Skittles (also known as ninepins) is a game in which nine wooden pins, arranged with the aid of a diamond-shaped frame at one end of an alley, are knocked down by a ball thrown from the other.
Ten Pin bowling is the North American version of Skittles and is believed to be based upon the Skittles game introduced by early Dutch settlers in the 17th century.
Skittles is thought to date back to the Stone Age, when early man enjoyed a very crude version of the game. Probably all he did was aim stones at other stones to pass his time.
Seven thousand years ago, the ancient Egyptians bowled on alleys not unlike our own. When Sir Flinders Petrie excavated an Egyptian child's grave dating back to 5200 BC, he discovered among the objects entombed items that undoubtedly had belonged to a game very similar to modern, ten-pin bowling.
Homer mentions skittles in The Odyssey.
The modern version of skittles began during the 4th or 5th century AD in Germany, where bowlers rolled balls down church aisles at a club called the heathen. The bowler's religious faith was supposedly demonstrated by hitting the heathen.
By the Middle Ages, various forms of bowling had spread from Germany through Europe, with the number of pins used ranging from three to 15.
Skittles was played in England as early as the thirteenth century in a rudimentary sort of way. By the late Middle Ages, it had become a most favored pastime, at first among kings and noblemen.
Bowling alleys and courts in the late Middle Ages were privately owned, usually forming part of a royal, or a gentleman's, garden.
Martin Luther recommended playing skittles after church, giving each skittle the name of a sin. The number of skittles were not yet generally fixed but differed from city to city. Some used as many as 16 pins, others as few as 3. Luther began to investigate possibilities of improving the game searching for the ideal number of pins. This eventually he found to be nine.
Ten Pin bowling is the North American version of Skittles and is believed to be based upon the Skittles game introduced by early Dutch settlers in the 17th century.
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HISTORY
Skittles is thought to date back to the Stone Age, when early man enjoyed a very crude version of the game. Probably all he did was aim stones at other stones to pass his time.
Seven thousand years ago, the ancient Egyptians bowled on alleys not unlike our own. When Sir Flinders Petrie excavated an Egyptian child's grave dating back to 5200 BC, he discovered among the objects entombed items that undoubtedly had belonged to a game very similar to modern, ten-pin bowling.
Homer mentions skittles in The Odyssey.
The modern version of skittles began during the 4th or 5th century AD in Germany, where bowlers rolled balls down church aisles at a club called the heathen. The bowler's religious faith was supposedly demonstrated by hitting the heathen.
By the Middle Ages, various forms of bowling had spread from Germany through Europe, with the number of pins used ranging from three to 15.
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| Skittle Players outside an Inn by Jan Steen. |
Skittles was played in England as early as the thirteenth century in a rudimentary sort of way. By the late Middle Ages, it had become a most favored pastime, at first among kings and noblemen.
Bowling alleys and courts in the late Middle Ages were privately owned, usually forming part of a royal, or a gentleman's, garden.
Martin Luther recommended playing skittles after church, giving each skittle the name of a sin. The number of skittles were not yet generally fixed but differed from city to city. Some used as many as 16 pins, others as few as 3. Luther began to investigate possibilities of improving the game searching for the ideal number of pins. This eventually he found to be nine.
King Henry VIII of England was a keen bowler. In 1511, he banned bowling for the lower classes and imposed a levy for private lanes to limit them to the wealthy.
Another English law, passed in 1541 prohibited workers from bowling, except at Christmas, and only in their master's home and in his presence. It was repealed in 1845.
The exact time and place of the first "bowling at pins" in the United States is uncertain. Its earliest literary reference is contained in Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle, published in 1819. This speaks of the thunder of the balls colliding with pins, showing that by then the game must have been generally known.
As bowling's popularity grew, betting on the sport arose. Disapproval of gambling led to a ban on ninepins by Connecticut and New York in the early 19th century. A tenth pin was added to the game in 1842- probably as a ruse to avoid the ban.
Frank Caruana of Buffalo, New York, became in 1924 the first ten pin bowler to roll two perfect games in a row and an incredible 29 strikes in succession. He rolled five strikes in a row in a third game in sanctioned play, as well.
Ben Ketola bowled a perfect 300-point game in a record 86.9 seconds at the 281 Bowl Lanes in Cortland, New York, in April 2017.
Bill Murray actually bowled the three tournament winning strikes at the end of Kingpin.
A bowling pin needs to tilt only 7.5 degrees to fall.
When bowling a perfect strike, the bowling ball will only hit 4 pins (1-3-5-9). The rest fall due to the ricochet of the other pins into each other.
There are 50,613,244,155,051,856 possible ways to score exactly 100 points in a game of ten-pin bowling.
Sources Compton's Encyclopedia, Europress Encyclopedia
The exact time and place of the first "bowling at pins" in the United States is uncertain. Its earliest literary reference is contained in Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle, published in 1819. This speaks of the thunder of the balls colliding with pins, showing that by then the game must have been generally known.
As bowling's popularity grew, betting on the sport arose. Disapproval of gambling led to a ban on ninepins by Connecticut and New York in the early 19th century. A tenth pin was added to the game in 1842- probably as a ruse to avoid the ban.
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| Pinsetter boys at a Pittsburgh bowling alley, c. 1908 |
FAMOUS TEN-PIN BOWLING FEATS
Frank Caruana of Buffalo, New York, became in 1924 the first ten pin bowler to roll two perfect games in a row and an incredible 29 strikes in succession. He rolled five strikes in a row in a third game in sanctioned play, as well.
Ben Ketola bowled a perfect 300-point game in a record 86.9 seconds at the 281 Bowl Lanes in Cortland, New York, in April 2017.
Bill Murray actually bowled the three tournament winning strikes at the end of Kingpin.
TEN-PIN BOWLING FUN FACTS
A bowling pin needs to tilt only 7.5 degrees to fall.
When bowling a perfect strike, the bowling ball will only hit 4 pins (1-3-5-9). The rest fall due to the ricochet of the other pins into each other.
There are 50,613,244,155,051,856 possible ways to score exactly 100 points in a game of ten-pin bowling.
Sources Compton's Encyclopedia, Europress Encyclopedia
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