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A GUIDE TO BOWLING
CAN YOU PICK UP A BALL WEIGHING 16 LBS?
CAN YOU THEN WALK WITH IT IN A STRAIGHT LINE FOR FOUR STEPS?
CAN YOU SWING YOUR ARM AS YOU WALK?
IF SO, YOU CAN BOWL.
COMPILED BY K.
TAYLOR AND K. HOFFMAN
Bowling is one of the oldest games in the world. It has been one of mans favorite pastimes since prehistoric times. Cavemen set up rows of pointed rocks and tried to knock them over with heavy boulders. Cavemen probably bowled to sharpen their aim for hunting.
No one knows who first got the idea to make bowling a sport, but we know that as long a 7,000 years ago, children in ancient Egypt played a game some what similar to modern tenpins. Stone artifacts resembling bowling pins and balls were found among the playthings buried with the mummified remains of an Egyptian youth who, according to archaeologists, died in 5,000 B.C.
Lawn bowling got off to a flying start in 12th century England. It’s popularity spread over the entire island and in time became the favorite form of gambling for rich and poor alike. In fact, bowing was so widely played during the early 14th century that King Edward III banned the game because it interfered with the practice of archery, the military arms of the period.
Indoor bowling, or bowling at pins, took its first step in Germany more than 1,600 years ago. It began in the monasteries. It was the custom of the peasants of that period to carry big, bottle-shaped clubs at all times, even to church. They called this weapon a “Kegel”, which is the German word for club. The monks told the peasants that the kegel they carried represented the devil. To prove their devotion, the peasant men were to stand the kegel up at the far end of a long narrow hallway and try to knock the devil down with a round rock rolled from the opposite end of the hallway. If they succeeded, they were absolved of sin. If, on the other hand, they missed, they would have to mend their ways and repent.
The monks were so fascinated by this exercise, that they eventually began to try it themselves. To make a game of it, they increased the number of kegels.
To this day, modern bowing is sometimes referred t a “kegling” and bowlers as “keglers”.
By 500 A.D. the rolling of stones at kegles lost its religious meaning and became a favorite pastime of the wealthy. Only the rich had the rooms to build bowling alleys in their homes.
By the middle ages, the game was played by peasant and noble alike. Alleys varied in length, balls were of different sizes and weight.
During the 16th century, a movement to make the game a uniform was encouraged by bowling enthusiasts including Martin Luther, the famous religious leader. Nine pins arranged in a diamond formation was agreed upon and the game was officially named “Kegelspiel” or “Nine-pins”. The game of ninepins spread through Germany to Holland and then to America by the Dutch settlers of New Amsterdam (now New York City). The Dutch preferred to bowl on outdoors on a clay alley with a board laid flat upon the clay. The ball was rolled toward the pins on this narrow board. The Dutch named an area in this New York park “Bowling Green” and it still bears the name to this day.
In the early 1800’s ninepins became extremely popular. Bowling places appeared everywhere. Many of the bowling lanes were located in the basements and back rooms of saloons. Ninepins became a big gambling game. In those days there were no formal rules or regulations. Betting was heavy, games were rigged and players often cheated. The game was finally outlawed. The respectable people who enjoyed the game found a way around the law by adding an extra pin, and hanging the diamond formation to the familiar triangle we see today. In 1895, the American Bowling Congress was formed. They established a set of rules and regulations that are observed to this day.
How much do you know?
The game of bowling is played on a level alley of polished wood or synthetic material. It is forty-two inches wide and measures sixty feet from the center pin to the foul line behind which the bowler must release the ball. Back of the foul line, is a runway of at least fifteen feet on which the player may take between three and five steps before releasing the ball. One inch behind the last row of pins is a padded pit which receives the balls and overturned pins. The pins are placed on pin spots the size of the diameter of the bottom of the pin, and each pin spot is spaced twelve inches apart from the other. They are set in a triangle of four rows with the first row consisting of one pin. The pins are made of hard wood and coated with plastic. Each pin weighs a minimum of three lbs. (Usually 3.6 to 3.8 lbs.) Bowling balls must not exceed twenty-seven inches in circumference and can weigh as little as six lbs. And a maximum of sixteen lbs. The ball contains three holes in which are placed the thumb, the middle, and ring fingers.
How do you play?
The game can be played by any number of people of any age group. Each player rolls in turn (called a frame), attempting to bowl down all the pins. Each bowler has two chances per frame. If a player knocks down all ten pins with the first, they are credited with a strike. A strike adds ten points to your score plus whatever points you acquire on your next two rolls. If a player knocks some pins down with his first ball and the remainder of the pins with his second ball, a spare is scored. A spare adds ten points to your score plus whatever points you acquire on your next first ball. Ten frames for each bowler constitutes a game. The highest score possible being a 300.
What else do I need to know?
What is a handicap?
During a friendly game in any sport, when a poor player competes against a good player, he is sometimes given extra points to equal out the pairing of the other players (ex. If one player has a 160 average and another has a 130 average, the lower average bowler would receive 30 points added to his score to even out the two players).
What is a foul line?
The heavy black line separating the approach area from the lane. A bowlers foot must stop its forward motion at the foul line. If he steps over the foul line his pin fall does not count for that part of the frame. Important note: a bowler should not at any time cross over the foul line. Oil is laid very heavily on the wood surface to protect the lane and to create a good condition for bowling. Stepping over this line can result in serious injury from a fall.
What is a “Turkey”?
When a bowler throws three consecutive strikes in a row, it is called a turkey.
What is a “Jersey”? also
called a Brooklyn.