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Bowling has a long and rich
history, and today is one of the most popular sports in the world. A
British anthropologist, Sir Flinders Petrie, discovered in the
1930's a collection of objects in a child's grave in Egypt that
appeared to him to be used for a crude form of bowling. These items
have been dated between 1300 and 1500 years BC.
A German historian, William Pehle, asserted that
bowling began in his country about 300 AD. There is substantial
evidence that a form of bowling was in vogue in England in 1366,
when King Edward III allegedly outlawed it to keep his troops
focused on archery practice. And it is almost certain that bowling
was popular during the reign of Henry VIII.
By this time, too, there were many variations of
"pin" games, and also of games where a ball was thrown at objects
other than pins. This would seem to imply that the games had
developed over time, from an earlier period.
One of the most eccentric games is still found in
Edinburgh. The player swings a fingerless ball between his legs and
heaves it at the pins. In doing so, he "flops" onto the lane on his
stomach. There were and still are many variations of ninepins in
Western Europe. Likely related are the Italian bocce, the French
petanque, and British lawn bowling
The first standardized rules were
established in New York City, on September 9, 1895,
when the first official
governing body of bowling was formed. It was known as the American
Bowling Congress (ABC). The membership was mostly men although women
were permitted by ABC rules to join. In 1916, the Women's
International Bowling Congress (WIBC) was formed by a group of 40
women, and served as a partner organization with the ABC through
2004. The Young American Bowling Alliance (YABA) was established in
1982, after previously existing as the American Junior Bowling
Congress, specifically to serve youth bowlers from pre-school
through collegiate level.
These three organizations, in addition to High School Bowling USA
and College Bowling USA, became one under the USBC umbrella on
January 1, 2005.
The USBC is now the primary
governing and sanctioning body for ten-pin bowling in the United
States. It is responsible for bowling leagues with over 2.6 million
members. The USBC's headquarters is currently located in Arlington,
Texas.
The USBC currently sponsors the
PBA
Women's Series, which runs for seven total weeks on ESPN in the 2008-09 season.
In 2007, the USBC acquired the rights to the Women's U.S. Open. The
event, which had been on a three-year hiatus since the disbanding of
the Professional Women's Bowling Association (PWBA) in 2003, was
telecast for five weeks on ESPN in September-October, 2007. ESPN
again carried the event in September-October, 2008.
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Alternate
bowling formats |
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9-pin no-tap
A strike is recorded when a bowler knocks down nine pins or 10
pins on the first delivery. For any other pin count, the bowler
receives the actual pin count (anything less than nine pins
knocked down) and a second ball is thrown.
3-6-9 game
In a 3-6-9 game, each bowler automatically receives a strike in
the third, sixth and ninth frames.
Best ball
A combination of any two bowlers is allowed. Each bowler rolls
one ball each frame. The better of the two balls is the score
entered for the team. There are no spares recorded since the
pins are reset after each ball thrown. The exception to this is
the tenth frame where scoring is regulation for each bowler;
i.e., if a strike is bowled on the first ball, the bowler would
then roll two extra balls.
Baker system
A team consists of five bowlers. Each bowler rolls two frames
per game. The play is fast-paced and each game takes only about
ten minutes. All team members follow each other in regular order
to bowl a single game. The lead bowler rolls the first complete
frame followed by the No. 2 bowler rolling the second frame; the
No. 3 bowler, the third frame; the No. 4 bowler, the fourth
frame; and the No. 5 bowler, the fifth frame. The lead bowler
then continues the game by bowling the sixth frame, and so on.
The No. 5 bowler rolls all balls in the tenth frame.
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