Ten-pin bowling

Players and equipment

One to eight bowlers, a lane, ten pins and a ball each. A game is ten frames. The lane's own screen usually keeps the score; the sheet here is for a lane where it does not, or for the running total across several games.

SquareScores keeps a game as ten frames: a row on the sheet is a frame, a column is a bowler, and a frame's score goes in once the bonus balls for a strike or a spare have been bowled. The sheet stops at ten rows.

The deal

Bowl in seat order, one frame each, all the way round. Set the order on the Host tab.

Play

Two balls a frame at ten pins. Knock them all down with the first ball and it is a strike: the frame scores ten plus your next two balls. Knock them all down with two and it is a spare: ten plus your next ball. Otherwise the frame is open and scores the pins knocked down.

The pins knocked down by the first ball are cleared before the second. A ball in the gutter scores nothing, and a bowler who steps over the foul line at the front of the lane scores nothing for that ball even if every pin falls.

The tenth frame is the odd one: a strike earns two more balls and a spare one more, so that the bonus can be counted. A strike or a spare in the tenth means three balls in the frame; an open tenth means two, like any other.

Enter it

An open frame

0 to 9

Enter the pins as soon as the second ball is bowled

A spare

10 to 20

Wait one ball, then enter 10 plus that ball

A strike

10 to 30

Wait two balls, then enter 10 plus both

The tenth

0 to 30

Enter the pins of every ball bowled in it

Scoring

Pin

1

One point each

Spare

10 to 20

Ten plus the next ball

Strike

10 to 30

Ten plus the next two balls

Perfect game

300

Twelve strikes in a row

A strike is worth more than ten because the next two balls are counted twice: once in the strike's frame and once in their own. Three strikes in a row, a turkey, make the first one worth thirty, the most a frame can score.

A worked game

Alice bowls a whole game. Each row is a frame, with the balls she bowled, what the frame came to once its bonus was known, and her running total.

Frame one

9, total 9

7 then 2, an open frame

Frame two

10 + 8 + 1 = 19, total 28

A strike, then waits for frame three's two balls

Frame three

9, total 37

8 then 1

Frame four

10 + 9 = 19, total 56

6 then 4, a spare, then waits for frame five's first ball

Frame five

9, total 65

9 then 0

Frame six

10 + 10 + 7 = 27, total 92

A strike, then waits for two balls: frame seven's strike and frame eight's first ball

Frame seven

10 + 7 + 2 = 19, total 111

A strike, then waits for frame eight's two balls

Frame eight

9, total 120

7 then 2

Frame nine

10 + 10 = 20, total 140

8 then 2, a spare, then waits for the tenth's first ball

Frame ten

10 + 9 + 1 = 20, total 160

A strike, then 9, then the last pin for a spare

The waiting is the whole trick of the sheet. Frame two cannot be entered until frame three is finished, because the strike is worth ten plus both of frame three's balls. Frame six waits longest: its next two balls are frame seven's strike and frame eight's first ball, so it is entered after that ball for 27, and frame seven goes in once frame eight is complete. Frame nine's spare is worth ten plus the tenth's first ball, a strike, so it scores 20. In the tenth Alice strikes and gets two more balls; she knocks down nine and then the last one, and the frame is the pins of all three, 10 plus 9 plus 1. Her game is 160.

Ending

A game ends after the tenth frame. Tap End match to bank it, and the leaderboard counts games won; choose Points on the launch sheet instead to total pins across the session.

The pocket

The pins stand in a triangle with the one pin at the front. A ball that hits the one pin dead centre tends to leave the two back corners standing, a split, because the pins fly outwards. The strike ball goes into the pocket instead: for a right-handed bowler, the gap between the one pin and the three pin, just right of centre; for a left-hander, between the one and the two. A ball entering the pocket at a slight angle knocks the pins into each other, and that is where nearly every strike comes from. Most bowlers aim not at the pins but at the arrows painted on the lane about fifteen feet out, because a near target is easier to hit than one sixty feet away.

Spare shooting

A spare is worth almost as much as a strike over a game, and the second ball is where most games are won or lost. A single pin is a straight shot at that pin. A cluster is a shot at the pin in front, letting it take the others. A split, two pins with a gap between them, is the hard one: aim to clip the inside of one pin so it slides across into the other, and accept that most splits are missed.

Move your feet, not your target

The most useful habit in the game is to keep aiming at the same spot on the lane and change where you stand. If your strike ball goes over the second arrow and you need to hit a pin on the left of the lane, move your feet to the right and throw over the same arrow: the ball crosses the lane at an angle and reaches the left side. A pin on the right, move to the left. Aiming at a different arrow changes your swing; moving your feet keeps the swing you trust and points it somewhere else.

A steady approach

A consistent approach matters more than power. Four steps, the ball swinging like a pendulum, released at the bottom of the swing as the last step slides to a stop behind the foul line. A ball rolled straight at medium speed knocks down more pins than one rolled hard and wild. A bowler ten pins behind going into the tenth frame is not beaten: a strike there and two good balls after it is worth up to thirty, and an open tenth by the leader is worth nine at most.

Candlepin

The New England game. The pins are tall and thin, almost the same width top and bottom, and the ball is small, without holes, and held in the palm. A bowler gets three balls a frame, and pins knocked over are left lying where they fall, so a fallen pin can be used to knock down a standing one. Scores are much lower than in ten-pin: nobody has ever bowled a perfect game.

Duckpin

Also from the eastern United States. The pins are short and squat, the ball is small and without holes, and again there are three balls a frame, though here the fallen pins are cleared between balls. Strikes and spares score as in ten-pin, with a third ball allowed when neither has been made, and totals run well below the ten-pin game.

Nine-pin

The older game, still played in Germany and across much of Europe as skittles: nine pins set in a diamond rather than ten in a triangle, with a smaller ball. Scoring varies by country and by club, and a game is usually a set number of balls rather than frames.

Baker format

A team game. Five bowlers share one game: the first bowls frames one and six, the second frames two and seven, and so on, so every bowler contributes two frames and the team has one score. It is the format for college and school team matches.

No-tap

A social format. A set number of pins knocked down with the first ball counts as a strike even if the rest are standing: nine-pin no-tap is the common one, so nine on the first ball is a strike. Scores climb and strikes come often, which is the point of it.

How does a strike score in bowling?

A strike is knocking down all ten pins with the first ball of a frame. It scores ten plus whatever your next two balls knock down, so a strike followed by seven and two is worth nineteen, and a strike followed by two more strikes is worth thirty. You do not get a second ball in that frame; the bonus comes from the following frames.

How does a spare score in bowling?

A spare is knocking down all ten pins using both balls of a frame. It scores ten plus whatever your next ball knocks down, so a spare followed by a first ball of eight is worth eighteen. Only one ball is counted, which is why a spare is worth a little less than a strike.

How many frames are in a game of bowling?

Ten, each of two balls at ten pins, with up to three balls in the tenth so that a strike or a spare there can be given its bonus. A game takes about ten minutes a bowler.

What is the highest score in bowling?

300, a perfect game: twelve strikes in a row, ten frames of strikes and then two more on the bonus balls of the tenth, each frame scoring the full thirty.

How does the tenth frame work in bowling?

The tenth frame gives extra balls so that a strike or a spare can be given its bonus. A strike on the first ball earns two more balls; a spare earns one more. So a bowler can throw up to three balls in the tenth, and the frame scores the total pins of every ball bowled in it, up to thirty for three strikes. An open tenth is over after two balls, like any other.

What is a good score in bowling?

A beginner knocking down pins with no particular technique usually scores somewhere between seventy and a hundred. Once you can spare most frames you are into the 120s and 130s, a bowler who averages over 150 is a good club bowler, and a game over 200 needs several strikes in a row. A perfect game is 300.

How many players can bowl on one lane, and how is the order decided?

A lane takes one to eight bowlers in the app, and most alleys suggest no more than six to a lane so a game stays under an hour. Everyone bowls their first frame in turn, in the same order every frame; the order is the one you entered your names in, and a game is over when every bowler has finished their tenth frame.