bowling

Types

Bowling is divided into two general classes: pin bowling and target bowling.

Pin bowling

In pin bowling, players knock over pins at the end of a long, smooth surface known as a lane. Lanes have a wood or synthetic surface with a protective, lubricant applied in a variety of patterns that affect ball motion. A strike is scored when all the pins are knocked down on the first roll, and a spare is scored when all pins are knocked down on the second roll. The most common type of pin bowling is tenpin bowling; variants include candlepin, duckpin, nine-pin (kegel), and five-pin. The game of skittles is the forerunner of modern pin bowling.

Tenpin bowling is the most popular type of bowling. It involves 10 pins arranged in a triangle at the end of a bowling lane. Tenpin balls have finger holes and possibly a thumb hole. When the term bowling is used, it usually refers to tenpin bowling.

Nine-pin bowling (commonly called kegeln in Germany) is common in Europe. It uses nine pins arranged in a diamond formation.

Candlepin bowling: Candlepins are thinnest and tallest (40 cm (16 in)), and have matching top and bottom ends. Candlepin balls are the smallest and lightest (1.1 kg (2.4 lb)) of any bowling sport. Fallen candlepins not cleared during a frame.

Duckpin bowling: Duckpin bowling is similar to tenpin, but with shorter pins and a smaller ball having no holes.

Five-pin bowling: Five-pins are taller than duckpins but shorter than tenpins, are between duckpins and candlepins in diameter, and have a rubber girdle. Five-pin balls are small and without holes. The sport is practiced primarily in Canada.

Target bowling

Target bowling is usually played outdoors on a specially-prepared lawn or natural terrain, like grass Depending on the game, players roll or throw a ball in an attempt to land it closest to a mark or target ball in the arena.

Lawn bowls, bocce, carpet bowls, pétanque, and boules have indoor and outdoor varieties. Curling may be considered target bowling on ice.

History

Ancient world

The earliest known forms of bowling date back to ancient Egypt, with wall drawings depicting bowling found in a royal tomb dated to 3200 BCE and miniature pins and balls in a child's grave from the same time. Remnants of bowling balls were found among Egyptian artifacts dating back to the Egyptian protodynastic period in 3200 BCE. What is thought to be a child's game with porphyry (stone) balls, a miniature trilithon, and nine breccia-veined, alabaster vase-shaped figures thought to resemble the modern game of skittles, was found in Naqada in 1895.

Balls were made with the husks of grains, covered in a material such as leather and bound with string. Balls made of porcelain have also been found, indicating by their size and weight that they were rolled on the ground rather than thrown. Some resemble the modern jack used in target-bowling games. Bowling games were cited by Herodotus as an invention of the Lydians in Asia Minor. A similar game evolved among Roman legionaries entailing the tossing of stone objects as close as possible to other stone objects, which eventually evolved into Italian bocce (outdoor bowling). In Germany in the third or fourth century AD, a religious ritual involved cleansing oneself of sin by rolling a rock into a club (kegel) representing the heathen. Later pin bowlers were sometimes called "keglers".

Middle Ages

In 1299, the oldest-surviving known bowling green for target bowling was built: Master's Close, now the Old Bowling Green of the Southampton Bowling Club in Southampton, England. The green is still in use. Berlin and Cologne passed laws in 1325 limiting lawn-bowling bets to five shillings. King Edward III banned bowling as a distraction from archery practice.

From the 15th to the 17th centuries, lawn bowling spread from Germany to Austria, Switzerland, and the Low Countries. Playing surfaces were cinders or baked clay. Lawn-bowling lanes in London were first roofed in 1455, making bowling an all-weather game. Known as kegelbahns in Germany, they were often attached to taverns and guest houses. A 1463 public feast was held in Frankfurt, with a venison dinner followed by lawn bowling.

Modern era

King Henry VIII was an avid bowler. In 1511, he banned bowling for the lower classes and imposed a levy on private lanes to limit them to the wealthy. Martin Luther set the number of bowling pins (which varied from 3 to 17) at nine. He had a bowling lane built next to his home for his children, and sometimes rolled a ball himself.

On 29 July 1588, Francis Drake was reportedly playing bowls at Plymouth Hoe when the arrival of the Spanish Armada was announced; he replied, "We have time enough to finish the game and beat the Spaniards too." Henry Hudson discovered Hudson Bay in 1609, bringing Dutch colonization to New Amsterdam (later New York); Hudson's men reportedly brought a form of pin bowling with them. Late-17th-century Dutchmen enjoyed bowling at the Old King's Arms Tavern, near modern-day 2nd and Broadway in New York City. Bowling Green in New York City was built in 1733 on the site of a Dutch cattle market and parade ground, the city's oldest surviving public park.

A painting of Ipswich, England c. 1810 shows a man bowling with a triangular formation of ten pins before that variant of the sport is believed to have appeared in the United States. An 1828 auction notice in Ipswich cites "ten-pin and skittle grounds".

Washington Irving mentioned ninepin bowling for the first time in American literature in his 1819 story, "Rip Van Winkle". Newspaper articles and advertisements at least as early as 1820 refer to "ten pin alleys", usually as a side attraction of a business or property. By the late 1830s, New York's Knickerbocker Hotel housed a three-lane bowling alley. The oldest surviving bowling lanes in the United States were built in 1846 as part of Roseland Cottage, the summer estate of Henry Chandler Bowen (1831–1896) in Woodstock, Connecticut. The lanes, now part of Historic New England's Roseland Cottage House Museum, have Gothic Revival architectural elements compatible with the estate. The Scottish Bowling Association for lawn bowling was founded in Scotland by 200 clubs in 1848; it was dissolved and revived in 1892. Glasgow cotton merchant William Wallace Mitchell (1803–1884) published Manual of Bowls Playing in 1864, which became a standard reference for lawn bowling in Scotland. The National Bowling Association (NBA) was founded in 1859 by 27 New York City clubs to standardize rules for tenpin bowling, setting the ball size and the distance between the foul line and the pins but failing to agree on other rules; it was superseded in 1895 by the American Bowling Congress. Candlepin bowling was invented in 1880 by Justin White. Brunswick Corporation (founded in 1845) of Chicago, Illinois, a manufacturer of billiard tables, began making bowling balls, pins, and wooden lanes during the 1880s to sell to taverns installing bowling alleys. Duckpin bowling was invented in Boston during the early 1890s, spreading to Baltimore around 1899. Joe Thum—who became known as the "father of modern bowling"—began opening tenpin bowling alleys (including at 401 Greenwich Street in the Tribeca West Historic District) and strove to elevate the sport's image to compete with upper-class diversions such as theaters and opera houses.

Equipment

Ball

Bowling balls vary by the type of bowling. Tenpin balls are about 8.59 inches (21.8 cm) in diameter, typically have three holes, and weigh from 6 to 16 lb (2.7 to 7.3 kg). The size and spacing of the finger holes on non-customized balls are generally smaller on lighter balls to accommodate smaller hands. Modern resin covers (surfaces, available since the early 1990s) enhance a ball's hook (curve) potential, and the shape of the balls' cores permit fine-tuning desired ball paths. Traditional plastic balls are suitable for straighter shots. Duckpin and candlepin balls fit in the palm, and have no holes.

Pins

Bowling pins are the target of a bowling ball in pin bowling. The size and shape of pins vary, but are generally cylindrical and wider where the ball strikes the pin. Tenpin-bowling pins are the largest and heaviest, weighing 3 lb 6 oz (1.5 kg). Duckpins are shorter and squatter than standard tenpins; candlepins are the tallest at 15+3⁄4 in (40 cm), but are only 2+15⁄16 in (7.5 cm) wide and 2 lb 8 oz (1.1 kg) in weight.

Bowling pins are constructed by gluing blocks of maple into the approximate shape, and turning them on a lathe. After the lathe shapes the pin, it is coated with plastic, painted, and covered with a glossy finish. Because of the scarcity of suitable wood, bowling pins can be made from approved synthetics. Sanctioned synthetic pins exist for five-pin, duckpin, and candlepin bowling, and one synthetic tenpin model is approved by the USBC. When hit by the ball, synthetic pins usually sound different from wooden pins.

The USBC said that effective 1 August 2023, it would certify string pinsetters and string-pin bowling as a category of equipment and competition independent from conventional free-fall pinsetters. USBC lab data indicated that the strike percentage of string-pin bowling is 7.1 percent lower, and the organization planned additional testing to determine whether a scoring conversion should exist between the categories. String pinsetters are less expensive and easier to maintain, motivating bowling centers to phase them in.

Shoes

The sole of the non-sliding shoe is generally made of rubber for traction; the sole of the sliding shoe is made of a smooth material, allowing a slide into the release. Bowling shoes may be purchased, and may be rented from bowling centers. Wet or dirty soles may not slide properly, and could damage the approach surface.

Scoring

A standard game of tenpin bowling consists of 10 frames, with a maximum of two rolls in each of the first nine frames and three in the tenth. For a strike, the bowler knocks down all 10 pins on the first roll; if this occurs in the first nine frames, the frame ends without a second roll. A spare occurs if the bowler leaves any pins standing after the first roll and knocks them all down on the second. In a frame, the bowler scores one point for every pin knocked down; a spare or strike awards one extra point for each pin knocked down on the next one or two rolls, respectively. In the tenth frame, the bowler gets one extra roll for making a spare and two for a strike. The highest possible score for a game is 300, achieved by rolling 12 consecutive strikes (a perfect game).

Accessibility

Technological innovation has made bowling accessible to members of the disabled community. The IKAN Bowler, a device designed by quadriplegic engineer Bill Miller, attaches to a wheelchair and allows the user to control the speed, direction, and timing of the tenpin bowling ball's release. Its name comes from the Greek word ikano, which means "capable" or "enabled". For bowls, the sport has introduced a number of innovations to enable people with a disability to participate at all levels of the sport from social to Olympic-standard:

Bowling arms and lifters enable bowlers to deliver a ball, minimizing the amount of movement required

Wheelchair and green manufacturers have produced modified wheel tires and ramps to enable wheelchair athletes to access bowl greens

Modified conditions of play, as outlined in disability classification in lawn bowls

In popular culture

U.S. presidents

When Abraham Lincoln served a term in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1847 to 1849, he lived near a bowling alley. "He was 'very fond of bowling' ... Though 'a very awkward bowler,' he nevertheless 'played the game with great zest and spirit, solely for exercise and amusement'". "He took victory and defeat 'with like good nature and humor, and left the alley at the conclusion of the game without a sorrow or disappointment'".

In 1948, two bowling lanes were installed on the ground floor of the West Wing of the White House as a birthday gift for President Harry S. Truman. The lanes were moved to the Old Executive Office Building (now the Eisenhower Executive Office Building) in 1955 for the benefit of White House employees; its old location became a mimeograph room and, in 1961, the Situation Room. On 9 July 2014, the General Services Administration published and quickly withdrew a solicitation for bids to replace the Truman bowling lanes, which were deemed "irreparable" for not having had "any professional, industry standard maintenance, modifications, repairs or attention" for fifteen years. A $253,000 contract was awarded for "routine repairs" in 2026.

Friends of President Richard Nixon, said to be an avid bowler, had a one-lane alley built in an underground space below the building's North Portico in 1969. The one-lane bowling alley underwent major renovations in 1994 and 2019.

Paintings

A c. 1810 painting shows bowlers in Ipswich playing the sport outdoors in the earliest known depiction of tenpin bowling, before tenpin bowling was documented in the United States. On 28 January 1950, Bowling Strike by George Hughes appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post. In 1982, American expressionist painter LeRoy Neiman produced a painting of Earl Anthony's million-dollar strike.

Informal use

Children afraid of thunderstorms are told that thunder is God bowling.