(A card game by Sid Sackson, from his book A Gamut of Games, 1969)
Introduction
There have been thousands of solitaire or, as they are called in England, patience games published in the last one hundred years. Considering how many have been invented, it is not surprising that some have been tagged with fanciful names, such as President's Cabinet, Panama Canal, Wholesale & Retail, Divorce, Prison, Narcotic, and Casket, to name a few. The vast majority of these games (although there are a few notable exceptions) are based on stringing cards in sequence, either in the same suit or a red 9 on a black 10.
My idea in creating solitaires has been both to get away from the idea of sequences and to tie the game into a concrete activity.
The name Bowling Solitaire leaves no doubt as to the activity I had in mind. To enjoy this game it is necessary to keep score as in the parent game, so for those who are not familiar with the scoring I will include a quick rundown.
A bowling score pad looks something like this. There is room for recording the results of ten "frames." In each frame a player can roll two balls in an attempt to knock down the 10 pins. If all 10 are knocked down with the first ball, the second is not used.
In each frame the player scores as many pins as he knows down. However, if all 10 are downed, there are extra bonuses as follows.
If a player knocks down all 10 pins in two balls, it is a "spare," which is noted with a / in the upper right-hand corner for that frame. The number of pins downed by the next ball rolled will be added to the 10 pins already scored in the frame.
If a player knocks down all 10 pins with the first ball, it is a "strike," which is noted with a X in the upper right-hand corner for that frame. The number of pins downed by the next two balls rolled will be added to the 10 pins already scored in the frame.
Let's follow the example shown above. In the first frame the player downs 8 pins with the first ball and the remaining 2 with the second ball. The spare is noted in the corner of the first frame. No score is entered yet.
In the second frame he downs 10 pins with the first ball. These 10 are added to the 10 already earned and 20 points are entered for the first frame. The strike is entered in the corner of the second frame.
In the third frame he again downs 10 pins with the first ball. The strike is entered in the corner of the third frame. Scores are not entered yet in either the second or the third frames.
In the fourth frame he downs 6 pins with the first ball. We are now ready to enter the score for the second frame. Ten pins were downed in that frame, 10 were downed by the first succeeding ball, and 6 were downed by the second succeeding ball, making a total of 26 pins scored in the second frame. These are added to the 20 from the first frame to obtain a running total of 46 pins.
With his second ball in the fourth frame the player downs 3 pins. His score for the third frame is 10 plus 6 plus 3, for a total of 19 pins. These are added to the 46 pins to obtain a running total of 65 pins. The score for the fourth frame is 9 pins, the number downed in that frame. These are added to the 65 pins to obtain a running total of 74 pins.
If a player makes a spare or a strike in the tenth frame he throws one or two more balls to determine his bonus.
Equipment
The 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, A of two suits, making a total of twenty cards. Since only the numbers have any bearing on the play, it is preferable to use the two red suits or the two black suits. An Ace is always considered as a 1 and will be noted as a 1 in the description of the game.
The setup
After shuffling the cards, ten are placed face up in a layout representing the ten pins. In the illustration the letters are included to identify the positions. The remaining ten cards are placed in there piles of five, three and two cards respectively. In a pile only the top card is visible. These piles represent the balls.
The play
A card from the top of a ball pile can be used for removing one, two, or three cards from the layout. If one card is removed, it must be the same denomination (as a 6 can remove a 6). If two or three cards are removed, they must be adjacent to each other (such as position H-I, or E-F-H, or H-F-G, etc.) and when added together their last digit must be the same as the ball card. For example, a 6 from a ball pile could be used for removing:
The card from the ball pile and the card(s) from the layout are removed and placed to one side, but the numbers should remain visible as an aid for planning future plays. When a card is removed from a ball pile the one immediately below becomes available.
The first card played from the ball piles cannot be used to remove any card from the back row of pins (A, B, C, or D). The first card also cannot be used to remove the card in position F by itself. After cards have been removed, subsequent plays must have at least one card adjacent to a card already removed. (Thus if cards E and H are removed with the first card from the ball piles, cards C and G could not be removed with the second. Cards F, C, and G, however, could be removed.)
If the player can continue removing cards from the layout until all are gone, he has made a strike. If, however, he reaches the point where no cards from the top of the ball piles can be used or if, in hopes of obtaining a spare, he chooses not to use one that could be used, he has reached the end of the first ball. He now removes one card from the top of each remaining ball pile and places them to one side. With the new cards now available he continues playing. If now successful in removing all the cards from the layout, he has made a spare. If not, he scores as many pins as the cards removed from the layout.
A sample frame
The cards are set up as shown in the illustration. In an actual game the lower cards in the ball piles would, of course, not be exposed.
The player starts by removing the 1 and 9 in positions H and F, using the 10 from the left-hand pile. He would have preferred to remove the 2, 7, and 1 in positions A, B, and C, but is not allowed to take any card from the back row on his first play.
He continues by using the newly exposed 5 to remove the 7, 1, and 7 in positions B, C, and D. (Using the remaining 10 to take the 2, 7, and 1 in positions A, B, and C would have left the other 2 stranded with no possibility of removing it.)
The next play is to remove the 2 and 2 using a 4.
The 5, 8, and 6 in positions G, I, and J now remain. The 8 could be removed, but that would leave an isolated 6 and a 5. Since the second 5 has already been used there would then be no possibility of removing the 5. Instead the player takes a second ball by removing the 8 from the top of the left-hand pile, the 10 from the top of the center pile, and the 4 from the top of the right-hand pile, exhausting that pile.
He now has a choice of two exposed 3s. He chooses (fortunately for him) the one on the left-hand pile and removes the 5 and 8 from the layout.
A 6 is now exposed and the player uses it to remove the remaining 6. He has made a spare.
Completing the game
Ten frames are played, and the object is to get as close as possible to a perfect score of 300 pins.
The game can be played competitively by any number of players. Each one in turn plays a frame and the one with the most pins at the end of the tenth frame is the winner.
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