The History of Bowling

In England, in certain mid-country 'shires', a form of bowling is played in pubs. some use a round ,wooden disc, to knock down 'skittles', this disc is known as a 'cheese'.
Interestingly, cheese is a word used in the present day [in Liverpool] for marijuana!
As the word pornology means 'study of fruit',[as everyone knows], and as, words are of interest to me, and as you know, I tend to go a little deeper into meanings!, I was wondering , has anyone got any unusual words connected with the sport of bowling? or any 'quirky' -type trivia ?
Here's a little I found , to start the ball rolling, so-as -to speak.

Interesting facts about Tenpin!

• Located in an Egyptian tomb were stone pins and balls, the tomb dated back to 5200BC.
• Martin Luther King was referred to as an enthusiastic bowler.
• It is estimated that over 40 million people bowl worldwide.
• Legend suggests that in the 1840’s a tenth pin was added as nine pin bowling was against the law.
• Early Polynesians played a game which rolled a polished stone along a concrete path at objects 60 feet (18.3m) away.  This is the distance used today from the foul line to the head on pin.  The pins are placed a foot apart and are organised in an equilateral triangle.  The ball must be non-metallic and weigh no more than 16lb and no less than 6lb.
• In the USA alone there are more than 150,000 lanes in 10,000 centres, which are certified by the American Bowling Congress.

something to keep me busy would be appreciated, thanks.

Interesting! here's a little more I found;

Ten Pin bowling is the North American version of Skittles and is believed to be based upon the Skittles game from Holland.  It was probably the Dutch who took their version of skittles to America in the seventeenth century although another theory believes it is of English origin. Either way, the game fell into disrepute before long as it tended to attract crowds of undesirables and to be played by gamblers.   Consequently, a law was introduced to ban the game but since the law only mentioned "nine pin bowling", people simply added another skittle and called the game ten-pin bowling to avoid penalty!

Modern Ten Pin Bowling is a bit of a travesty of the real thing; having been sanitised, automated and turned into a money-spinner rather than a competitive pastime for its own sake - in the same manner that many US sports such as American Football and Ice Hockey have evolved into games that are flawed and compromised by the requirement to generate profit. From a game-play point of view, the main difference is quite subtle - in most genuine skittles games, the pins are set quite some distance apart and it's often possible to roll the ball right through the pin diamond and miss all the pins. In Ten Pin Bowling the pins are much closer together resulting so that it is relatively easy to score a floorer (called a strike) and the best players can score a maximum of 300 points for their ten turns in a game.

Parallel to the alley skittles developments, the phenomenon of miniaturisation must have also been occuring, as it did for so many other old English games.  This would tend to happen so that pub landlords could retain the enjoyment of the game while no longer requiring the space-consuming skittles alley in order to play.  Some of these table-top versions of skittles are still enormously popular - especially the version known as "Devil Amongst the Tailors" or "Table Skittles".

That Egyptian link has got me curious, pyramids and bowling? mmmm, very strange, but in TBL 'Busby Berkely' scene, space imagery, ie stars etc, predominate, its a known fact that those old egyptians were interested in space/time type stuff, stairways to heaven and such,......
Lets not forget Dudes, lets not forget, the DUDE is a thief! he stole the rug! TBL was the innocent victim! yet, for me, this clip made me laugh the most!
The DUDE is fond of his freebies, in the alley or the undertakers! Kleptomaniac perhaps?
certainly, getting a job would help him. Metallica lyrics and drugs can screw your mind!
Do you work sir? the bums will always lose!

Far out, Jim - his name is Walter as well!
I'm renting him shoes, AND buying him a fucking beer!

Heres a little more, seems lawn bowling  was the  inspiration behind ten-pin.In England there are many pubs with bowling green connections, its a different game admittedly, but game-playing and sportsmanship are common to all peoples. lawn greens are square[for any in the square community perhaps!]Ten-pin has a triangle 'head', hit with a round ball! mmmm, something 'zen' in that symbolism!
And lets not forget dudes, lets not forget! the DUDE is a liar[to Brandt] as well as a thief!

History of Lawn Bowling

The history of bowls has been traced back to the ancient Egyptians. It is believed they played with stones - probably selecting the small round ones that weren't any good for building pyramids with anyway. The English, of course, wanted to machine perfectly spherical ones from fine lumber they obtained from remote parts of the empire.

Until one day someone's bowl split in two. And he put a simple knob to replace the broken half which lead him to immediately discover he could bowl curved shots and sneak around other bowls near the jack. Today all bowls have a certain built in bias.

In Italy it became Bocce Balls. In France it became Boile. In England it became Lawn Bowls or simply Bowling. In the USA it became ten pin bowling after someone lost the instructions and rules on the way over :)

But we do know Sir Francis Drake played bowls - and in one famous game - told his men not to worry - he would finish the game before taking up arms against the Spanish Armada.

Nowadays most bowls and bowling equipment comes from Australia where the sport is very popular.

History of Lawn Bowling in the United States

The sport of lawn bowling can trace its North American beginnings to the 17th Century when English Colonists brought the game to the new land. A bowling green was built at Williamsburg VA in 1632, and the game is still played there today on a beautiful green behind the Williamsburg Inn. A Colonel Hoomes built a green on his estate at what is now Bowling Green VA in 1670. Many other of the new states named a town after this ancient sport played in England since the 12th Century.

Originally posted by carlthepirate --One of the Jamestown excavations has uncovered a bowling alley! [true!]

This was a new colony. There are rules.

On the whole, the British did do better with their colonies (except for a few notable catastrophic foobars). A little too well. When I did my masters in commercial and securities law in the Kings College London, I made sure that every paper I did had a comparison between English and French law. Even did a half thesis on it which proved to be my best grade in the course. God for Harry, England, and Saint George!