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

[Becky McEllistrem <beckymc@MICROSOFT.com>]

Poster: Becky McEllistrem <beckymc@MICROSOFT.com>

neat!  I was beginning to wonder if this was my office's
personal list.  <G>

Oh gee, someone's not gonna get that and be offended *sigh*.


Rebecca

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	David KUIJT [SMTP:kuijt@umiacs.umd.edu]
> Sent:	Monday, October 20, 1997 3:33 PM
> To:	Atlantia Mailing List
> Subject:	NEWS FLASH!!! Black Death creates 10-pin Bowling!!!
> 
> 
> 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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