Why is Candlepin very popular than 10 pins in MA? There is no PBA Bowling in Boston or somewhere in MA?

When I lived in MA it was very popular, both candle pin and duckpin. We even had a small alley in our less then 1000 population town. But we had to travel two towns over to find the first 10 pin house. Which now I understand is torn down. So one'd have to travel even further to find a 10 pin house.

Not sure why candlepin and duckpin settled in the upper east coast as I'm not that informed as to the history of those bowling forms. But I do agree they are prevalent over 10 pin, in that area.

Erin

I'll never figure it out. Maybe it is still popular because you get three rolls instead of two? Because the balls are lighter? I don't know. All I know is that when I go ten-pin bowling with my dad, he refers to it as "big balls." Always makes me crack up.

It's easy.

1 ball, all down = a strike. 10 pins plus the count on the next 2 balls.
2 balls, all down = a spare. 10 pins plus the count on the next ball.
3 balls. Record the total pins knocked down.

There is strategy in this game, since the pins are left on the deck until either all are knocked down or 3 turns have been taken. You can use the fallen pins on the deck to hit them into the remaining pins standing.

My wife is from Weymouth, MA (outside of Boston) and all that is around where she lived is candlepin bowling. When she asked me if I wanted to go bowling once, I was psyched...then I found out it was the fabled candlepin bowling...the thing I had only heard about in the past.
I too thought it was funny that they called 10-pin "big ball bowling".
Wikipedia has an entry on it (search "candlepin") and it will tell you about it...apparently developed in Worcester, MA (would explain it's popularity).

I equate it to a cross between 10-pin and skee-ball but a lot tougher to knock down all the pins.

It's fun but that little ball is hard to control!

Duckpin bowling is the hardest thing that I have ever done. I went about three weeks ago in Virginia Beach and my highest score was 87. It messed me up when I went back to 10 pin. The ball seemed really heavy and it just looked like it was creeping down the lane. The pins looked huge as well. Took me a good two games to get back into the swing of things.

I went duck pin bowling a month or so ago. It is a heck of a lot harder than 10 pin bowling...I managed to bowl a 134 one game. I was quite pleased actually. The key was keeping myself from throwing the ball 30 plus miles per hour. It felt like a baseball to me.

My first exposure to bowling actually came in the form of a family outing at the candlepin house in Abington (one of the neighboring towns to Brockton) when I was something like 3 or 4. My first exposure to the ten-pin game was when I was something like 7 or 8, and I really got hooked on it when I shot a 132 game during my first trip to see my extended family in New Jersey (outside of Philadelphia) when I was 12. That had been my high game until I became a league bowler about 10 years later. They are different games, and I'd probably feel lost on a candlepin lane now b/c my bowling mind is more tuned to the ten-pin game.

I remember one occasion when we went duckpin bowling in Dagupan City, Philippines when I was a kid. That was one of the very first times I got my taste of bowling. We were so into it that we lost rack of time and bowled for over 2 hours. It was then when I suddenly realized that the guy who kept setting the pins for us must be getting really tired--he had a Coke in one hand while doing so. We could have bowled much longer, but felt sorry for the guy, so we called it a day.

The key in either Candlepin or Duckpin is NOT to hook the ball. I've heard that Duckpin bowlers can tell if someone is a "Big Ball Bowler" when they see someone hooking the Duckpin ball.

yea...I tried hooking a duckpin ball and it does NOT work haha. i was told by my poppop who was a avid duckpin bowler back in the day that the ideal shot was to throw start but at a angle from one of the corners. 1-3 pocket was still the target. Its just strikes were way more rare. lol

I've only went duckpin a couple times. Last time I threw one of them I was in street shoes and did a plant and crank, went from gutter to gutter and back to pocket and struck. It was a few adults messing around at one of my nephew's birthday party while they weren't bowling, probably eating and so on.

It's because Candle pin and duck pin bowling are extreme versions of ski ball. Maybe people think that they are a lot easier to do and have fun doing.

Its better for younger kids because of the lightness of the balls. My one cousin who is 3 goes duckpin bowling with my uncle up in Maryland. Great for younger kids but there are still some duckpin leagues up their still.

ive never played candlepin, exactly how does it work

Candlepins are tall, skinny and cylindrical-shaped with tapered ends rather than the traditional bowling pin shape. You get three shots per frame, and if any pins remain on the lane (known as deadwood), they are in play. I'm pretty sure all other usual bowling rules apply.

It's incredibly hard, and in my experience the only way to succeed is to take an extreme angle shot and throw as hard as you possibly can, and hope the pins do as much spinning and flying as possible.

Used to have candlepin houses in Chicago when I grew up. They usually were on the second floor of the bowling alleys.

Yes, you get 3 shots with a wooden, 4" diameter ball. All down in 1 shot, record a strike. All down in 2 shots, record a spare. If it takes 3 shots, record the total number of pins knocked down.
The pins are not reracked until after the third shot. Deadwood remains where ever it falls. It could be your strategy to use a fallen pin by knocking it into another standing pin.

It was incredibly hard. A good score was just about 100.

wow, sounds pretty hard, id like to play it sometime, but i doubt ill ever find a alley around here for that

You won't, maybe duckpin but candlepin is mostly in the New England area now.

look it up on youtube its pretty neat. i watched a couple of them and i would love to try it once

what is duck pin?

They are smaller bowling pins, short and squaty. I believe there are only 9 on the lane and you play with a small wooden ball. There were some vids on youtube.

Duckpin is still 10 pins, just shorter and fatter but the ball isn't wood anymore, but they are small. I think its scoring is similar to candlepin. With both candlepin and duckpin, hooking isn't really the way to go, straight and hard are. AMF actually owns a few duck pin centers around me. One might be merging into the nearest 10 pin center and there is already one house set up like that. Its not on separate floors either. There are also several independent duckpin houses around. I've went maybe twice and the second time a few of us adults, it was a party for a nephew, threw a few and would hook the lane.

I grew up in Mass and we had a Candelpin Bowling alley in my town. We used to go a few times a year, normally for a birthday party or similar event. Its tough. Bowling a 100 in Candlepins was an accomplishment. They tore down the alley when I was in High School so the only bowling available was the next town over where they had "Big Ball Bowling."

I never watched it much, but they used to have televised Candlepin Bowling show on a local chanel called "Candlepins for Cash." They would bring on a few local bowlers to try their luck on the Candlepin lane to earn cash based on their score. If I recall correctly, they used to have a bonus pin that was painted red that lead to extra cash if you knocked it down.

Of course, when I went "big ball bowling" the first time, I had no clue what I was doing. luckily we had someone in the group who bowled 10-pin so he knew all the differences. I grabbed the ball with my thumb and first two fingers in a totally incorrect grip and bowled away. My first night with the Big Ball, I rolled a 179 with a bad grip. I have never approached that number again since. That incorect grip lead to me flipping my wrist around on the transition from backward swing to forward swing and I would end up releasing the ball with my hand on top of the ball with a wrist flick. The ball would almost float down the lane like a knuckle ball with some backspin on it and then catch the lane with some left to right movement (from a right hand release). Very poor technique, but it was consistant.