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.