Bowling

Bowling can refer to two distinctly different types of game. The first is played along an "alley", most commonly made of synthetic material imitating a wood surface. Historically, bowling lanes were made of wood; however, most centers around the United States have upgraded to the synthetic playing surfaces. Several sports involve a ball rolling towards a target (in the case of bowling, pins); the players attempt to score points by knocking the targets down. Included in this group are:

• Ten-pin bowling, which evolved from ninepin bowling in the 19th Century.
• Five-pin bowling, played in Canada
• Nine-pin skittles
• Candlepin bowling, played in eastern Canada and New England, is a variation of ten-pin bowling, where the player gets to roll a small ball three times per frame instead of two, and the fallen pins are not removed between throws.
• Duckpin bowling, commonly found in the mid-Atlantic and northeastern United States and eastern Canada, is another variation of ten-pin bowling, where the player rolls three times per frame toward small, squat pins. A variant with pins encircled with rubber at their widest points, rubberband duckpin bowling, uses the same rules as ten-pin bowling.
• Feather Bowling (Belgian trough bowling) originated in Belgium and is played in Detroit and Mount Clemens, Michigan.

The second group of bowling is played outdoors, usually on a lawn. Here the players throw a ball, which is sometimes eccentrically weighted, in an attempt to put it closest to a designated point. This group includes games such as Lawn bowls, Bocce, and Petanque.

• Skittles - the sport from which "alley" based Bowling originated
• Skee ball - a game that plays similar to bowling
• Pin shooting - a pistol shooting game using bowling pins.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Bowling"

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