The 2025-26 Senior Scratch Bowling Association features an entry fee increase with all of the additional money going to the prize list.

The entry fee goes from $68 to $80, and the high game pot entry goes from $6 to $10, which will eliminate $1 bills from the check-in process, hopefully speeding it up, SSBA administrator Gary Brinker said in his email announcing the 2025-26 schedule, which is attached to this story as a PDF.

The organization runs tournaments every month or so during the bowling season across Iowa — and occasionally the Illinois side of the Quad Cities — for bowlers 50 and older.

The regular singles format is six games of qualifying followed by a stepladder finals, usually on house shots.

Special format events include the 111 Doubles in which a duo’s combined ages must total at least 111, and the 50/50 4-Man and Doubles the SSBA runs with the Greater Iowa Bowling Association.

I typically bowl in a few SSBA events each year as my schedule allows. They are fun with good competition for us raisins, and striking shoes usually are required.