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Home My WebLink AboutThe Lucknow Sentinel, 1964-04-01, Page 18.: plop, 11PGNTEEN; • : • *Hi LUCKNOW :SENTINEL, LUCKNOW, ONTARIO 1trikesand5 Luckno Fast Gr ogres ° Next week Lucknow's, new 6- lane bowling, alley will bring to. this community, modern at-home facilities for enjoying .a fast -grow .in sport that has . swept across in recent .decades.. While 5 -pin bowling —, the Can- adian favorite gain was first introduced, in Toronto in 1909; the history of the first. crude' bowling games goes back to ancient medi- eval times. Here's ,a its erewth story of bowling and and development which • appeared in the November issue, 1963, of "MD of Canada." • a •Having piloted a relief ship ac- ross the Atlantic to. the . starving. colony at Jamestown in 1611 Sir Thomas Dale stepped ashore ex- pecting to be met by grateful Col- onists; instead ' he was " ignored whileq the men 'spiritedly played a game of bowls. Today over 2 million Canadians follow the colonists'' example, bowl en 18,000 lanes . throughout the` country, . spend over $60 :million annually on a game that has be- come one of the nation's leading Participant sports. History Uncovered by a British larch-: eologist in the coffinof an .Egyp- tian child buried about 5200 B.C. was .: a set ' of bowling pins and balls.: Also known ' is that . Poly- nesians ' played an . ancient game called ula maika, rolling small, elliptic stone balls and round flat 'discs at pins 60 feet away (same distance..: as inmodern bowling). The :earlier '.European 'appearance of .bowls is believed to 'havebeen in Alpine Italy where the ` Helvet- ians played a . game similar to bocce during the reign '.of Cae- Bowling at pins achieved enor- mous ,popularity in Germany ',and Switzerland ° after its ' introduction in the 3rd or 4th century. Accord- ing to .the ancient chronicles of Paderborn, it was, then the cus- tom for. 'Germans to carry a club called '.;a Kegel, (English ;kegler, synonym for bowler) ; this evolved • in church cloisters into a. religious practice " whereby a parishioner proved hiss purity by placing his Kegel at the ; end of a ..long run- way androlling g a stone at this symbol of . the heathen :(Heide) Long after the religious signifi- cance had. become " obsolete, the sport, flourished in churches, mon- asteries and the homes .of . the rich. In time . ` the crude '. early pins were replaced by better shaped ones, .larger balls (sometimes wooden . ones) were introduced. The game wasyplayed with as .few .as : three pins in some places,, .as many as 17 in others, until 'fin- ally standardized at nine by Mar- tin Luther, an avid bowler who built an alley : for his family. The .irregular" surface of the early " clay and slate alleys::- frus- trated the efforts . of even the most skilful kegler; :' it eventually gave way to a : board runway" about 12 to 18 inches wide, 20 to 30 yards long, at the end of ,which the pins stood on a 'platform; : other improvements ; included a ` shelter over the alley ; and. an . inclined trough which became the first ball -return. From. Germany the gamepassed into France; and, the Lowlands, gave rise to a game in which bowls were driven : by maces. through arches in what may have been a : progenitor of croquet. The. Basque inhabitants of the Pyren- ees devised' a variant called "gull les in which the bowleraimed:• at nine slender tapered pins spaced in a 20 -foot square. In the Dutch game of skittles the. pins were placed in a frame, bowled at from 21 feet away, then tipped at from close up; precisely 31 scores were needed to win. Other versions'. appearing ; at this time were Dutch ' Pins, a game similar.. to skittles but character- ized , by a long, slender, centre kingpin; . Four , Corners was nam- ed for . fo, ur , pins: placed.: at the corners,; of a square frame. In England -''the `' outdoor :.game LUCKNOW IS FORTUNATE Have A Fine New Bowling and Billiard Academy BEST WISHES - TO .LAMI 4ERT AND 'JOHN' I N THEIR NEW, BUSINESS.. ENTERPRISE We Are Pleased Tha t The New. Building W ll Use CITIES SERVICE OIL FOR YOUR .I-1EA.TING COMFORT ud" -Hamilton hies Serviee Agent iucknow.y eam Spo t of bowls. (lawn bowling). won a large following after its introduc- tion in the 12th or 13thcentury; the game was then 'primarily a test of .,strength, each player at tempted • to heave the jack ber 'gond the compass of • hisoppon- ent's throw. Although popular among the nobility and aristocracy, it was intermittently banned. by Edward II1, Richard II 'and other mon- archs for distracting otherwise. loyal subjects from archery prac-' tice' Not finally. repealed ' until 1845, the prohibition was never- theless freely flouted: John Ay1 miter enjoyed ' a Sunday game while hewas, a bishop of London; Sir Francis Drake was ..a 'passionate player; traditionally . finished a game on Plymouth Hoe in 1588 while the. Spanish Armada ' was. sailing up the . English Channel; other, players: included Charles I,, poet Sir `. John, Suckling and . many women: The gaine tater suffered from an association with dissolute tav- ern. hangers-on, also a gambling mania that developed around it; it probably, would have passed ; in- to liMbo n-to.11imbo had it not achieved ex-' traordinary favour in Scotland where in the :18th century :.greens were laid down in Haddington, Kilmarnock, Lanark, Glasgow, Edinburgh 'and Peebles (Scottish winter variant of : bowls .is curl- ing)' urling)• .• d ` c --The ' Scots . developed superior greens of sea -washed turf, wrote tie first . uniform set of rules, fostered' competition with much coveted trophies. With this • re- surgance came a tremendous:.: in-' crease in the numberof women bowlers, some of whom rivalled their. male counterparts: in skill.. In Colonial America ` , bowling was at first ' vigorously pursued, then banned, : but it left: its mark on: the young, country. More en- during. was skittles,' introduced around 1625 by Dutch settlers of New , Amsterdam. Untrammelled by Puritanic 'strictures operating in other . parts of the . 'colonies,. the game grew apace. Disrepute. came in the form of gambling and an association with billiards; it ,led to bans on nine pins These restrictions were cir- cumvented by adding a tenth pin, thereby replacing the diamond- shaped, ..nine -pin setup .with the modern triangular . configuration of, ten, puns. 5 -PIN- MOST POPULAR The most popular ' variation of the ' game in Canada, five -pins, was born in Toronto in the early' 1000s. Responding to calls for a faster;, less strenuous" game than ten -Pins, .:a; Toronto: bowling .alley proprietor reduced the "'size .of the pins by half, ' cut their number. to five, used• a smaller., hall. The success of the new, sport' was . im- mediate, and it is still by far' the most popular form of bowling in'. Canada, claiming some 75 per- 'cent of the country's. bowlers. In recent years the ten -pin game with heavy American• backing has been making a 'strong . bid. for the Can- adian bowlers' allegiance. The, majority of five -pin bowlers are in Ontario and the west;. Quebec has its own favourite duckpins;:. while--ix-We -Maritimes- candlep ns are the •most popular. The Game A long way from the rudimen- tary alleys of. yesteryear are to- day's smooth Janes of pine and maple .strips. Dimensions for five- pins .and ten -pins are the same: 41 to 42 inches wide, 60 feet from foul line to headpin. d WllONESDAY, APRIL, lit, 1%4 BE$twiSHE.5.,.TTC,. Lammert and John Van Der Veen In Their Operation Of LUCKNOW BOWL and BILLIARD ACADEMY We W e .re .Pleased Ti I-Iave' Had. The.: General: Contract For The Construction ". of This Fine.New;' Business •... Venture For Lucknow and' District RWIN'S •--Lu know.. Spence Irwin,: proprietor Wishes. to Mr. Van Der Veen ort the opening o' LUCKNOW BOWL 'c� BILLIARD. ACADEMY rive -pins can ' be of a single piece of clear hard maple, stand 12% inches high; two inches' from the base a groove is cut round the pin to accommodate the rub- ber band. , The pins' weigh between • and --21/4 --lb. The -bowler scores`" 5, 3 or a2 points. for each pin he topples with a 31 „lb. ball, is al- lowed two throws for' each of ten Continued on page i9;) Been .Our" ' Pleasure uPPLY. READY MIXED • CONCRETE for .this Modern' ..Building igh quality concrete, using only, approved, washed sand .. and, stoner,can be supplied: fsr ,your requirements BARNYARDS WALLS -- ' WAL: ; • etc. Phone Asx' Write; for uFREE ESTIMATES nuRONYONCRETE SUPPLY GoaHiCi 5,24.1361 eafc►rh 868w2