The British Tenpin Bowling Association (BTBA) is the official governing body of

Tenpin Bowling Ten-pin bowling is a type of bowling in which a bowler rolls a bowling ball down a wood or synthetic lane toward ten pins positioned evenly in four rows in an equilateral triangle. The objective is to knock down all ten pins on the first roll ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, affiliated to

Sport England Sport England is a non-departmental public body under the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. Its role is to build the foundations of a community sport system by working with national governing bodies of sport, and other funded par ...

. It is the official sanctioning body, recognised by International Bowling Federation, the sport's world governing body, for all competitions, leagues and tournaments held in the UK, and is the organisation responsible for the protection, integrity and development of the sport. It also oversees coaching for tenpin bowling at all levels, and is the official awarding body for formal coaching qualifications. The BTBA had a monthly magazine to keep members up to date with the latest news in the sport but nowadays news can mainly be found on Facebook.

History

The first British tenpin bowling centre opened at

Stamford Hill Stamford Hill is an area in Inner London, England, about 5.5 miles north-east of Charing Cross. The neighbourhood is a sub-district of Hackney, the major component of the London Borough of Hackney, and is known for its Hasidic community, the ...

. The two principal American manufacturers of tenpin machinery - AMF and Brunswick - had expanded their operations to the UK when it became apparent that they had virtually saturated their home market in the US at the end of the 1950s. The American Bowling Congress (ABC) took an interest in this expansion and helped British bowlers to set up their own governing body. The BTBA was formed on 26 May 1961. The General Secretary was Maurice Glazer, at that time a professional photographer in

Dalston Dalston () is an area of East London, in the London Borough of Hackney. It is northeast of Charing Cross. Dalston began as a hamlet on either side of Dalston Lane, and as the area urbanised the term also came to apply to surrounding areas includ ...

, East London. His shop became the first official residence of the Association. One of its original roles was to provide official recognition for newcomers to the fledgling sport of tenpin bowling as it grew in popularity across the UK. It standardised rules and playing regulations, laid down guidelines and provided an independent governing body to which reference could be made in the event of disagreement. The rule-book was copied almost verbatim from the ABC version. The annual membership subscription was five shillings), which at the prevailing exchange rate was the Sterling equivalent of the ABC's annual subscription of US$1. With about half-a-million members the ABC found this rate to provide them with adequate funds, but it was insufficient to run the BTBA, given that only a few thousand British bowlers were members. Authority was delegated to each of the counties under the auspices of local area representatives. Some of the area representatives soon came into conflict with the bowling centre proprietors, for example insisting on costly re-surfacing of lanes, which they argued was unnecessary. The proprietors rebelled and set up their own rival organisation, the Tenpin Bowling Proprietors Association (TBPA), in 1967. An Annual General Meeting of the BTBA saw this conflict rise to a head and most of the governing council resigned, leaving Glazer to regroup and bring back all decisions to the BTBA head office. It took several years to achieve a rapprochement with the proprietors. Glazer continued to follow his instincts in what he believed to be the best interest of British bowlers, became President of FIQAalborg 1978 https://issuu.com/bowleren/docs/1978_uem_aalborg_-_program/7 and was awarded an

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for his service to the sport. The BTBA has continued to have a considerable impact on the sport, however in recent times has struggled to engage with the next generation of bowlers. As bowling transitions from "sport" to "leisure", and bowling centres remove restrictions like the need to wear Bowling Shoes, Bowling as a sport is in huge decline in the UK. A large percentage of bowling leagues did not return to the centres after the COVID pandemic.

Members

Current members include the Hollywood Bowl, and

Tenpin Ten-pin bowling is a type of bowling in which a bowler rolls a bowling ball down a wood or synthetic lane toward ten pins positioned evenly in four rows in an equilateral triangle. The objective is to knock down all ten pins on the first roll ...

(formerly Megabowl) chains.

References

External links

Official BTBA websiteTenpin Bowling Proprietors AssociationScottish Tenpin Bowling Association PopularBritish University Tenpin Bowling Association
- University Bowling in England {{Ten pin bowling Bowling organizations Tenpin Bowling Association Tenpin bowling in the United Kingdom Sports organisations of the United Kingdom 1961 establishments in the United Kingdom Sports organizations established in 1961