Ninh explains, the Rules of Ten Pin Bowling.
The object of the game is to knock down more pins than your opponent.
Ten Pin Bowling, is the most popular form of bowling worldwide and is played on a surface
known as a lane.
The lanes are 60ft long and are 42 inches wide.
If you bowl the ball wide of the lane, they land in the gutters and will be carried past
the pins.
The pins themselves are 15inches high and are arranged in a triangle formation.
Each pin is designated a number.
A bowler uses a large heavy ball, and has up to a 15 ft approach to the foul line, which
is the start of the lane.
A game is divided into 10 frames.
Each frame represents one turn for the bowler.
In a turn the player is allowed to roll the ball up to two times.
This means that you have two chances to knock down all 10 pins.
If you fail to knock down all 10 pins with your two balls, this is known as an ‘open
frame’ and this scores the exact number of pins that you knocked down.
If you do knock down all 10 pins with two balls, this is known as a ‘spare’ – and
this scores 10 plus the number of pins knocked down with the next ball.
For example, if you score a spare and then with the next ball score 9, the spare frame
is 10+9, which is 19.
And if you knock down all 10 pins with your first ball, this is known as a ‘strike’.
This scores 10, plus the number of pins you knock down with your next two balls.
For example, if you score a strike, and then follow it up with another two strikes, the
first frame is scored as 10 + 10 + 10 = 30 points.
Players generally alternate turns between frames, and once both bowlers have finished
10 frames each, the person with the highest score … wins.
Simple right?
So why do they bowl the ball funny?
The whole idea is to maximise your chance of getting strikes, by hitting a certain section
of the pins.
This section is known as ‘the pocket’ and this scientifically gives you the best
chance of getting a strike.
Therefore bowlers will try to curl or hook the ball into the pocket.
The lanes have oil on them that gets dryer as you get closer to the pins.
So players take advantage of that by throwing the ball at an angle, with spin, in order
to get the ball to hook into the pocket.
They will use the triangular markers on the lanes to line up the ball at an angle so that
the ball hooks where they want it to.
That’s the bare basics of ten pin bowling, but there’s a few things you need to know
before playing or watching a game.
For example: Format.
The most common format is a single match, where one person plays against another person.
But there are also competitions for teams of 2,3 or 4 players to bowl against another
team.
There are separate contests for men and women, or a mixture of both.
Oil Pattern.
Each lane is oiled differently, and depending on the pattern, this dictates whether the
ball will hook or not.
This is known as the oil pattern, and it might be helpful to check the oil pattern of the
lane you’re bowling on.
In professional tournaments such as the PBA – they will add a blue dye to the oil so
that players and spectators can see where the oil is, and where it’s running dry.
Foul A player must not step or slide across the
foul line when bowling a ball.
Doing so will count as a ball, but will not score.
The pins that are knocked down are replaced.
Also, any pins that are knocked down by a ball in the gutter or by bouncing off the
rear cushion don’t count either.
Split This is where the first ball of a frame results
in two pins away from each other still standing.
To knock both pins down with only one ball left in the frame, is difficult – This is
known as a split.
Difficult, but not impossible!
Perfect Game (300)
In a game of bowling, the maximum you can score is 300 points.
This is done by rolling 12 strikes in a row.
Why 12 strikes, instead of 10?
Because, if a bowler gets a strike in the last frame, the score for that frame can't
be recorded before rolling twice more.
This is known as a ‘Perfect Game’ or a 300, and is the equivalent of a 147 Maximum
Break in Snooker and a 9 Dart Finish in Darts.
As you can tell, it’s not easy.
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Ninh Ly - www.ninh.co.uk - @NinhLyUK