What happens if my child has to miss a league session?

Question

Accepted Answer

These are the USBC defaults. A league can adopt different rules for absentee scores.

Bowl ahead (pre-bowl) or make it up later: in youth leagues, an individual bowler may bowl unopposed before or after the scheduled date unless league rules say otherwise. Ask before the scheduled time. The league supervisor or league official (or a committee they appoint) decides requests. Bad weather that stops a team fielding a legal lineup counts as an emergency.

If no substitute bowls: the team gets an absentee score for your child:

each game = your child's current average minus 10 pins
if your child has no established average yet, the absentee score is 120
in a handicap league, handicap is based on the actual current average (or on 120)

A vacancy score is different: it's used when a team doesn't have enough bowlers on its roster. In youth leagues it equals the average of the lowest-average bowler on the opposing team's roster (the next-lowest for a second vacancy).