Bowling Study Guide             

What is it?

In bowling, ten wooden or plastic pins are set in a triangular position at the far end of a wooden runway called a ‘lane’.  The lane is 60 feet long from the No.1 pin to the foul line and is approximately 42 inches wide. On each side of the lane a channel approximately 9 inches wide runs from the foul line to the pit, behind the pins.  The object of the game is to knock down as many pins as possible with two rolls per frame.  A single game of bowling consists of ten frames.

Background Information:

Bowling can be traced back in history about 7000 years, which easily establishes it as one of the oldest games known.  Archaeologists trace its origin to the ancient Egyptians, with evidence of crudely shaped implements being used.

The game of modern tenpins had its inception in northern Italy, being derived from variations played by the ancients.  The Italians called their game ‘bowls’. Rounded stones without finger holes were held in the open hand and used as bowling balls.

In 1895 the American bowling congress was organized, and it formulated rules governing alleys, balls, and pins.  Bowling is so popular in the United States that it can safely be said that it has more enthusiasts today than almost any other sport for any age group.

Rules:

For each frame a bowler is allowed a maximum of two rolls to knock down all ten pins.

·        If the bowler knocks all 10 pins down on the first attempt, the frame is scored as a strike. X

·        If the bowler does not knock them down on the first attempt in the frame the bowler is allowed a second attempt to knock down the remaining pins.

·        If the bowler succeeds in knocking the rest of the pins down in the second attempt, the frame is scored as a spare. /

Pins that are knocked down by another pin rebounding in the play from the side partition or rear cushion are counted as pins down, except where pins rebound off the body, arms, or legs of a human pinsetter.

Vocab. Terms:                                    

Spare- when you have one or more pins left standing after your first delivery; you get a second chance to knock all the pins down. If you knock all remaining pins down on the second shot you have make your spare.

Strike- when you knock down all ten pins with the first delivery of the ball.

Split-is a spare left when two or more pins remain standing, but are on opposite sides of the lane.

Turkey-this occurs when a bowler gets three strikes in a row.

Perfect Game- if a bowler manages to score twelve strikes in a row, in the same game, the score is 300.

How to Keep Score:

The score board for a bowling game has ten frames. During each frame, the player gets two tries to knock down all ten pins. The number knocked down is recorded:

 5    4

     9

In this frame, the player knocked down 5 pins with the first ball and 4 pins with the second.  His score for this frame is therefore 9, the sum of 5 and 4.

You also should note that the score of a single frame is dependent upon the score of the frame before it.  For example, the score in the second frame below is 13 because you must add the 5 pins from the firs frame to the 8 pins from the second.

3    2    7    1

    5        13

Now comes the tricky part:

                                 X                                /

Note how a strike              and a spare               are marked on the score board.

A strike is when a player knocks down all ten pins on the first ball of a frame. The score for this frame is 10 plus the number of pins scored by the next two balls.  In the following example, the score of frame 1 is 18 (10+3+5) and the score for frame 2 is 26 (18+3+5):

            X    3    5

        18           26

A spare is when a player knocks down all ten pins using two balls. The score for this frame is 10 plus the number of pins scored by the first ball of the next frame. In the following example, the score of frame 1 I 14 (10+4), and the score for frame 2 is 20 (14+4+2)

    6    /    4    2

        14        20