Bowling Near Me
There are several types of bowling games, all of which involve throwing or rolling a bowling ball towards a target. The most well-known types of bowling are ten-pin bowling and lawn bowls. Today over 100 million people play some type of bowling sport, with 70 million of them in the United States alone! Ten-pin bowling is played at a place called a bowling alley, with individual lanes for each group of players.
Lawn bowls can be played on any large grassy area, however there are clubs in which the grounds are properly maintained for the sport, and members can play in competitions and games with each other. To find a place to bowl near you, simply search for “bowling near me”.
Bowling Near Me – Find it on the Map
Bowling Near Me – Bowling Trivia
How is ten-pin bowling played?
A bowling alley has several different lanes, made of wood or synthetic material. During a turn, a player rolls his bowling ball down the length of the lane towards the other end, where there are ten plastic pins standing up. The object is to knock over as many pins as possible. Each turn consists of up to two rolls. If all ten pins are knocked down in the first roll, this is called a ‘strike’, and is the best possible result. If any pins still remain, the knocked-over pins are removed and the player is allowed to bowl again. If after the second roll, the player knocks over all the remaining rolls, then this is called a ‘spare’. Otherwise the player is scored based on how many of the ten pins were knocked over. If the player manages to get strikes in all twelve of his turns, this is called a ‘perfect game’.
Today over 100 million people play bowling games and sports.
How is lawn bowls played?
Lawn bowls is a simpler game. The objective is to roll the ball along a grassy field and get it as close as possible to a smaller ball, known as a ‘jack’ or ‘kitty’. This game may be played on a completely flat lawn, or can be played on a sloped, uneven terrain for an extra challenge. The game can sometimes be played indoors, but is almost always played outside. It can be played on any grassed area, but professional games are played on special lawns, which may be artificial or natural grass.
Are there other types of bowling games?
There are games similar to ten-pin bowling but with fewer pins. Nine-pin and five-pin bowling are also fairly common. A variant on the game is ‘candlepin’ bowling. The main differences are that each turn consists of three bowls rather than two, the balls are quite smaller and lighter, and the pins are thinner and thus present a more difficult target. The game is in fact so difficult that a perfect game has never been officially confirmed to have been played. The highest known score was 245 out of 300, achieved first in 1984 by the now president of the International Candlepin Association, and again in 2011. Another type of bowling game is bocce. This is played similar to lawn bowls, with two equal sides, of one to four players each. One side randomly throws the ‘jack’ into the court, which is natural soil or asphalt. The sides then take turns to throw their own balls, based on which side’s ball is closest to the ‘jack’ at each point in the game. Once all balls are used, a team earns a point for each ball of theirs that is closer than the opposing team’s ball to the jack.
To find a place to play ten-pin bowling, lawn bowls or another bowling game, just search for “Bowling near me”!
Bowling Near Me – Bowling Facts
Japan holds the world record for the largest bowling alley in the world. The Inazawa Grand Bowling Centre has 116 lanes! The second-largest alley is in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Indoor bowling lanes first appeared in 1840 in New York. However they seem to be on the decline today, with bowling alleys being number eleven on Daily Finance’s Top 25 Things Vanishing from America.
A bowling ball has very exact specifications, including friction coefficients, roundness and chemical composition. A ball has no minimum weight, but the maximum is 16 pounds. The circumference of a ball 13 pounds or heavier must be between 26.7 inches and 27.002 inches. No more than 5 finger holes are allowed in a ball. The top and bottom halves of the ball must not differ in weight by more than 3 ounces, while the front and back, and left and right must not differ each by more than 1 ounce.
Ten pin bowling has its own slang terms for the game. A ‘turkey’ refers to three strikes in a row, while a ‘ham bone’ is four in a row. A ‘wild turkey’ refers to six in a row, and a ‘golden turkey’ refers to nine. A ‘deuce’ is a game in which a player has scored two hundred or more points.
Richard Nixon, president of the United States from 1969 to 1974, was an enthusiastic bowler. He had a bowling alley installed into the basement of the White House, and his top score was 232.
The US state of Connecticut banned nine-pin bowling in 1841 in an effort to reduce the amount of gambling in the state. As a result, gamblers in the area created ten-pin bowling simply by adding an extra pin to the game. Ten-pin bowling was not illegal under the Connecticut law, and has remained popular to this day. The only major changes to the game were the specifications and construction of the bowling balls. The first bowling balls were made of a wood called ‘lignum vitae’, known for its light weight and durability. The first rubber ball was created in 1905 and was very popular. By 1914 a new rubber-plastic compound was created, called Mineralite. This substance allowed the balls to roll faster and with less friction.
It was originally considered unacceptable socially for women to bowl, however they began to do so anyway in the 1880s. The first women’s bowling tournament took place in St Louis, Missouri, in 1917. One hundred women took part in the historic event.
Many recent films and TV shows have featured bowling in some way, due to the popularity of the game; including The Simpsons, The Big Lebowski, She’s Out of My League, Gutterballs and Kingpin.
To find a bowling alley, or another place to play, near your area, just search for “Bowling near me”.
