cut and getting paid. The amount of pins used as a handicap has moved around quite a bit from 3-pins all the way up to10-pins a game, but most have settled on 8-pins per game.

This handicap system has been the best way to give the ladies a chance in the tournament and it also helped the proprietors in getting more entries. As a matter of fact, this year's tournament at the Aalborg International tournament in Denmark saw the ladies represent over 30% of the total entries.

This has made the tournaments (at the very least) a break even proposition for the proprietors and has made the tournaments more socially fun for all the bowlers and spectators.

The past two tournaments saw the number of participants who bowled at least one squad was 236 entries. The tournament in Vienna, Austria had 51 women entries, or 21.61 % of the total field. In Naples, Italy there were 35 women contestants out of 249 entries or, 14.056 %, and if you add the re-entries, then the percentages go a little higher.

These numbers are good enough to make the tournaments at the very least not a hardship on the proprietors wallet while offering a good enough prize fund for the players as each tournament paid $10,000 Euros for first place (approx. US$11,780).

Now that the question of the cost of paying off the prize fund for the proprietor is answered, lets talk about the question of how many pins are right for a tournament.

In the tournament in Aalborg earlier this year it was determined that the number of 8-pins was pretty close to the right number for women, even though most of the better male bowlers would argue about that particular number.

We will look at the two most recent tournaments in Vienna, Austria and Naples, Italy to see how they faired compared to the pins that they gave to the women. 2005 Vienna Open, Austria
# of Bowlers: 236
Pins given to the Women: 8 pins per game
Score to make the cut: 1305 for 6 games
# of Women players: 51
# of Women players Making the cut: 9
% of Women players total in tournament: 21.61
% of women making the cut: 17.65

Oltremare Championships, Italy
# of Bowlers: 249
Pins given to the Women: 10 pins per game
Score to make the cut: 1272 for 6 games
# of Women players: 35
# of Women players Making the cut: 14
% of Women players total in tournament: 14.056
% of women making the cut: 40.00

By looking at the numbers above, you can see that the two tournaments gave a different amount of pins per game to the women. The total entries were close, even though the tournament in Naples had lost a few bowlers to the QubicaAMF Bowling World Cup and to the Weber Cup - all of which were being contested at the same time. The tournament in Naples also had more of the top women players due to the closeness of the point's race for the ranking system.

Looking at the numbers in Vienna, 21.61 % of the women and 17.65 % made the cut shows not much of a difference. In fact, they were actually short by two players for making the cut to be right, according to the numbers.

The tournament in Naples only had 14.056% of the players as women, yet they had 40% of the bowlers making the cut - which is about 9 more making the cut then the math would lead you to believe.

This shows that 10-pins might have been too high in Naples, but this is not taking into account everything else that goes into a bowling tournament like; the scores, the pattern, the lane surface, quality of the players, and the type of pins used.

Averages for the 6 games of qualifying
Vienna compared to Naples
# of players in parenthesis

In the cut for Women: 214.0556 (9) to 211.65 (14)
In the cut for the Men: 226.4645 (47) to 219.71 (36)
Difference in average for Men: +12.4089 to +8.06
Averages for all Women: 188.58 (51) to 191.81 (35)
Averages for all Men: 201.87 (185) to 194.81 (214)
Difference in average for Men: +13.29 to +3.78

If we look purely at the scores of the tournaments, the event in Vienna had the ladies at a 13.2913 disadvantage for all players, but the finalist were slightly less, at 12.4089. If you go by these numbers, then the women were in need of at least 4 more pins to be equitable, but this tournament was socially acceptable because the majority led and the women did get two players into the top 16.

If we look at the numbers from Naples, there was only a 3.78 advantage for the men over the women for all players, and the finalist had the men leading by 8.06 pins per game. This tournament gave the women 10 pins a game, yet 8 pins probably would have been correct.

In the final analysis, for the three tournaments that have been looked at for the EBT and for tournament directors and to bowling center proprietors, 8 pins to the women per game is the right number for Europe and their tour.

We saw in Aalborg, Denmark that 8-pins was close, but in Vienna, Austria 8-pins was a little short. In Naples, Italy 8-pins perhaps was a little high. These tournaments all have different things to factor in that go into making the decisions of: scoring pace, lane surface, conditioner pattern, pin carry, and the type of pins used all of which can change to favor the men or the women.

In the long run this is why we have these tournaments and we look at these things afterwards to determine what is right.