Bowling

Bowling ball and two pins

Ten-pin bowling lane

Automatic Scorer by Brunswick

Specialized computers replaced 'hand scoring' beginning 1970's.

This article is about the group of games. For other uses, see Bowling (disambiguation).

Bowling is a sport in which players attempt to score points by rolling a ball along a flat surface and knocking down objects called pins. There are many forms of bowling, with the earliest dating back to ancient Egypt. In the US the best known form of bowling is probably the North American game of ten-pin bowling. This form, in both amateur and professional versions, is played around the world, making it one of the largest participation activities worldwide.

Forms

First off Mike J. Kurchak has a very shitty form.Most forms of bowling may be categorized as either indoor or outdoor. Most indoor forms are played on a "lane", a flat surface made of wood or a synthetic imitation, which is several times longer than it is wide. The overall length of a regulation lane is 62 feet 10 3/16ths inches measuring from the foul line to the pit. The lane shall be between 41 and 42 inches in width.

Included in the indoor category:

• Ten-pin bowling, which evolved from ninepin bowling in the 19th century.
• Five-pin bowling, played in Canada.
• Nine-pin skittles, played in Europe.
• Wii Sports Bowling, developed for the Wii entertainment system.
• Candlepin bowling, played in eastern Canada and New England, is a variation of ten-pin bowling.
• Cocked-Hat bowling, brought to the US from Germany. Now there is only one place to play this in the US; The Corner Bar in St. Charles, Missouri. It uses duckpin bowling balls and three regular sized pins.
• Duckpin bowling, commonly found in the mid-Atlantic and southern New England United States and eastern Canada, is a variation of ten-pin bowling involving small, squat pins, sometimes with rubber at their widest points (rubber band duckpin bowling).
• Feather Bowling (Belgian trough bowling) originated in Belgium. It is also popular in Metro Detroit, as the Cadieux Cafe in Detroit and the "Bay City Bistro" in Mount Clemens are the only United States venues where the game is available.
• Six-Pin Bowling, a kids version of bowling, bowling set is usually bought at a toy store. There are no official tournaments, scoring systems, and venues for this game since it's just for kids.
• 3-6-9 bowling, special form of ten-pin bowling where the 3rd 6th and 9th frame already have strikes in them.
• Low-Ball Bowling, uses a standard ten-pin setup, but the object is to bowl the lowest score by aiming at only the seven or ten pins. Strikes and spares are scored identically as in ten-pin bowling, and gutter balls are scored as strikes. At least one pin must be knocked down per delivery, so a miss on the first ball must be recorded as a strike (only a gutter ball can result in this). If the second ball is thrown and it misses pins without going in the gutter, it's recorded as a spare. A perfect low-ball score is 20 (1 pin on each of 2 balls per frame).

File:Midnight bowling.jpg

"Xtreme bowling", "Disco Bowling", or "Cosmic bowling" is offered in many ten-pin bowling centers to present bowling as entertainment. It involves the use of blacklights, fluorescent pins and music to create a dazzling atmosphere.

• Beruit Bowling, game usually played in teams with two lanes. Similar to a rally race the first team to have all their team mates make a strike are the winners. The game begins with two players, one in each lane, after the first strike is made the player takes a seat and the next team mate steps up to bowl. Usually played in a 10 pin game, and can also be played with candle pin.
• No-Tap Bowling, No-Tap bowling is played with the standard ten-pin setup. In a no-tap game the scoring is the same, but rolling a nine (or eight, in some cases) on your first ball results in a strike. A split without the head-pin counts as a spare in other variants of this game.
• Baker System Bowling, Baker system bowling is a team sport. There are generally 5 players that bowl one game. Player 1 bowls frames 1 and 6. Player 2 bowls frames 2 and 7. And so on. Widely seen in High schools and colleges.

For nearly a century, ten-pin bowling lanes had a surface made of wood. Beginning about 1980, most ten-pin lane surfaces have been converted to or built with a synthetic material imitating a wooden surface. In ten-pin bowling, a building containing many lanes has traditionally been called a bowling "alley." Some such buildings have recently called themselves "bowling centers" instead to avoid the negative connotation of alleys.

The second category of bowling is usually played outdoors on a lawn. Here the players throw a ball, which is sometimes eccentrically weighted, in an attempt to put it closest to a designated point.

Included in the outdoor category:

• Lawn bowls
• Bocce
• Pétanque

No of pins:

Levels

1 pin (dot)

          *

2 pins (short line)

        *   *

3 pins (small triangle)

        *   *
          *

4 pins (small diamond)

          *
        *   *
          *

5 pins (small ship)

        *       *
          *   *
            *

6 pins (medium-size triangle)

        *   *   *
          *   *
            *

7 pins (hexagon)

           *   *
         *   *   *
           *   *

8 pins (big ship)

       *           *
         *   *   *
           *   *
             *

9 pins (big diamond)

              *
            *   *
          *   *   *
            *   *
              *

10 pins (big triangle)

         *   *   *   *
           *   *   *
             *   *
               *

Rules

Strike: a X symbol, first throw knocks down all 10 pins.
Names of sets of strikes thrown in a row: strike, double, turkey, four bagger, five bagger, 6-pack, 7 in a row, 8 in a row, 9 in a row, 10 in a row, 11 in a row, perfect game
Spare: a / symbol, first throw knocks down 0–9 pins, second throw knocks down the remaining pins.
Open: first throw knocks down 0–9 pins, second throw knocks down 0–9 pins without getting all of the pins down.
Foul: The approach to the physical lane contains a foul line. When you step on or over the foul line on any throw, you get a 0 pin count for that throw.
Gutter Ball: When the ball falls out of the lane.

See also

• Bowling ball
• Skittles — the sport from which "alley" based Bowling originated
• Skee ball — a game that plays similar to bowling
• Pin shooting — a pistol shooting game using bowling pins.
• Professional Bowlers Association — ten-pin bowling's professional organization.
• Premier Tenpin Bowling Club — another professional ten-pin bowling organization.

External links

• Bowling Brasil Dicas para Centros de Boliche e Artigos
• The Foundation: A Non-Profit Organization Dedicated to Saving the Sport of Bowling
• International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame
• The Professional Bowlers Association (PBA)
• The United States Bowling Congress (USBC)
• List of Computer Bowling Games
• Bowling Tips
• Bowling Alley Directory
• Bowling Center Directory
• Lets Bowl Bowling Alley Directory
• history of the game
• American Wheelchair Bowling Association
• Additional Bowling Tips
• Bowlinglinks all over the World, sorted by categories
• The International Gay Bowling Organization (IGBO)
• World Cup Bowling Academy
• Bowling Community
• Bowlingzone.com - Worlds Largest Bowling Link Directory