Compact Bowling Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Compact Rules
  • Order of Play
  • Etiquette
• Official Bowling Rules
  • Course of a Game
  • Scoring
  • Diagram Key

Compact Rules

Divide into 2 teams, or play each for yourself, and choose your ball colour.

Attach the magnet located at the end of the lane inside the box, as shown in the illustration.

Order of Play

Determine the first player by each rolling one ball at the pins in turn. The player or team that knocked down the fewest pins, while knocking down at least one, begins.

A turn of play is called a frame.

At the start of each frame, place the pins on the positions marked on the lane, as shown in the illustration.

During each frame, the team whose turn it is may roll the ball twice. The goal is to knock down as many pins as possible in two rolls or, even better, all of them in one roll.

To roll the ball, hold it firmly by the handle and slide it across the throwing zone. Release it before the foul line (see illustration).

After the first roll, remove all the pins that have fallen from the lane and leave the standing pins in place.

After the second roll, count the number of pins that fell during this frame. You score as many points as pins knocked down. Note these points on the score sheet on the lane. The next player or team then begins their frame.

If you knock down all the pins with your first roll, you have scored a strike. You then score 6 points and may set all the pins back up on the lane for your second roll, giving you the chance to knock down up to 6 more pins, for a maximum of 12 points.

If a ball leaves the lane or touches no pins, the roll still counts.

Etiquette

To enjoy Compact Bowling, the sheet suggests playing with ten lanes side by side in a very large room, wearing fluorescent clothing and mismatched brightly coloured shoes, while listening to disco music very loudly. It is of course entirely acceptable to play on your living-room table with a single lane, wearing whatever clothes you feel best in, and with the music of your choice.

Still, a few rules of behaviour can help you enjoy your games more:

• If you play on several lanes, wait for the player on the lane to your right to finish their roll before rolling your own ball.
• Stand behind the player whose turn it is when they roll their balls.
• Respect the foul line, even in a game played just for fun.
• Play fair.
• Never play in street shoes. Unless you are playing in town.
• Avoid playing with someone else's ball without their permission.
• Keep insults and swearing to an absolute minimum.

Official Bowling Rules

These rules are fairly close to the compact rules, but they are more precise about how points are counted and about what constitutes a foul. They are an adaptation of the official rules of bowling.

Course of a Game

A game is played over 10 frames per team or player (if two people play, each player counts as a team). Each frame is one team's turn. During that frame, the team may roll the ball twice in succession.

If all the pins fall on the first roll, it is a strike and the frame ends. If not, a second roll is made. If all the pins have then fallen, it is a spare. If pins are still standing, it is an open frame. Each of these cases scores points in different ways, explained below.

If a player commits a foul by releasing the ball only after the foul line, their roll is considered taken, but they score no points, and all the pins are set back up.

If a pin falls while the ball has gone into the gutter, or has bounced off an element (such as the box), the pin is not counted and is set upright.

Scoring

• In an open frame, simply count 1 point per pin knocked down.
• In a spare, draw a diagonal stroke in the upper right of that frame's score box. Do not record any points yet; they are counted after the first roll of the next frame. On the first roll of the next frame, add 6 to the number of pins knocked down and then record the score for the spare that was left empty before.
  • For example, if a player makes a spare in their first frame and knocks down 4 pins with the first roll of their second frame, they score 10 points for the spare (in addition to the points they score in the second frame).
  • If a player makes a spare in the last frame, they are entitled to one additional roll.
• In a strike, draw a cross (X) in the upper right of that frame's score box. The score for that frame is 6 plus the number of pins knocked down with the next two rolls.
  • If a player gets 3 strikes in a row, they therefore score 18 points for the first of them.
  • If a player makes a strike in the last frame, they are entitled to two additional rolls.

A perfect score in a game of Compact Bowling is 180 points.

Diagram Key

The illustrations are labelled with the following terms: pins (quilles), gutters (gouttières), lane (piste), score sheet (grille de score), arrows (flèches), points, foul line (ligne de faute), and throwing zone (zone de lancer).