Chapter One

Bowling Through the Ages

The crash of nine pins awakened Rip Van Winkle from his long sleep. This is the
earliest reference to bowling in American literature. However, the origin of bowling can
be traced back to several thousand years B.C. According to British anthropologist, Sir
Flinders Petrie, a seven thousand year tomb of an Egyptian child revealed a stone ball and
9 conical pieces of stone. She probably loved bowling!
Rome and Greece were fond of bowling too: as far back as 4000 years ago, as evidence
reveals. In the Italian Alps, 2000 years ago there was some form of bowling when
players threw stone objects to topple other stone objects
Bruce Pluckhahn, bowling historian, in the Encyclopedia of Sports, notes that the earliest
use of bowling pins - like the ones we use today - was in Germany. Bowling was a form
of religious ritual.
The strange rite - around 300 AD - comprised of the parishioner placing his kegel (a
stone implement Germans used to carry for self protection and sports, at one end of a
runway. A person had to target the kegel with a stone ball. Successful toppling of the
kegel implied that the bowler had been cleansed of sin!
Bowling rose to eminence in England in the 14th century when King Edward III
outlawed the game. The reason: his soldiers were neglecting archery practice to play or
lay bets for bowling! Such was the popularity of the sport.
During the reign of Henry VIII the game was quite in vogue. By this time, there existed a
few other variations of the game where a ball was thrown at objects, which did or did not
resemble pins.
Among them, the strangest of all was played in Edinburgh. The bowler swings an
ordinary ball (without drilled holes for grip) between his legs and hurls it towards the
pins. The momentum of the action makes him flop down onto the lane on his stomach!
Some of the games related to bowling are

Petanque of France
Lawn Bowling in Britain
Bocce of Italy
-8 2004, HowToBowlStrikes.com