Conference 7.286::sports_91

    
    >         -< No.  No one cares about 10 pin.  Candlepin roolz. >-
    
    Who are all these people who supposedly watch candlepins on TV in
    Boston at midday Saturday, year-round, winter or summer, making them 
    consistently some of the highest rated sports programs in the region?  
    I want to solve this mystery.  Will anyone here admit to being part of 
    the 5-8% of all households that allegedly watch candlepin bowling on 
    TV on a sunny summer morning?
    
    glenn
     

Glenn --


They're addicts, plain and simple.  Waking up on a Saturday morning with
pounding heads, bodies simply screaming for a fix, they stumble out into
the living room and sit down in front of the TV.  Continually wiping
a drippy nose on the sleeves of their old tattered bathrobes, men with
stubble on their faces and women with disheveled hair pick up the remote
control, their version of the hypodermic needle.

The withdrawal symptoms grow as they sit and suffer through a collage of
Bugs Bunny, Amazing Discoveries, Crime Story, and that funny looking
nun in the brown habit and coke bottle glasses on the religious channels.

Time passes.  The stubble faced men absent mindedly scratch their balls, 
the disheveled haired women rub their eyes.

Eschewing coffee, they sit, mesmerized by the electrons impinging on the
screen of their glass teats...

And then suddenly, the clock strikes.  Fingers immediately punch in
38 on their remote controls.  Respiration increase, salivation increases...

Like Pavlov's Dogs anticipating the bell their excitement heightens.

And then, center screen is a fat dumpy looking man, shirt tail out, small
wooden ball in his hand.  The addicts cry out in orgiastic ecstasy as 
their needs are met....

The ball rolls down the alley towards the deadwood, the addicts sit back
in their chairs, smiles on their faces, glazed eyes, trippin......

    True Confessions time:
    
    My Aunt WROTE the BOOK on Candlepins -- 
    
    		"The Game of Candlepins", by Florence Greenleaf
    
    A must for every sports-lover's coffee-table:  history of the game
    (e.g., did you KNOW that c'pins predated the "other game"?  Ancient
    Egypt, even...), including the political cr*p (incl. legislating
    size of balls & pin-shape) pulled by NY/NJ legislators to keep 
    candles from spreading in the early 20th Century -- the REAL story,
    painstakingly researched and documented, NOT the self-interested,
    revisionist Brunswick (pinsetting-machines) version..
    
    But wait, there's more!  Over 250 pages of facts, statistics, records,
    rare photos, interviews, article reprints...  As well as theory and
    practice on how the game is played, as written by (the author) a 
    former New England Women's Champion and longtime teacher and
    competitor.  Enough stuff to keep even the trivia-buffs in THIS 
    conference (wait a minute, where AM I; this should be in Sports, too -- 
    mental note...) happy for a long time... TEN YEARS in the researching 
    and production...
    
    Published with sanction of World Candlepin Bowling Assn., and given
    out as prizes on the aforementioned Saturday AM show.  She's still 
    got a few dozen copies left, as I recall -- anybody interested?
    
    BTW, I wrote and helped edit the history section...
    
    - SteveT
    

    Candlepin?? You mean people actually take that game seriously! It's
    ranked right up there with Putt-Putt golf and requires about as much
    skill! Come-on, grab a big ball and do some real bowling!
    
    RC
    

oh-oh!

Looks like RC just pissed REK off...  And we thought that REK hated DOGS!!!!!


8^)

'Saw

    Candlepin seems to be banned to New England.  I've never seen it
    anywhere else.  That's too bad though.  It's great for petite women and
    small children!

    Candlepins are for pencil-necked geeks.  Ol Earl Anthoney never played
    no Candlepin - only REAL god-fearing, honest BOWLING.  10-pin that is. 
    The real stuff. 
    
    Candlepins!  Ha - Bocce is better by far.
    Candlepins!  It's like kissing yer sister.
    Candlepins!  The very minor league of Bowling.  
    
    Pashaw.
    
    JD

    "Tenpins" [sic]: *
    
    	Archery for fat people -- hit the same spot 12 times in a row,
    		get a "perfect game"
    	Every consider how hard it is to learn to "play the wood"? (perfect
    		direction, spin and speed thwarted by glancing off a fallen
    		pin and bouncing over the spot...)
    	Arm is useless after about two strings...
            etc. etc.
    
    
    __________
    * Used to be called "bottle-pins" until the Brunswick people changed
    the name to (a) deny the "tenpin-name" to the candle-world, and (b)
    dissociate the public image of "bowling for beer-bottles" which had
    arisen around this unsavory "sport" (;^})
    

    
    From my vantage point 10-pin has to be more demanding of the two
    bowling sports(definitely two different games).  I really can't comment
    to the requirement of the difficulty for candle pins but it looks like
    the little play bowling pins you gets a 5 year old.  As a matter of
    fact the balls look to be about the same size.  My only experience with
    it turned out be on a visit to training in bedford.  I went to the
    nearest bowling alley only to find 10-pin alleys being resurfaced. The
    only other option was 16 lanes of minirature bowling.  I opted for fine
    dining down the street.
    
    Oh Well....
    
    Anybody bowling summer leagues??
    
    I'm bowling in a fun mixed doubles this summer. Even though I prefer
    mens leagues the skill and view in this league good.  I don't know if
    my eyes are getting worse or if there are just more and more good
    looking women bowling these days.  What's more surprising is some of
    them will  out shoot you and consider it no big deal.
    
    Averaging 187  258 high game and 678(226,216,336) series  
    
    Ringing 10 Roy

It's always amazed me how quickly tenpin bowlers will write off candlepin as a
child's sport, especially those who have never tried it.  Why is it so hard to
accept that there are two distinct games that only share a name?  

j.

    Jeff,
    
    Cuz weenies like you defend candlepin.
    
    JD

Ooooh, can I watch?

    It's not that I've candlepins as a valid game(bowling).  But it's like
    playing basketball for 15 years with a regulation size ball then one
    day you go to a different gym to play and find that they are play with 
    a ball half the size and smaller rim.  No, thanks it does fulfill my
    need for hoops at the time.  The regionality of the game doesn't allow 
    for ample exposure for me as well (Atlanta).
    
    no 5 no drive

re -1

Don't knock it until you try it.




Steve

    
    Are there any places still around that have duck pins, or even more
    bizarre, rubber duck pins? (No, I'm not kidding.  There really is/was
    such a thing as rubber duck pins.)
    
    Dickstah
    

    re .19:
    
    Is the 1/2 candlepin 1/2 duckpin bowling alley at the intersection of 
    Routes 38 and 495 in Tewksbury still open?   
    
    
    py

    	They used to show duckpin bowling on the SportsChannel.  Man
    that was like fast break bowling.  Didn't take 'em long to finish
    a string.  Didn't know there was anyplace here that still had them.
    Although I hear there's a place called Donald's that is exclusively
    duckpin bowling somewhere west of here.
    
    				/Don

    Just now remembered the name of the place I was thinking of in .20,
    it's Wamesit Lanes.
    
    Yeah /Don, I remember those SportsChannel duckpin bowling shows.  Most
    of them originated either in southern New England (CT/RI) or Maryland
    (apparently duckpins is big down there).  Moreso than in tenpins or
    candlepins, if you get a ball right in the pocket in duckpins they FLY
    bigtime...
    
    
    py
      

    Looking at a 1989-1990 phone book for the Lowell area, I see that
    Wamesit was then advertising 20 duckpin and 10 candlepin lanes.
    
    There number is/was 454-6661.
    
    I tried them myself, about 15 years ago.  The ball is different from
    caldlepin, and I didn't really give it much time to see if I'd like it. 
    I never got a chance to try again, either.
    
    lEe

    Ten pin is Too easy..... Hell, I threw a 268 about 10 years ago....
    
    ANY idiot can get a strike just by roll the HUGE ball at the little
    pins... Hell, the ball even has a handle on it!!!! A couple of weeks
    ago I watch American Home Videos and a GOD DAM DOG even got a strike...
    
    Lets see a dog throw a strike in Candlepins!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    
    REK

    Man, I can't believe that Wamesit is still half candlepin and duckpin.
    I bowled candlepin in there must have been ten years ago. I was amazed
    at how easy candlepin was. We bowled about four or five games and mine
    were all around 100. When we took it up to the counter to pay I said
    something to the guy about how badly I had bowled, only being used to
    ten pin bowling, and he looked at my scores and told me they were
    great! I klnow I've had to work very hard in ten pin to to put 200+ in
    the book the past few years and could bowl well above average in
    candlepin the first time out!
    
    Let's here from other people who have done both!!
    
    Randy
    

    I've done both, and there's really no comparison.  They are really two
    different sports.  I'd say that candlepins requires more control in
    both speed and direction, while tenpins requires more consistency in
    the various deliveries.
    
    Triple strikes are more easily accomplished in tenpin than in
    candlepin, and I attribute that to consistent delivery of that first ball.
    Splits are more common in candlepin, and that's why I base my statement
    that they call for more control.
    
    One man's opinion.
    
    lEe

 Ditto what LEe said. I've done both in leagues and for enjoyment. I think
 candlepins is a much harder game to score at. Besides the splits LEe mentioned
 how often do you end up leaving four or five pins on the deck in tenpins for
 a spare? Maybe once a game. While in candlepins it's common. I've never ever
 seen a "spread eagle" or a "half worcester" in Tenpins either....

 mike

    Boy, its a good thing I have been outta the country for a couple of
    weeks, or I woulda been right in the middle of this one.
    
    RE: .2  ME!!!!! I have devoted my saturday midday to this show for over
    20 years now.  At one time I had Rosario Lechiara autograph.  That was
    until I started bowling next to him in the roll-offs, I was glad I lost
    it years ago.  The guy is a true Italian when it comes to temper.  Most
    recently REK and myself have been spotted in the gallery of that show. 
    We witnessed the 2nd best show in its 32 year history.
    
    RE: .4  What a book it is!  I have read it straight through once and
    scanned it numerous times.  Great facts and figures.  We have a copy on
    display at Crowell Bowl.
    
    As for the argument......Needle summed it up, so I don't need to.  To
    each his own.  You know my stance.
    
    As for candlepins being easy......100 may be considered a great score,
    but that is for your sunday afternoon bring the kids to the alleys guy. 
    100 won't buy you nuttin on the pro circuit.  You need a minimum 112
    average, and better be closer to 125 if you ever want to cash in.  When
    was the last time a guy with <120 show up on Saturday afternoon.
    
    'Nuff said.......Let the argument go on, and on, and on.
    
    RTG

    Hawk,
    
    Whether candlepins is easier or not is arguable.....But, I do agree,
    alcohol consumption does help.  I was in an Elks Candlepin tournament
    in 1986.  We bowled in the now defunct "Hiway Bowl" in Walpole MA.
    
    The establishment closed for the day to allow us to carry in as much
    beer as we could consume.
    
    On this day, I bowled my highest single string ever ------  186!!!!!
    
    Also had a 423 for three......And that was while half in the bag.
    
    RTG

    I get just the opposite effect, Kwah.  I guess I get too confident
    after a few brews, and think I can make any spare.  I must admit,
    thought, it is more fun that way.
    
    Lee

    Now, this is something I agree with. Both of my bests in bowling came
    after "several" beers, a 299 game and about a year later a 777 series.
    I find a few beers also helps my golf, but I have to be more cautious
    as bowling balls are much easier to find than golf bowls!
    
    Randy
    

    
    Yep, beer and bowling go together like whiskey and huntin'.
    
    JUST KIDDING!
    JUST KIDDING!
    
    Dickstah
    

Whisky and Huntin' go real good together....


If yer huntin' for wimmins 8^)

    but whiskey and/or beer with a little round o' golf have
    (IMPO) the opposite effect (unless ya want to lower the cost per
    stroke)
    
    ;^)
    
    Kev
    

Time for tips:

Can someone offer a tip how to generate side roll upon release?

I watch the PROs throw, and it seems that EVERY one of them, super crankers to
elegant strokers, have one thing in common; they get side rotation (the axis
starts out virtually parallel to the lane at about 6 o'clock and slowly but
surely precesses to about 8 o'clock upon impact). I put a piece of tape on what
appears to be the axis of rotation on my ball. The tape starts out at perhap 8
o'clock and I can barely see it at impact. In theory, it seems a rather simple
task to impart this side roll, but mechanically no matter what I try, I just
can't seem to do it.

Perhaps someone has a tip that can be an aid in acheiving this.

Thanks,

Cb.

    I thought the "argument" of 10-pin vs. Candlepin was settled years ago.
    Too many low-lifes frequent 10-pin houses.
    
    -- JB

    Well well well, If it isn't Jim_Bob_Denver_Dallas_Crews!!!111
    
    How you been, Bob?  The dINZ missed you so much, he stopped noting for
    awhile!
    
    lEe

    Ha -- I just thought I'd sneak in here for a quick check, having
    avoided this venture for the greatest parts of 1990 and 1991.  And lo
    and behold, Mr. Crews beat me to it.  Still using that old argument,
    eh??  Won't hold up -- check out the discussion on the habits of those
    who support candlepins in here.....  :-)
    
    Boy, some of you guys must have missed the last "Great Bowling Debate"
    in a sports conference-past.  With the exception of a few comical, but
    nonsensical comments by Ed Norris (who was mostly just trying to get
    back at me for all my rotisserie wins), it was no contest.  Not one of
    my facks was successfully knocked out.  As Yogi said, you can look it
    up (anyone have a backup :-)......
    
    And I can't believe you guys are still trying to use comparitive scores
    to base your claim of candlepins being a tougher game.  Even people
    who've never seen candlepins (which is most of the world) could tell
    you that you'll knock down more pins in tenpins, but that has nothing
    to do with the degree of difficulty....  that's just an obvious fack.
    
    Face it -- candlepins is a regional game which hasn't spread and never
    will 'cause it isn't as viable as tenpins, which is still the #1
    participation sport in the country.  And all the "I hit a 268 game 10
    years ago" and "just throw it down the middle 12 times for a 300 game"
    arguments don't prove a thing.
    
    And I've tried both -- candlepins is #3 -- duckpins are more fun!!!
    
    -- dg

> And I've tried both -- candlepins is #3 -- duckpins are more fun!!!
    	
	duckpins are the best...

mc

    	Tenpins look like Kareem with big hips.
    
    	Duckpins look like Spud Webb with big hips.
    
    	Scott

    Karen,
    
    NO no no. Duckpins are the "waistline-challenged" pins.
    
    HTH
    MikeL
    

>    	Tenpins look like Kareem with big hips.
>    
>    	Duckpins look like Spud Webb with big hips.
    
And candlepins look like Kareem wif no hips at all....

    Duckpins are a lot like Rugby.
    
    Mark.

    
    	A duckpin is actually the way mallard drakes settle their
    	differences over who gets the mallard hen.  HTH
    
    	Claybroon

No, no, no

Duckpins are the vertically challenged ones...

    No no no Bob,
    You are gray matter-challenged. HTH
    
    Mucho 8^)'s
    
    MikeL
    

    
    	Sub Bowler wanted.........
    
    	When:  Wednesday night 7:00 pm
    	Where:  Gardner Lanes
    
    	You must be sanctioned.
    
    	This position may turn into a permanent one.
    
    	Send reply to me if interested.
    
    		Thanks,
    			Hal

    Jan 23, 1988
    
    Bob Benoit becomes the 1st bowler to bowl a perfect game on tv in a
    title match, beating Mark Roth 300-255 to win the $100,000 in  the
    Quaker State Open.

Now that the new SOB has been in use for several months, I would be very
interested in hearing comments:

Has it really affected the scoring as was feared?

Is it really that much different from "short oil"?

What seem to be the most widely accepted oiling pattern?

Has the system caused radical equipment change (types of balls and drilling
patterns?

And a general question...

What seems to be the most dominant ball these days?

Thanks,

Cb.

Could someone please tell me the basic format for regional tournaments. 

I only went to watch one once and I recall that there were preliminary rounds
and then a final 24 and then a stepladder finals with bonuses for winning
matches and pins over 200 and minuses for scores under 200. However, I don't
remember all the details and exact numbers.

Thanks,

Cb.

THE SHIRTS ASIDE, BOWLING'S NOT SO BAD
from The Greensburg Tribune Review, 5-24-1992

By

Kevin Cowherd

	Off the top of my head, I'm calling this piece "Bowling: a reappraisal"
and hoping it comes across as properly sincere and apologetic in tone.
	The truth is, I used to think bowling was a fairly dull sport, engaged
in mainly by armies of moon-faced men and women with an affinity for noise and
loud shirts.
	But as I discovered last weekend, bowling can be very exciting, even if
one doesn't wear a neon green shirt with bold red script proclaiming "Al's
Towing: 24-Hour Service."
	I also discovered that the excitement of bowling seems to build in
direct proportion to the number of beers consumed.
	Completely sober, the act of rolling a heavy ball into a set of pins
may strike some as pointless, not unlike face-painting or collecting bottle
caps.
	By the third or fourth beer, though, the alleys begin to take on a
warm, rosy glow.
	At the same time, your companions, whom you once regarded as
uninteresting people with ugly red and green shoes, are magically transformed
into sparkling conversationalists with the wit of a Garrison Keillor or Helen
Gurley Brown--although a Keillor or Brown who are not above telling a steady
stream of raunchy jokes, such as the one about Joan Collins and the Titanic.
	Humorist Roy Blount Jr. once pointed out there never has been a great
bowling novel.
	I don't see why.  Bowlers are some of the warmest, most genuine people
you'll ever come across.  I see that now.  Don't know how I missed that before.
	Not to dwell on this for too long, but it's inconceivable to not like a
sport that allows you to drink beer while you participate.
	That is probably half the problem with these other so-called
participant sports.
	Racquetball, for instance.  Racwuetball players are so uptight.
	And no wonder.  The game essentially calls for two people with large
dangerous rackets to go into a room the size of a broom closet and smack a
little blue ball as hard as they can.
	If you weree encouraged to bring a beer or two in there, the nervous
tension would surely dissipate, to the point where the players might break out
lawn chairs and tape players and begin a lively conversation about the new
Springsteen albums.
	This is probably neither here nor there, but I used to have a friend
named Bob who, when asked what kind of exercise he got, would reply(with a
straight face): "Well, I bowl three times a week."
	Meanwhile, on any given bowling night, Bob was good for at least four
Budweisers, a pack of Camel Filters and a couple of artery-clogging bacon
cheeseburger.
	We used to take bets on whether this guy would make it to the parking
lot without keeling over.
	Not to put too fine a point on it, but he looked as if he'd just jumped
off an autopsy table.
	Yet he insisted that bowling kept him in shape.
	Despite my renewed fondness for bowling, I do have one minor complaint
against the sport.
	The Shirts!!  I don't know...I can't get past shirts that serious(read
league) bowlers wear.
	Even with three beers in me, I would feel extremely self-conscious
wearing a yellow polyester shirt with black letters advertising Bob's
Qwik-Mart, complete with the faint outline of a jug of 2-percent milk over the
breast pocket.
	Without actually calling for a vote, I think we'd agree that the
bowling shirt is the single ugliest garment in the history of the clothing
industry.
	Why these bowlers can't wear a smart-looking polo shirt or something
more...geez, I just remembered something.  The guy on lanes 23 and 24 last
week.
	This guy wore a bowling shirt most rational people would not wear
unless:

	a).  a massive power failure had plunged the alley into total darkness

or

	b).  the wearer had on a Groucho Marx-like fake eyeglasses, nose and
mustache to disguise his or her identity.
	I am not sure it's possible to describe this shirt, because...well,
let's give it a try.
	The shirt was mustard brown in color.  Printed on the back in vivid
green letters was:  "Ohn Electrical Contractors."
	Directly underneath was a applique scene of a tiny black bowling ball
crashing into a set of pins, except that the pins--stay with me here--were in
the shape of light bulbs with happy faces.
	The green script over the breast pocket indicated the ruddy-faced
fellow with the beer gut wearing this shirt was named Chet.
	Frightening??  Oh, you betcha.
	Again, I like bowling.
	But a man like Chet must really love the game.





JaKe

    I just discovered that there is a BOWLING conference on SEATTL::.
    
    Use KP7 to add this conference to your notebook.
    
    Thanks,
    
    Cb.

    Gee, didn't the Bob Seager do a song about bowling?!?!?!!?
    
    REK