The BTBA was formed on 26 May 1961. The General Secretary was Maurice Glazer, at that time a professional photographer in Dalston, 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.
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.
BTBA
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