Candlepin bowling, anyone?

[PrettySquareGal]

There's a Golden Era alley I want to go to after the holidays. Does anyone have any experience with candlepin bowling?? I like that the balls are lightweight (I have tendonitis) and that it will get me out of the house and moving during the winter.

I'd love to see any vintage bowling accessories, shirts & shoes you may have!

 

[PrettySquareGal]

Here's some history:

"After World War II, big pin bowling gradually began to replace candlepin in many locations, in large part because Brunswick, the major manufacturer of bowling equipment, opened alleys devoted exclusively to that form of the sport. National television of the Professional Bowlers Association tour also contributed to the popularity of big pin bowling.

Nevertheless, many adherents remained, and remain, devoted to candlepin bowling, although their numbers have been declining.

A candlepin bowling show was telecast every Saturday by a Boston channel for more than 40 years, and it was one of the highest-rated shows on local television in that city. It was dropped in 1995, however--not because of poor ratings, but because the station felt the audience was not "demographically attractive to advertisers."

The sport certainly hasn't died, but it lives on in only a few alleys, primarily in western New England and Canada's Maritime Provinces."

http://www.mainecandlepinbowling.com/history.htm

 

[LizzieMaine]

I love candlepin -- it's the only kind of bowling there is around here, and the only kind I've ever done. It's three balls to the frame, and the balls move a lot faster than the big ones, and folks who have played both types tell me that candlepin is a lot more challenging. I'm not a very good bowler -- if I roll 70 I'm doing well -- but it's not about the scoring anyway.

Most of the alleys around here tend to be time capsules of the time in which they were built. We had one where I grew up called "U-Ota-Bowl," which was just one step removed from pinboys.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

The one here is also a time capsule! I went in quickly to check it out and it's still the 1950's inside.

 

[Flivver]

We still have some candlepin lanes here in Central Mass too. Is it just a New England thing?

I haven't bowled in years, but when I was a kid, we only bowled candlepin. I remember we referred to the "other" kind of bowling as "duckpin".

And back in the 1960s, one of the Boston TV stations used to run a Saturday afternoon bowling program called "Candlepins for Cash". My grandfather never missed that show!

 

[postercollect]

I wonder?

I read a long time ago of candlepin bowling around the east coast in Canada. I'd like to try it if there are still lanes there when I visit New Brunswick/ PEI in the spring. .Curtis

 

[Dinerman]

None around here, unfortunately.

I bowl duckpin.

 

[Patrick Murtha]

I recall that in the old days when "Bowling for Dollars" was on TV, the equivalent show in the Boston area was "Candlepins for Cash."