Getting started
What bowlinq is, how a league comes about and what there is to do before the first match day.
What bowlinq is
bowlinq runs a bowling league over a whole season: teams and members, schedule, line-ups, results, points, averages and handicaps. Results are entered at the lane and everything is worked out at once — the table is finished before anybody leaves the centre.
What bowlinq is not:
- Not a scoring computer. What goes in is the final score of a game, not frame by frame. The pins are counted by the lane.
- Not a public league page. Everything inside a league is visible only to its members. The one thing that leaves is the calendar feed you share yourself.
- Not a tournament system. bowlinq plays match days with fixtures between two teams, no knockout rounds.
From nothing to the first match day
Create an account
Through Sign up, with an e-mail address and a password or with Google. The details are under Account & installation.
Create the league
In the app, Add league. The dialog asks for three things — name, line-up, scoring — and only the name is required. Everything else can follow later in the league settings: Setting up a league.
Anybody who was handed an invitation link pastes it into the same dialog and is a member of an existing league instead.
Create the teams
Every team gets a name and a colour; the colour is unique within the league and is what makes the team recognisable in every list. More teams than the settings allow cannot be created — Teams & players.
Take in the members
Two ways: you write somebody down yourself — for everyone without an account — or you send an invitation link. Both stand side by side, and nobody needs an account to appear in line-ups, results and the table.
Generate the schedule
Teams, rounds, a first date and an interval turn into a schedule. The preview shows it before anything is saved: Schedule.
Play the match day
Set the line-up, enter the results, confirm. How an evening runs is on The match day.
You do not have to keep track of what is still missing: the sidebar counts the open points and the overview writes them out — only the ones you can settle yourself.
The one sentence that orders everything
As long as no match day is confirmed, every rule of the league can still be changed. With the first confirmation the scoring rules settle — handicap, ghost, the four point scorings and the confirmation mode. Teams, members and the schedule stay movable until the end of the season.
Why: changing a scoring rule after games have been bowled would rewrite a table that already exists. The one way there is deliberately Back into preparation — and that deletes every result entered so far. See Season & archive.
Who may do what
| Role | Responsible for |
|---|---|
| League management | Everything in the league: settings, teams, members, schedule, results |
| Co-league management | The same, except handing the league over or deleting it |
| Captain | The people in their own team, its line-up and its results |
| Player | Entering the results of their own match day; everything else to read |
In full on Teams & players.
Next
- Setting up a league — every setting, field by field
- The match day — the evening from line-up to confirmation
- Points & standings — how pins turn into points