Rules of the Game: Bowling
IN THE 1930s, a British archeologist named Sir Flinders Petrie discovered items in an Egyptian grave that appeared to have been used in an ancient version of the game we know today as bowling. By his estimation, bowling is a 5,000-year-old game. In the Middle Ages in Britain, bowling was so popular—and distracting—that King Edward III was said to have outlawed it, so that his troops could keep focused on honing their archery skills for battle. Bowling’s first mention in American literature was by Washington Irving: his Rip Van Winkle is awakened by the sound of “crashing ninepins.” In 1895, Americans established the American Bowling Congress to regulate the rules of the game and establish national bowling competitions. They forgot to include women, however, so in 1917 women bowlers rectified that by forming the Women’s National Bowling Association. Today bowlers all over the world compete and play for fun with friends. Here are some rules for playing and scoring the game.
HOW TO KEEP SCORE
There are ten frames in the game, and each bowler is given up to two opportunities to try to knock down all ten bowling pins in each frame. The object of the game is to have the highest score. The pins knocked down on a player’s first attempt are counted and recorded on a score sheet. (The score sheet has a place for each players name, and next to that ten boxes, one for each frame of the game. At the top of each box are two squares, which is where the scores for each of the two balls thrown per frame are recorded. At the far right is a larger box, which is where the total score for all ten frames should go.) If there are still pins left standing, the bowler then has a second try at knocking them down, and the number of pins knocked down on her second try is recorded. Her score is the pins from the first roll, plus the pins from the second roll; the resulting amount is then added to any previous score. Scores continue to accumulate as each bowler takes her turn until all ten frames have been played by each of the bowlers.
BONUS SCORING
When a bowler rolls a strike or a spare, she gets bonus points. Both a spare and a strike are worth 10 pins, but how they are scored actually depends on what the bowler does in the next frame. With a spare, marked by a “/” on the score sheet, you add ten to the number of pins knocked down in your next attempt. With a strike, marked by an “X” on the score sheet, you add ten to the number of pins knocked down in your next two attempts.
If you bowl a spare in the tenth frame, you get an extra ball. If you bowl a strike in the tenth frame, you get two extra balls. If you happen to bowl a strike in the tenth frame, and then score a spare with your two extra balls, you’re awarded a score of 20 for the tenth frame, and your game is over. If you bowl a spare in frame ten, and then a strike with your additional ball, you get a score of 20 for frame ten, and your game is over. If you bowl a strike in the tenth frame, and then get two additional strikes with your two extra balls, you get a score of 30 for the tenth frame, and your game is over.
BOWLING TERMINOLOGY
Approach
This 15-foot-long area is where bowlers start. The approach ends at the foul line, which marks the start of the bowling lane. Your feet cannot cross the foul line, or even touch it, not even after you’ve released the ball.
Average
This is the sum of all a bowler’s games divided by the number of games played.
Bowling shoes
These are shoes with special soles to help a bowler glide across the floor during her approach. Street shoes are not allowed on bowling alleys.
Clean Sheet
This means making all the spares in the game.
Dutch 200
Scoring spare-strike-spare-strike for the entire game, resulting in a score of 200.
Foul
The foul line separates the approach from the start of the lane. When a bowler steps on or over the foul line, she doesn’t get the score for that attempt. A foul is marked on the score sheet with an “F.”
Frame
Each game of bowling consists of ten frames for each bowler, who has two chances to knock down the ten pins in each frame.
Lane
The narrow stretch where the ball rolls toward the pins. Lanes are usually about 60 feet long and 42 inches wide. Gutters, two lower rounded areas alongside the lane about 9½ inches wide, are there to catch balls that stray to the left or right. When a ball rolls into the gutter, it’s called a “gutter ball” and gets zero points.
Open Frame
This is when a bowler fails to knock down all ten pins in both tries.
Perfect Game
A perfect game is when a bowler scores twelve strikes in a row in the same game. The resulting score is 300, the highest possible score for a bowler in any one game.
Pin Deck
The place where bowling pins are set at the end of the lane. The pins are set a foot apart from each other to form a 3-foot triangle. Pins, which are 15 inches tall, are usually made of wood and plastic, and weigh about 3½ pounds. The widest part of the pin is called the belly.
Sleeper
When you have a spare with one pin standing directly behind another, the back pin is called a “sleeper.”
Spare
If one or more pins are standing after a bowler’s first try, the bowler gets a second chance to knock all the pins down—a “spare” shot. If the bowler knocks the rest of the pins down on her second try, she has made a spare. A spare is marked on the score sheet by a slash (/).
Split
This is when two or more pins remain standing with a gap between them. A split that is left can be marked on the score sheet by drawing a circle around the pin-count for that frame.
Strike
This is when a bowler knocks down all ten pins on her first try. When a bowler gets a strike, her score goes up by 10, and in addition the score of her next two turns gets added to the strike score. A strike is marked on the score sheet by an X.
Turkey
Getting three strikes in a row. Each “turkey” (group of three strikes in a row) is worth 30 pins a frame.