NEWS FLASH!!! Black Death creates 10-pin Bowling!!!

[David KUIJT <kuijt@umiacs.umd.edu>]

Poster: David KUIJT <kuijt@umiacs.umd.edu>



Hi, all;

There hasn't been enough oddball traffic on Cheapside lately.  To fix
this, here is cross-posted something I just wrote for the hist-games
mailing list FAQ.


Dafydd

==================== cross-posting begins ======================

> Thank you.  As you seem to be the resident expert, could you write the 
> brief, one-paragraph answer for the FAQ II?
> 	10.) Is the game ... period?
> 		BOWLING:

Here's your paragraph:

BEGIN
Games involving throwing or rolling balls towards various numbers of
target pins go back at least to the 12th century, and probably earlier. 
Some of these games were played with weighted or non-spherical balls that
rolled in an arc rather than a straight line.  Other related games
involved throwing sticks at pins rather than rolling a ball at them.
Non-pin bowling, where the aim is to come closest to a smaller target
ball, is also very old.
END

Commentary -- 
I don't like saying "very old" at the end for bocce/lawn bowling games.  I
think that they go back to the Romans, and they may be far older, but I
don't remember off-hand, and I don't want to mis-state the case.  If I get
some time, I'll look it up.

Also, I hate saying something is "period".  Bowling in an alley beside a
tavern is a normal sport in 16c York (England).  But not in Jorvik
(10th-11th century York).

Totally irrelevant note:

When researching and re-creating bowling games I've been struck by the
possible impact of the surface on the development of the game.  The 17c
bowling described by Cotton is clearly on a relatively smooth lawn,
perhaps similar to modern lawn bowling surfaces.  Without any supporting
information, it seems to me that bowling games moved from the more simple
(one pin or few pins; unbiased balls) to the more complex (multiple pins; 
biased balls).  The more complex games are only interesting on a smoother
surface.  My unsubstantiated guess is that the introduction of smoother
surfaces (dedicated lawns for bowling) allowed for the development of
greater skill and games requiring still more still.

Going WAY out on a limb, it would be interesting to attempt to correlate
the rise of the middle class in the later middle ages (closely related to
the Black Death)  with its concomittant increase in leisure time (to play
purely entertainment sports like bowling) and luxury (well-kept bowling
lawns) for the bulk of the population.  If such a correlation were proved,
you could make wild statements like : the Black Plague is linked to the
development of multiple-pin bowling.  A great thing to say the next time
you rent your bowling shoes at the downtown Bowl-a-rama.

Dafydd

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