Ninepin bowling pins and ball |
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| Highest governing body | WNBA |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | ninepins, 9-pin, kegeln ... |
| First played | Medieval times, Germany |
| Registered players | about 130,000 |
| Characteristics | |
| Contact | No |
| Team members | 6 per side + reserves |
| Mixed gender | Yes, separate competitions |
| Categorization | Team sport, ball sport |
| Equipment | Ninepin bowling ball |
| Venue | Ninepin bowling lane |
| Olympic | No |
Nine-pin bowling (also known as ninepin bowling, nine-pins, 9-pins, etc.) is a bowling game played primarily in Europe. European championships are held each year. Over 90,000 members are on teams in Germany, often playing in officially registered Bundeskegelbahnen (federal bowling alleys) to be found in almost every sizable town. In Europe overall, there are some 130,000 players. Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Liechtenstein, United States and Brazil are other countries in which nine-pin bowling lanes are often found.
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This game is one in which a player brings a plastic or wooden ball that is rolled down an alley to nine pins. The "bowling ball" is smaller and lighter than in ten-pin bowling, and the ball may have two or no finger holes. Being smaller, the ball will actually roll, rather than slide, down most of the lane distance. The lanes are shorter than those for ten-pin bowling. The nine pins (cones) are placed in a diamond shape on the alley. In most lane systems the pins have a rope on top, as part of a "string-setter", to pick up the pins and replace them back in to the diamond shape for the next roll. In Germany there are three kinds of bowling lane systems in different regions of the country (not counting ten-pins which has made some inroads). The systems differ both in their measurements and in the materials used for construction. One of the systems uses a lane that starts out narrow, but widens when approaching the pins. One uses flat asphalt lanes, while two use wooden lanes that are slightly elevated at the outer edges. There is one more special lane system only used in a small region of eastern Germany (Mansfelder Land), in this a very heavy ball is literally thrown at rather than rolled towards the pins; it is usually played outdoors. The different lane systems require noticeably different throwing techniques for successful play.
The game is played in 120 throws of four lanes. On each lane 30 throws. On one lane there are fifteen throws on all nine pins (full) and fifteen throws where knocked down pins remain out of play until no pins are left (cleaning). One of the lane systems doesn't use cleaning, so that all throws are on nine pins.
The standard diameter of the ball is 160 mm, the weight is approximately 2.85 kg. The U14 (11–14 years) plays with 140 mm/1.9 kg. The pins usually have a weight of approximately 1730 g.
In Switzerland the nine-pin bowling balls are much bigger and heavier, bigger even than ten-pin bowling balls. There are two holes, one for the thumb and one for the other fingers.
Pin points are added up for each throw. Professional players get up to 900 points (which means an average of 7.5 points per throw) and more (120 throws, "Schere"). Usually, the number of points awarded equals the number of pins thrown down.
In intra-club play and leisure play, many different games can be played, such as aiming for a specific sum without overshooting, throwing at specific combinations of less than nine pins, aiming to achieve results from "one" to "nine" in a row with the least number of throws, etc.
The Rule that twelve Points are awarded if, when throwing on all nine pins, the specially marked central pin ("kingpin") remains standing while all others are thrown down, is only employed in leisure play and not in competitions.
Standardized rules and organization of nine-pins were developed by the American Bowling Congress in 1895. Nine-pins was the most popular form of bowling in much of the United States from colonial times until the early nineteenth century, when it was outlawed in many areas and replaced by ten-pins. Today, nine-pins has disappeared from all of the United States except Texas, where both nine and ten pin bowling have been known since the 1830s. In the 1830s, several cities in the United States banned nine-pin bowling out of moral panic about work ethic, gambling, and organized crime. Ten-pin bowling was invented in order to meet the letter of these laws. Ninepin alleys were numerous enough in Texas by 1837 that rather than a ban, the First Congress of the Republic of Texas chose to subject them to an annual tax of $150, and all forms of bowling have remained legal and subject to taxation in Texas ever since. Whereas tenpin alleys were usually found in saloons and other establishments frequented exclusively by men, ninepin alleys were often built by clubs patronized by families.
By World War I most Texas bowling establishments, both private and commercial, had changed to ten-pins. However, nine-pins remained popular in predominantly German communities like Fredericksburg, New Braunfels and Bulverde, until the introduction of fully automated pin-setting machinery in the 1950s caused most of them to make the change as well. Those bowlers who still preferred the teamwork and camaraderie of nine-pins then moved to the nine-pins clubs in the small outlying communities of Bexar, Comal, and Guadalupe counties.
Organizations like the Turner Club (Downtown San Antonio), Barbarossa, Bexar, Bulverde, Blanco, Bracken, Cibolo, Fischer, Freiheit, Germania(the oldest club, organized in 1889), Highland, Laubach, Marion, Martinez, Mission Valley, Solms, Spring Branch, and Zorn bowling clubs maintain the only active nine-pins leagues in the United States.
These bowling clubs typically have league bowling Monday through Friday, dependent on the number of bowling lanes and number of league bowlers. The smaller clubs (Zorn, Barbarossa, and Laubach, for example) have only four lanes while the bigger clubs may have eight or more lanes. League bowling consists of two teams bowling head-to-head for three games, with each nine-pin team having six bowlers. Each game consists of six frames. Each bowler will roll the ball twice in each frame regardless of the number of pins knocked down on each roll. When a bowler’s turn is completed, the next bowler will not receive a “Full House” to bowl at: rather, the next bowler must attempt to knock down the pins that were left by the previous bowler. For example, if the first bowler is only able to knock down seven pins, the second bowler must attempt to knock down the remaining two pins. Should the second bowler be unsuccessful in knocking down both of these pins in the allotted two rolls, the third bowler will attempt to knock down the remaining pins. This will continue until the remaining pins are knocked down or until the end of the frame. Once all pins are knocked down, the “12-pin”/”Redhead” is left standing alone (see below), or the end of the frame is reached, all nine pins (a Full House) will be reset.
Something that makes nine-pin bowling different from ten-pin bowling is that the bowlers do not have to bowl in the same order in each frame. Each team can designate a bowler to “Captain” each game. This Captain has complete discretion in determining the bowling order in each frame. These decisions are made on-the-fly: If the remaining pins are on the left side, and there is a remaining bowler who is better than the rest on left side pins, the Captain will send that bowler. This gives the Captain the flexibility to help maximize the team’s score. However, each bowler must roll two balls in each frame.
The pins are set up in a diamond (1-2-3-2-1) configuration. The pin exactly in the center has a special purpose in nine-pin bowling. This pin is typically painted red, either partially or completely, and is called the “12-Pin” or the “Redhead”. From front to back, the pins are 1) the Head Pin, 2) the Left Front Beer and Right Front Beer Pins, 3) the Left Corner, the 12-Pin/Redhead, and the Right Corner, 4) the Left Back Beer and Right Back Beer Pins, and, finally, 5) the Sleeper Pin.
Scoring in nine-pin is also different. Each frame begins with a “Full House”. If a bowler knocks down all nine pins in a “Full House” that bowler has bowled a “Nine-Ringer” and is given a score of 9 with a circle around it. Note that the circle is just to show that this was a “Ringer”. There are no additional points for a “Ringer”. If a bowler knocks down all the pins except for the “12-Pin”/”Redhead” in a “Full House” that bowler has bowled a “12-Ringer” and is given a score of 12 with a circle around it. Again, the circle does not add additional points; it simply shows that a Ringer was bowled. If a bowler takes a turn and knocks down the remaining pins, that bowler receives nine points for that shot, regardless of the number of pins knocked down to receive these nine points. If a bowler knocks down the remaining pins, except for the “12-Pin”/”Redhead”, that bowler receives 12 points for that shot regardless of the number of pins knocked down to receive those 12 points. If a bowler’s roll does not result in either “9” or “12” points, that bowler’s roll is given a “-“ (dash) or a “√” (check) which carries no point value. The one exception to this is the last ball rolled by the last bowler in the frame. This bowler will receive credit for the number of pins knocked down. For example, if the last bowler has rolled his second ball for this frame, and three pins remain standing (six pins knocked down), that bowler will receive credit for those six pins, regardless if that bowler knocked these six pins down or not.
Because bowlers face the pins their teammates have left, the better teams are those who have a mix of bowlers that can “hit the left side”, “hit the right side”, or can “roll ringers”. This leads to “specialization”. A good team “Captain” can also help their team by sending the bowlers in the order that maximizes their success.
Typical nine-pin league bowling teams have both male and female bowlers with ages that span from teenagers up to 80 and 90-year old great-grandparents. It is not unheard of for an 80-something grandmother to be on a bowling team because “she can hit the left side every time”.
Nine-pin bowling also uses human “pin-setters” who have the responsibility of a) returning the bowling ball, b) shoving the fallen pins into the pit, and c) resetting the “Full House” as necessary. While this may be a throw-back to a forgotten age, there are many civic leaders in the Guadalupe-Comal-Bexar counties whose first job was as a pin-setter.
It is interesting to note that there are many successful ten-pin bowlers with 200+ averages who struggle with nine-pin bowling. There are many theories as to why this is true. First, the angle of the pins from the “Head-Pin” to the "Corner-Pin” is different in nine-pin when compared to ten-pin bowling. Because of this, the bowler who uses a lot of rotation can expect to roll a strike in ten-pin. However, this same bowler may tend to leave a split in nine-pin bowling. There is much anecdotal evidence that nine-pin bowling rewards a straighter roll versus a hook. Another possible explanation is the fact that many of these bowling clubs are what have been referred to as “country lanes”. That is, lane maintenance is left to the individual bowling clubs based on their own traditions. The amount of oil on the lanes may have significant variation. Another possible explanation is shifting foundations. Many of these clubs are located in rural areas. Foundations, floors, and/or pylons can expand or contract based on current drought or humidity conditions. A ball rolled with a large amount of rotation that never seemed to hook may be described as looking like “it was trying to hook up a hill”. This description may very well be more accurate than originally intended. Because of this, some lanes develop reputations as being “crooked”. The local bowling octogenarians can act as unofficial historians for their respective bowling clubs and can express opinions as to the characteristics of the individual lanes.
The bowling clubs are typically membership clubs. For a nominal fee, a bowler can apply for membership. Membership is usually renewed annually, depending on the by-laws for each club. There are also fees for each night of bowling. Additional fees may be charged for snacks and drinks. Another characteristic of nine-pin bowling leagues is that the league may require each team to bowl a different night each week, depending on the schedule created for the league.
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