BOWLING 



871 



BOWLING 



this is the foul line, beyond which the bowler 

 is not allowed to step or slide as he rolls the 

 ball. The foul line should be sixty feet from 

 the first pin. Beyond the alley is a small pit, 

 two and one-half feet wide, and back of this 

 is a swinging padded cushion to stop the force 

 of the balls. Alongside the alley are shallow 

 gutters, into which the balls drop if they are 

 not properly rolled. 



The Pins and Balls. The pins are set up in 

 triangular formation, each pin being exactly 

 twelve inches from the next one. The last 

 row, of four pins, must be three inches from 

 the end of the alley. Each pin of regulation 

 size is two and one-quarter inches in diameter 

 at the bottom and fifteen inches long, and has 

 a maximum circumference of eleven and five- 

 eighths inches. The weight of each pin must 

 be at least three pounds and two ounces. 



The balls are usually of wood, but sometimes 



he scores thirty in the first frame. A perfect 

 score, comprising nothing but strikes, is 300; 

 this is a feat seldom accomplished. If the 

 player makes a spare, he adds to the ten thus 

 scored the number of pins bowled over on his 

 next ball. The example herewith will show 

 how the scoring is done. 



Bowls, or Lawn Bowling. This game has 

 been popular in the British Isles since the thir- 

 teenth century, and may have been played 

 there earlier. It has little resemblance to the 

 indoor pin bowling just described, but is sim- 

 ilar in principle to curling and to shuffleboard, 

 both of which are explained elsewhere in this 

 work. 



A bowling green is a smooth grass plot about 

 forty yards square. Usually it is level, but 

 sometimes built with a crown, the center be- 

 ing a foot or more higher than the edges. 

 Rinks six or seven yards wide are marked off, 



SCORING A GAME 



This is the record of a "three-cornered" match. In the first frame two of the players made 

 strikes, indicated by the x's. As this entitled them to 10 points plus the number of pins knocked 

 over with the next two balls, no figures were written till after the next turns. In the second frame 

 W. F. Z. made ten points to add to his strike, writing 20 as the score. As this also constituted 

 a spare, an oblique mark was made, no figures being recorded till after the first ball of the third 

 frame. Then 9 was added to the 10 earned by the spare, making the total 19 plus 20, or 39. As 

 he failed to hit the remaining pin with his second ball, only 9 was scored for the third frame. 

 J. C. H. made another strike in the second frame and so was obliged to wait till after the first ball 

 of the third frame before scoring his first frame. As this was also a strike, the score was 30. Both 

 W. F. Z. and J. C. H. made a strike in their last frame, so that each had to roll two extra balls. 

 As shown by the score and the marks, one made a spare and the other rolled two strikes. The 

 score of J. C. H. was perfect. 



of a hard-rubber composition. They are made 

 in several sizes, the largest being twenty-seven 

 inches in circumference and weighing sixteen 

 and one-half pounds. In each ball there must 

 be two small holes, into which the thumb and 

 a finger may be inserted to give a firm grip; 

 sometimes, however, balls with three finger- 

 holes are used. 



Scoring. A game consists of ten frames; 

 each player is allowed to bowl two balls in 

 each frame. If he knocks down all the pins 

 with the first ball, it is called a strike; if he 

 knocks them all down with the two balls, it 

 is a spare. If the bowler makes a strike, he 

 adds to the ten thus scored the number of 

 points scored on the next two balls that he 

 rolls. If he rolls three strikes in succession 



so that six games may be played at the same 

 time. The word rink also refers to a team, 

 just as in curling. Each green is surrounded 

 by a ditch. 



The object of a rink is to roll its balls as 

 near as possible to the jack, a white earthen- 

 ware ball about two and one-half inches in 

 diameter. The bowls are made of wood, about 

 five inches in diameter, and weigh not more 

 than three and one-half pounds. They are 

 made with a bias; that is, one side of a bowl 

 is more convex than the other, so that unless 

 thrown with great speed it will curve as it 

 rolls. On a good green a bowl may curve six 

 feet from a straight line. It is this bias which 

 is the excuse for Shakespeare's pun in King 

 Richard II, act III, scene IV: 



