How is professional bowling scored?

The_Minister

I went bowling a few months ago for the first time in years (I'd say at least 6), and I managed a decent score of c240(I'll dig up the sheet later). A perfect game according to The Simpsons is 300.
If I can get 240 after so many years, how do professional bowlers not all keep getting 300?
Is the lane longer/slippier in the professionals, are the pins wider apart, or did I just get lucky?
Or do they make them on style and stuff too?

DEmeant0r

It's all about the pressure, in professional tournaments if professionals can't keep cool when they are under pressure they will more than likely not do as well as they can, there is also a certain aspect of luck involved in the game. Hope this reply helped, my early morning replies are sometimes full of shít.

Magic Pips

Am i right in saying an average of 200 is a scratch bowler, whereas an average of 260+ is the realms of professional?

r3nu4l

I'll get to this tomorrow but just a quick FYI. The oil pattern on a normal bowling lane is usually fairly linear, however in competition, laes are usually given one of five different patterns and the bowlers have to figure out which pattern is being used before getting going.

I'll post some links tomorrow to ive an idea of what the pros are up against but it is very tough for them.

I'll also post to explain the posting system more thoroughly

Magic Pips

well im off skiing tomorrow, so don't expect my support until next week!

r3nu4l

Okay, prepare for a wall of text!

This link explains a bit about lane oil patterns commonly used in bowling centres. The most popular by far is still the 'flat oil' pattern as it's much easier for a novice to bowl on. A bowling lane is 60 feet long and the oil is spread evenly across the entire width of the lane for the first 45 feet. The final 15 feet remain dry.

The links on the right hand side of this page show the PBA (Profesional Bowling Association) patterns in use and you can see that they are vastly different! Even when a player is told what pattern is in use if they don't choose the right ball and adjust their throw, they will find it very hard to get a 300 score. They might get 290 or 296 but those few pins make a massive difference when pros are playing...every pin really does count.

So how does a bowler score 300?
Here is a link to basic scorekeeping in bowling.
This is a Java applet that allows you to calculate potential scores. I haven't checked this to see if it works properly yet.

This is a link to more scoring terminology.

Hope that helps

Go BAPS!

DEmeant0r

What's BAPS? O_o

r3nu4l

BAPS was the Boards(.ie) Alliance of Protectorate States, a Cybernations alliance of which myself and the OP were a part. Every nation in our alliance has been sentanced by our enemies to permanent destruction thanks to our former Minister of Foreign Affairs acting outside our authority
Anyway...apologies for derailing the thread, as a mod I really should know better

Back on topic r3nu4l!

bbability

Your bringing back some memories there r3nu4l. I remember oiling lanes with a spray gun and a towel. How accurate was that! Very if the truth be known;). We very rarely suffered Reverse Block because most of the oil was in the middle of the lane.
Another point to note is the oil conditions between the USA and here are different. Our oily lane would be considered a medium dry lane over there.
The top hat as its know would be the most common used condition in this country. We used to vary the length of the oil and the buff with the machine rather than change the block. It was much easier and more consistant for league bowling.

r3nu4l

I love the idea of the PBA and USBC oil patterns. The sports bowling patterns are far more challenging and imo should be used throughout Europe and indeed globally.

I'd like to see global standards so that when the bowling world cup comes around, all bowlers are prepared and well used to bowling on the different patterns.

bbability

just another note on scoring. For a bowler to be called a "scratch" bowler doesn't just happen because a bowlers average is 200. Most bowling averages are worked out on a figure of 80% of 200 or 70% of 210. (hope i'm right)...

So in order to have a nil handicap your average must be better than 210. Most centers use this format to calculate averages.

WildFox

It depends what what the centre calls scratch. I know where I work scratch is 200 and its based on 70% of that.