Five-pin Bowling - Facts and Figures

Facts and Figures

• At first, bowling pins used in five-pin were made of plastic-coated maple. Today's pins are made of a hard plastic and often feature UV-glow capability for black light glow bowling operations. The pin makes a "clack" sound when hit by the ball. The base of the plastic pin can be separated from the rest of the pin. The neck stripes on plastic pins are actually a red plastic tape that wears off with use and can be replaced. In 2011, the C5PBA approved a new pin base. The new base adds 1/8 inch of height to the pin, raises the pin's center of gravity, and lowers the contact area with the lane. This new base has a dark color, so pins with the new base may appear to the bowler as floating above the lane.
• In 1990, the Canadian 5 Pin Bowlers Association sanctioned the use of personalized bowling balls. Before then, only bowling balls supplied by the bowling centre were allowed to be used.
• Many five pin tournaments scored by handicap usually use a scoring basis of "pins over average", which is the difference between the outcome of a game and the bowler's established average. It accumulates over the number of games bowled. This statistic can be negative.
• Several popular automatic scoring systems have five pin versions. On most string type pinsetters, automatic scoring equipment is connected directly to the pinsetter circuitry. Scoring cameras can be used on both types of pinsetting installations. Most systems mount the camera mounted between lanes as in tenpin; however the ProScore system - when installed on free-fall - reads scores using a set of five electronic eyes mounted above the pindeck.
• Bowling centres with convertible pinsetters usually will set specific hours as to when their convertible lanes will support five-pin or ten-pin. Convertible machines may support duckpin bowling instead of ten-pin when in ten-pin mode. String pinsetters are not sanctioned by the USBC for ten-pin play, partially because a "stringsetter" cannot handle an "off-spot" pin situation.
• Some five-pin centres have installed lane protection devices. The device is a sheet of plexiglas mounted vertically about six inches (15 cm) above the lane and is located just past the target arrows on the lane. This device discourages bowlers from lofting the ball and damaging the lane - which is more prevalent in small ball bowling. A ball that knocks the plexiglas loose or flies over the plexiglas guard is worth zero points under C5PBA rules.
• A foul line violation in five-pin results in a 15-point penalty. Pins knocked over during a violating delivery count. The penalty is assessed at the end of the game. This compares to a zero score for the ball in other bowling disciplines.
• Some believe that the hockey term "five-hole" (the space between the goaltender's legs) is taken from five-pin bowling. Knocking out the headpin (worth 5 points) by itself leaves a large hole through which it is easy to put the next one or two balls without hitting anything.
• Five-pin bowling is played in all Canadian provinces and territories. However, in Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, unlike in the rest of the country, five-pin is not the dominant form of bowling played in these provinces. In Quebec, 5 pin is known as "cinq quilles" (five pins), in French while "Petite Quilles" refers to the duckpin game. There is only 1 five-pin bowling alley in all of New Brunswick whereas, in Nova Scotia, the Worcester, Massachusetts-originated sport of candlepin bowling is more popular given that five-pin bowling alleys are located primarily on army bases. Nunavut has only 1 five-pin bowling alley. It is a 2-lane facility located at CFB Alert and also happens to be the world's most northerly bowling lanes. As a result, this alley is only accessible to military personnel and visitors to the base. There are not any bowling facilities of any type located in any civilian Nunaviamut community.
• Five-pin bowling was one of four sports featured on the Canadian Inventions: Sports series issued by Canada Post stamps on August 10, 2009.
• In 2007, five-pin bowling was ranked #4 on CBC's list of Canada's 50 greatest inventions.