Bowling is a great pass time and a very sociable sport, so it’s great to go with friends. In bowling, players take turns to throw and roll a heavy ball towards a set of ‘pins’ which are the targets. The aim is to knock as many of the pins down in one throw, to acquire more points than your competitors. It is very popular in the U.S and is often taken as a serious sport, whereas in the U.K it is usually a popular pass time and many players are casual.
When all the pins are knocked down on the first roll, this is called a strike. Whereas if they are all knocked down in 2 rolls, this is called a spare. If a player got 12 strikes in a row, they would achieve the maximum possible score of 300 points.
Getting 3 consecutive strikes is known as a “turkey”, but why it is called this no one is sure exactly. For four strikes in a row, the term “hambone is used. If more than 4 strikes are achieved consecutively, this would be referred to as the number of strikes followed by the word “bagger”. So five strikes would become a “Five Bagger”, six would be a “Six Bagger”, etc.
There are two types of bowling, one is pin bowling and the other is target bowling. Target bowling in the U.K is referred to as Bowls and is played on a stretch of lawn grass. In this variation, a target ball would be placed or thrown onto the grass. So players would have to throw their balls as close to the target as possible. The closest throw being the winning throw.
Pin bowling is usually played indoors, on a polished and oiled wooden floor. The floor is made to be very smooth so that balls glide along them. Bowling is plated by over 100 million people in more than 90 countries across the world. Over 70 million of these players are in the United States, so it is clearly a sport favored by Americans. The game has also been recreated in video games.