by Cecile Cinco
Since I learned how to play bowling in 1989, I had been a fan. Fan enough to do very well that my first trophy (champion among 100+ players) was attained within the first month.
It was just a fun game, though, one night 3 games, playing Double Dutch. My mentor was my partner. He taught me from scratch. I was the avid student. In Double Dutch, for the first five frames, one will play the first ball and if it did not strike, the 2nd player will try to spare it. On the next 5 frames, a switch will be done so that the sparer will now be the first-baller. We each got a champ trophy then. I was ecstatic and inspired that I continued to do better.
Using the pin-boy lane (not automatic but pins are set in place by a pin boy), a bowler wannabe costs less than playing on automatic lanes. At that time, pin-boy lanes would was on PhP6.50/game while automatic lanes cost PhP50/game. Now, automatic lanes cost PhP95/game. Still, if you were like me then, I played at least 5-10 games a day during my first month which upped to 20 games per day during my 3rd month towards around the 10th month. The more I played, though, the lesser I paid since there are many players who would challenge me for a loser’s pay. Sometimes I lose, oftentimes I win. I had to because I had only my skill and an empty pocket at that time. 
Since I had to transfer work area some provinces apart, my bowling stint was cut short in early 1990. During that first quarter, actually, I had to travel 4 hours back to that old lane to play for a tourney open to the city. That’s where I got my 2nd trophy. 3rd among Women’s Singles Division, with the first and 2nd rankers were more than 10 years of experience in their bowling track record.
After 16 years, the developer of the housing project I’m selling started a bowling tourney for all their brokers and agents in 2006. I got the Top Singles for both 2006 and 2007. Now, for the 3rd year I’ll try to reach the record once again, hopefully. Playing once a year, with 4 weeks, once a week, one game per day, that would be 4 games per year. Yeah, not that good, but it gets the best out of everybody with limited chances: 4 games. If I were like the others, I could probably afford to play extra games to better my average. Right now, with 2 games over, it’s not doing good. I got 111 the first game and 126 the 2nd game. Today we are playing again and I have to beat 134 to have the chance of getting the top score for the women. I made a 180 last year and hopefully I can do such today.
Back to scoring. How do you count the score in ten-pin bowling? With automatic lanes you just have to see the last score and it is precomputed but it’s also nice to know your maximum score so you can see if you have a chance to beat your opponent.
There are 10 frames and each frame has a maximum of 30 pin falls as a score so a perfect game is worth 300.
A frame has 10 pins.
A strike earns that frame 2 extra balls (throws).
A spare earns 1 ball.
An ‘open’ frame is always less than 10.
A frame has a maximum of 2 ball throws.
If you threw both and did not get all 10 pins, that frame is open.
Frame 1
You got strike. Automatic 10 pin falls. You will wait for the score of the next 2 balls to add to the first frame.
Frame 2
You got another strike. Frame 1 gets additional 10 pin falls. Wait for the last extra ball to complete the score of Frame 1.
Frame 3
Another strike! That is called a ‘turkey.’ Frame 1 gets additional 10 pin falls for a total of 30. Frame 2 got strike so additional 2 balls again. Frame 3 got strike so Frame 2 has 20 and still waiting for the 3rd ball.
Frame 4
First ball, 9 pin falls. Second ball, spare (got the last pin down). Frame 2 has 20 plus the 3rd ball is 9 so Frame 2 has 29 points for a current score of 59 for the first 2 frames. Frame 3 had 10 plus 9 plus 1, so 20 for the 3rd frame, total 79 for the first 3 frames. Since Frame 4 is spare, we’ll wait for the additional 1 ball on Frame 5.
Frame 5
First ball, gutter. zero. Second ball, 10 (spare). Frame 4 did not get additional, hence, 10 only for Frame 4 for a current of 89. Since Frame 5 is spare, we’ll wait for another ball.
Frame 6
First ball, strike. Frame 5 current will be 89+10 (Frame 5)+10 (first ball of Frame 6)=109 (current score of Frame 5).
Frame 7
7 and Spare. If the previous frame was a strike, it doesn’t matter what the first ball’s score is for the current. If you did not make a strike, you’ll aim for a spare. If you got a spare, your previous will have additional 10. So Frame 6 equals 109 plus 10 = 119. Wait for another ball for Frame 7.
Frame 8
Strike. Frame 7 gets a total of 129.
Frame 9
Strike. Frame 8 waits for another ball.
Frame 10
Strike. Frame 8 gets additional 30 so current will be 159. Frame 9 waits for another ball. Since Frame 10 is strike, you still have 2 extra balls.
First extra ball, 8 then spare.
Frame 8 gets additional 30, current of 159. Frame 9 gets 30, current of 189. Frame 10 gets 20, for a grand total score of 209.
Ooops, I gotta go. Hopefully my computation was right. I will check later when I get back. 
And update you for the score today.
Popularity: 23% [?]