Bowling

Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). Most references to bowling are to pin bowling, specifically tenpin bowling, played in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries. Bowling can also refer to target bowling, such as lawn bowls. Bowling is played by 120 million people in more than 90 countries, including 70 million people in the United States alone.

In pin bowling, players knock over pins on a long smooth surface called a lane. Lanes have a wood or synthetic surface with protective lubricating oil applied in different oil patterns that affect ball motion. A strike is achieved when all the pins are knocked down on the first roll, and a spare is achieved if all remaining pins are knocked over on a second roll. The most common variation of pin bowling is tenpin; other variations include candlepin, duckpin, nine-pin (kegel), and five-pin. The historical game skittles is the forerunner of modern pin bowling.

In target bowling, the aim is usually to get a ball as close to a mark as possible. The surface in target bowling may be grass, gravel, or synthetic. Lawn bowls, bocce, carpet bowls, pétanque, and boules may have both indoor and outdoor varieties. Curling may be considered target bowling, but on ice.

Bowling is split into two general classes: pin bowling and target bowling.

Five main variations are played in North America, with tenpin being the most played but others being practiced in the eastern U.S. and in parts of Canada:

Target bowling is usually played outdoors on a specially prepared lawn or natural terrain, including bare earth or sand. Depending on the particular game, players may either roll or throw a ball in an attempt to put it closest to a designated point or target ball within the bowling arena. Examples include Lawn Bowls, Bocce, and Pétanque. Curling could be considered target bowling.

The earliest known forms of bowling date back to ancient Egypt, with wall drawings depicting bowling being found in a royal Egyptian tomb dated to 3200 BCE and miniature pins and balls in an Egyptian child's grave about 3200 BCE. Remnants of bowling balls were found among artifacts in ancient Egypt going back to the Egyptian protodynastic period in 3200 BCE. What is thought to be a child's game involving porphyry (stone) balls, a miniature trilithon, and nine breccia-veined alabaster vase-shaped figures—thought to resemble the more modern game of skittles—was found in Naqada, Egypt, in 1895.

Balls were made using the husks of grains, covered in a material such as leather, and bound with string. Other balls made of porcelain have also been found, indicating that these were rolled along the ground rather than thrown due to their size and weight. Some of these resemble the modern-day jack used in target bowl games. Bowling games of different forms are also noted by Herodotus as an invention of the Lydians in Asia Minor.