Any bowlers in the house

Ten years ago I bowled on leagues so monday I dug out the old Columbia 300 and went and played three games bad idea. I'm so friggin sore may butt even hurts. Thinking of updating my ball. Lots of new stuff out there. I like the Hammer I see a new one coming out. Anyone here bowl and can lead me into a good ball. Thanks

Like you, I used to. Was in a league in high school (1980s) and then for two years as an adult (2003 - 2005). Haven't tossed a ball since.

I also bowled duckpins in college. Ever heard of duckpins?

I was in a league back in the early 70's. My drummer/roomie got me on his league and well. that kinda takes the fun out of bowling for me. Starts to seem like a weekly chore after a while. My daughter and I went a few times here when she was in middle school. Duck Pins? I haven't bowled those since I was in Jr High, 67-69. They had a couple of lanes at the YMCA where I used to go swimming after school let out. They were fun.

I herd of duck pin but never played it. I see they make duck pin balls.

I kick azz on Nintendo - lol , they just opened some new lanes right around the corner from the house , now that my knee has healed , I want to start playing again.

Wow! I had totally forgotten about bowling. 30 years ago I had just bowled a 300 and celebrated by ordering a new personalized ball and shoes. This was on a Thursday. Saturday I went back for drilling and a roll test. Sunday a large tool for the operator's window on the prototype KC-10 Air Force refueling tanker fell on my arm and severed the 'funnybone' nerve in my arm. I was in therapy for 3 months and eventually the nerve grew back, but I've never rolled that ball down a lane. Funny, but the FAA inspector wore a 300 ring and my lead man was an ABC certified lane inspector. I should dig that out and try it some time. It's like riding a bike, eh? Except I'm 30 years older now-damn! I'll bet I'll get more butthurt than Getmore did-LOL!

Getmore said:

Ten years ago I bowled on leagues so monday I dug out the old Columbia 300 and went and played three games bad idea. I'm so friggin sore may butt even hurts. Thinking of updating my ball. Lots of new stuff out there. I like the Hammer I see a new one coming out. Anyone here bowl and can lead me into a good ball. Thanks

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In the 1980s, I lived (if you can call it that) in Western New York State. About the only things to do there after work were drink, bowl and $cr3w other guys' wives. So I made up for not drinking enough in my college days and ended up on two bowling leagues. In my teen years, I had used a 14# hard plastic ball and threw it pretty straight. As I got serious in WNY, I was coached to get a 16# urethane ball drilled with the maximum allowable offset and to develop a curve. My average went from 165 to 185. The ball I got was a blue Hammer, a little more grip than the black one but not as much as the yellow. I haven't followed the sport for better than 25 years now so I can't help with the current stuff but I can say, historically, the Hammer was a good ball.

Bat-mite said:

Like you, I used to. Was in a league in high school (1980s) and then for two years as an adult (2003 - 2005). Haven't tossed a ball since.

I also bowled duckpins in college. Ever heard of duckpins?

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Growing up in Connecticut, I bowled nothing but duck pins until I was 14 and joined a 10-pin league in my DeMolay chapter. My dad was on a duck pin league for many years. Once I switched over, I never went back to ducks. When I moved from WNY to Massachusetts, I joined a candlepin league at the company where I worked. I never really got the hang of that in the couple of years I tried; I couldn't break the approach and arm swing style I had developed in 10-pin. It didn't translate well. I almost fell on my head with my first candlepin shot; without the 16# counterweight swinging on my right side, my balance was way off.

I have been bowling league games for now 40 years. I have worn out three balls and need to get a new.

As for recommending a new ball for you, there are so many new balls out there that it would be very difficult to suggest one for you, since I have no knowledge of you style of bowling. The bowling balls that are on the market vary from nasty hooking balls to straight balls. Your local professional bowler can make better suggestions than I. He or she can analyze your form and style and then recommend balls according to your wallet.

Now go bowl a 300.

Wow Ken that's really interesting! I just looked up duck- and candlepin bowling as I 'd never heard of it. Seems rather more difficult than the pedestrian bowling game we all know. I'd think it to be much more frustrating!

I have a 16# red Hammer and a 16# black pearl Rhino. The Rhino suited my style a lot more than the Hammer. Where I bowled they made sure to oil the lanes before the league. My approach and delivery were different than normal. I start far to the left past the arrows with the ball cupped in my hand. It almost looked like I was dropping the ball on the lane as it skidded on the oil. From the left the ball crossed the middle arrow then skidded to the very edge of the right side. Now the cause for the skidding became obvious. I had the ball spinning at about a 30* to the lane. the ball would skid slowly to the end of the oil, grab the lane and pick up speed. It wasn't so much a curve as a redirected straight shot. I was carrying a 183 avg when I stopped with a 263 as my best. I did get a watch from ABC for 100 pins over, still got the watch

fyrwrxz said:

Wow Ken that's really interesting! I just looked up duck- and candlepin bowling as I 'd never heard of it. Seems rather more difficult than the pedestrian bowling game we all know. I'd think it to be much more frustrating!

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Candlepin bowling is a hoot! Can't find it outside of the NorthEast, so I haven't done it in decades. Back in high school, it was a weekly ritual.

fyrwrxz said:

Wow Ken that's really interesting! I just looked up duck- and candlepin bowling as I 'd never heard of it. Seems rather more difficult than the pedestrian bowling game we all know. I'd think it to be much more frustrating!

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NAR29996 said:

Candlepin bowling is a hoot! Can't find it outside of the NorthEast, so I haven't done it in decades. Back in high school, it was a weekly ritual.

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Frustrating is putting it mildly. It wasn't as unusual as you would want it to be to throw your first ball right down the middle, knock out the 1 and 5 pins and then throw your next two shots right through the same space without hitting anything else (yes, both candle and duck have three balls per frame). One time in candlepin, I saw someone hit the headpin and get only that one pin. The ball deflected just right the right angle to travel to the gutter between the pins and not get another one. He picked up a few more with the other two shots but that made everyone's night.

tightwad said:

As for recommending a new ball for you, there are so many new balls out there that it would be very difficult to suggest one for you, since I have no knowledge of you style of bowling. The bowling balls that are on the market vary from nasty hooking balls to straight balls. Your local professional bowler can make better suggestions than I. He or she can analyze your form and style and then recommend balls according to your wallet.

Now go bowl a 300.

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This is the right advice. The friends who helped me weren't the local pros but they knew my style and capabilities and worked with me to learn the new equipment. It didn't hurt that the owner of one of the alleys I bowled at threw a similar line as me so the oil on his lanes worked great for me.

Don't bowl as much as I should, I really enjoy it! Best place left in the world, right here in bowl-a-rific Milwaukee - Koz's.
https://www.kozsminibowl.com/

Sandy and I used to bowl in a couples league. Candle pin bowling.
We took 2cnd place for the season.
We would have taken the first place trophy home, all we needed was to win one game out of three the last night of bowling.
Well, Scotty Dog started to celebrate a little to soon...
Lost all three games and the couple we were playing took first.
O-WELLA.. it was fun.
Part of the fee was thrown in a fund and we all went out on the town at the end of the season.
The last time I bowled, the next day,I also felt like I got hit by a truck.

Columbia Reactive here. Love it



Launching rockets (or missiles in my case) is so easy a chimp could do it. Read a step, do a step, eat a banana.

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Best I can remember, a duck pin ball was about the same size as a softball. Having no finger holes made it pretty much the same as pitching a softball made of (wood?) down the lane. Not quite as dynamic as a real bowling ball of course, but for the straight bowler (like me) I got the hang of it pretty quick. It is what got me interested in bowling in the first place.

When I was in high school, my folks were in a league. My dad had a medical problem (surgery???) and since it was the beginning of the season, I got to sub for him. I got pretty good. It's one of the sports I always enjoyed growing up. Tried it again about 15 years ago. They've changed the soles of the shoes from leather to some sort of plastic/rubber. BIG DIFFERENCE!! I was used to sliding a few inches as I released the ball. Not with the new shoes! The new shoes have grip and you stop instantly. The first ball I tried to throw, I almost flew half-way down the lane when my feet stopped but my upper body didn't! It might be fun to take up again, but the local lanes are a church now.

KennB said:

Frustrating is putting it mildly. It wasn't as unusual as you would want it to be to throw your first ball right down the middle, knock out the 1 and 5 pins and then throw your next two shots right through the same space without hitting anything else (yes, both candle and duck have three balls per frame).

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Equally frustrating is knocking out the 2 and 8 or the 3 and 9 (half Worcester). According to legend, the term was coined when a team from Worcester and a team from Boston were competing in the semifinal round of a statewide tournament held sometime in the 1940s; late in the last match of the round, one of the bowlers on the Worcester team knocked down only two such pins with his first ball, prompting a member of the Boston team to taunt him by saying, "You're halfway back to Worcester".

I bowled in a candlepin league from 1971 - 75, 1986 - 90 and from 2004 to last year. I'm not bowling this year because my knee can't handle it anymore.

It's really hard and one year I had high average for the league I was in and it was 112.

It is even possible for a toppled pin to bounce off a side "kickback", and return to a standing position on the lane's pin deck in the candlepin sport.

[video=youtube;jfk9KLBtPu4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfk9KLBtPu4[/video]

I've been in leagues all my life, bowled my first 300 on 9/11/2011, since then I've bowled 2 more along with a 299 and several 289's and 279's. My bowling career goal is to roll an 800 series, I've been close but always seem to catch a bad break. I carry 4 balls with me to league.

sooner.boomer said:

When I was in high school, my folks were in a league. My dad had a medical problem (surgery???) and since it was the beginning of the season, I got to sub for him. I got pretty good. It's one of the sports I always enjoyed growing up. Tried it again about 15 years ago. They've changed the soles of the shoes from leather to some sort of plastic/rubber. BIG DIFFERENCE!! I was used to sliding a few inches as I released the ball. Not with the new shoes! The new shoes have grip and you stop instantly. The first ball I tried to throw, I almost flew half-way down the lane when my feet stopped but my upper body didn't! It might be fun to take up again, but the local lanes are a church now.

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I about blew out a knee because of that. Traveled to Denver to visit the inlaws. Thought we'd go bowling. Boise lanes are clean and besides the difference between the lanes with wood or synthetic the same as far as sliding goes. When I locked up I did go down the lane. Not fun, not funny. I got up and went back to the line and bent down to feel all the Coke on the surface of the approach. That bowling alley would let kids bowl with a ball in one hand and a Coke in the other... I swear they never mopped the lanes. Worst experience bowling I ever had

Used to bowl like *mad* once I turned 16, and even carried a 190+ avg back in later 80's, with finallya 203 avg soon thereafter. Remember, this was back in the urethane was best times, before reactive resin balls *ruined* the sport.

Wound up dorking up both my shoulder and thumb from the many, many games back then, so had to quit just when the 'crap' started around '92. Back before '90, if you rolled a 700, it was a big deal, and a 190+ avg got you a regional PBA card, which was not easy to obtain then. 800 series? 300 games? Those were unheard of back then from a localized standpoint.

Now, it's gotten ridiculous. If I wasn't still sort of 'un-recovered' from those injuries, I'd get back in.

Did have something happen once that was hilarious similar to the video above. Back in '88, I had left the pocket 7-10, for a second, as the 10 wobbled and spun around, moving closer to the left, finally stopping just *LEFT* of where the 9 originally stood. Almost made this, but did make the real 7-10 twice. Also liked the sleepers, where one pin would move *just enough* to look like a little split, and be harder to convert.

This thread reminds me of the time back in '87 when I was fixing to shoot 800, but got stuffed with an unbelievable solid 8 pin right in the ninth frame of the last game, after a string of strikes :y: Was so pi$$ed off, I missed it, and then, for good measure, doubled in the tenth and ended up with 783 I believe.

Funny thing is, I'd go to work for fun, and bowling/golf to get hyperserious and experiences like the above did not help my cardiopulmonary health much.