I have a question regarding an issue that came up during league.  We have a 5-man team and the previous week we had 3 regular members and 2 subs.  Our league rules state a legal lineup consists of 3 rooster bowlers.  Our issue came when one of our regular members was injured prior to bowling. She managed to bowl the first game but was unable to start/finish the 2^nd or 3^rd game.  I am the team captain and was not there.  We took a blind score for the injured bowler and finished bowling.  We were able to win all 4 games (the other team had 2 bowlers missing.)  The following week our standings were updated and showed that we only won 1 game.  When I questioned this with our league secretary I was told that when our injured bowler was not able to finish bowling that made our line up illegal and we forfeited the 2^nd, 3^rd game and total pins-we lost 3 out of 4.  I tried to find a USBC rule to confirm the case and didn’t see anything to verify either way.  Was my league secretary correct in making up forfeit these games? 

I thought I read that if you have a legal lineup at the start of a series and someone is injured you don't forfeit you can use a abs score.  I don't know where it was or even if I imagined it.

D.M. nope, no bowling allowed with no legal lineup but the team could have asked for an opportunity to bowl the two games at a later date and because they probably were not advised of that right do have 15 days to protest the ruling made arbitrarily by the league secretary and if the board agrees allow the two teams to throw out the two games and rebowl them.

Don Gates

p.s., even if it goes beyond the 15 days rule if the board and the teams want to rebowl they could appeal to national and likely get the right to rebowl.  There is no excuse for the league officers not to know the rules but it happens and what the league wants and is in the best interest of the league can sometimes get an ok with 'wiggle room' all important as a tool at local and national levels.