Maurice Glazer MBE Profile

The BTBA was formed on 26 May 1961, set up under its first General Secretary, Maurice Glazer - then a professional photographer in Dalston, East London. His High Street shopfront became the first official residence of the British Tenpin Bowling 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 turn to for resolution of conflict in the event of disagreement.

The rule-book was copied almost verbatim from the ABC original, and the annual membership subscription was Five Shillings (now 25p), which at the prevailing exchange rate was the Sterling equivalent of the ABC's annual subscription of One Dollar. With about half-a-million members the ABC found this provided them with adequate funds, but it was insufficient to run the BTBA, given that only a few thousand British bowlers had so far joined.

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 (and unnecessary) re-surfacing of lanes. The proprietors rebelled and set up their own rival organisation, the Tenpin Bowling Proprietors Association (TBPA), in 1967. An acrimonious Annual General Meeting of the BTBA saw most of the governing council resign, leaving Maurice Glazer to regroup, and bring back all decisions to the BTBA head office, but it took several years to achieve a rapprochement with the proprietors.

Maurice continued to follow his instincts in the best interest of British bowlers, became President of FIQ and was awarded an MBE for his service to the sport. - Source Wikipedia