Bowling Scoring Explained, Frame by Frame

The basics

A game is ten frames. In each frame you have up to two balls to knock down ten pins.

• Open frame: you knock down fewer than ten with two balls. The frame scores the pins you knocked down. Seven then two is 9.
• Spare (/): you knock down all ten with two balls. The frame scores 10 plus the pins from your next one ball.
• Strike (X): you knock down all ten with the first ball. The frame scores 10 plus the pins from your next two balls.

Your running total is the sum of the frames. Because strikes and spares wait for the following balls, a frame's score is often not known until one or two balls later, which is why a live scorecard shows blanks after a strike.

Why strikes in a row are worth so much

A strike followed by two more strikes scores 10 + 10 + 10 = 30 for that one frame, the maximum. A strike followed by a 9 and a spare scores 10 + 9 + 1 = 20. A strike followed by an open 7-2 scores 10 + 7 + 2 = 19. So the value of a strike depends entirely on what comes next, and three strikes in a row (a turkey) is worth 30 in the first of them. A perfect game is twelve strikes in a row: ten frames of 30 each, 300.

The tenth frame

The tenth frame is where people get lost. Its rule is simply the normal rule applied at the end of the game: a strike or spare needs the following balls to be scored, so you are given them.

• A strike in the tenth earns two more balls. All three balls' pins count in the frame (a strike then two strikes is 30).
• A spare in the tenth earns one more ball (a spare then a strike is 20).
• An open tenth frame ends after two balls.

The bonus balls score only as bonus: they do not start a new frame, so a strike with the extra balls cannot earn further extra balls beyond the three.

Reading a scorecard

The small boxes in each frame show the balls: a number for pins, X for a strike, / for a spare, and a dash for a miss. The large number beneath is the running total, which appears only when the frame's score is settled. In the tenth frame there are three small boxes. On the Strike Lane card you can watch the blanks fill in as the bonus balls arrive, which is the quickest way to get a feel for the rule.

Marks and averages

Bowlers talk about "marks": any frame with a strike or a spare. A simple way to estimate a score is 10 points per mark plus the pin count; a game with marks in every frame is at least 100 and usually much more. A beginner's game is often 80 to 120; a strong recreational game is 150 to 200; 200-plus needs several strikes in a row.

Strategy that follows from the scoring

• A spare is worth more than it looks. Picking up a spare after a poor first ball is the difference between 9 and 10-plus-next-ball. Always bowl the second ball carefully at the pins that are left.
• The ball after a mark matters twice. It counts for its own frame and as bonus for the previous one. Concentrate on it.
• Strikes in the ninth and tenth are the biggest. They have the most bonus balls to collect.
• Aim for the pocket. Just beside the head pin, with a little hook, is where strikes come from; straight at the head pin splits the pins and leaves awkward spares.

Common mistakes

1. Thinking a strike is worth 10. It is 10 plus the next two balls.
2. Thinking the tenth frame has three normal balls. The extra balls are bonus only, earned by a mark.
3. Adding the tenth-frame bonus twice. The bonus balls count once, inside the tenth frame.
4. Giving up on a frame after a bad first ball. A spare still earns bonus.
5. Rushing the ball after a strike. It counts twice.

Glossary

• Frame: one of ten turns, with up to two balls (three in the tenth after a mark).
• Strike: all ten pins with the first ball; 10 plus the next two balls.
• Spare: all ten pins with two balls; 10 plus the next ball.
• Open frame: fewer than ten pins in two balls.
• Mark: a strike or a spare.
• Turkey: three strikes in a row.
• Perfect game: twelve strikes, 300.