ABC To Bowling Strikes & Spares, The complete guide to ten pin bowling

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History

The YBC was founded in 1964 and was originally known as the Youth Bowling Council. Initially, only a five-pin bowling program existed. The YBC’s name was changed to Youth Bowling Canada in 2006.

The program only existed in Ontario, during the first year of the YBC’s existence (the 1963-64 season). The following season (1964-65), the YBC was expanded onto a national scale with the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia joining. In later years, Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Quebec, Nova Scotia, the Northwest Territories and Prince Edward Island joined, with the last region, Yukon, joining in the 1998-99 season. Nunavut is the only region of Canada not represented in the YBC as there are currently no bowling alleys in that territory. Due to Ontario’s vast size, the province is divided into two separate and independent regions, namely Northern Ontario and Southern Ontario.

The YBC’s ten-pin program started in 1970 with the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario participating. Quebec joined in 1981, followed by New Brunswick in 1995. Other parts of Canada do not have any 10 pin bowling alleys.

Purpose of the YBC

When the YBC was established in 1964, it was designed to accomplish the following goals:

A) “To provide an interesting program that would encourage more youngsters to participate in the various games of bowling.”

B) “To set up a program of crests and awards for the bowlers who achieve certain degrees of skill.”

C) “To arrange and conduct a series of tournaments and championships that would be interesting and a challenge to all youth bowlers regardless of their skill.”

D) “To set up a program that would encourage adult bowlers to take a greater interest in youth bowlers and in instructing youngsters in the etiquette, rules and customs of a properly organized and conducted league.”

YBC at your local bowling center

YBC is offered at most bowling centers who are members of the Bowling Proprietors Association of Canada.

The YBC offers three core divisions:

* Bantams - up to 10 years old.
* Juniors - up to 13 years old.
* Seniors - up to 19 years old.

There is also a pee-wee division - formerly called the “Smurf” division but is currently referred to as the “Bowlasaurus” division, which usually serves children up to 7 years of age. At this young of an age, some bowlers may use two hands to roll the ball. Bowlers in this division usually bowl fewer weekly games than Bantams, but may qualify for tournaments in the Bantam division. Some bowling centers and provinces offer special tournaments for the pee-wee division.

The operation of YBC varies by bowling center. The bowling center’s manager or proprietor oversees the entire league and determines what time of the week YBC will bowl. One of the coaches is usually appointed by the proprietor as “Program Director” and coaches are also selected to serve as directors for each of the divisions. Coaches in the YBC require Level I coaching certification and the provinces require YBC coaches to be members in good standing of the provincial Master Bowler’s Association. The proprietor may encourage bowlers in his adult league base to become coaches.

Some bowling centers have a YBC committee. This committee is composed of coaches and parents of YBC bowlers at the center. The committee takes the responsibility for events such as local fundraising, additional prizes, special events, addressing issues in the league, and planning the year-end windup.

The YBC runs a national fundraising chocolate sale. The campaign usually starts at the end of September. The cornerstone product is chocolate coated almonds, however the YBC has also introduced items such as chocolate bars and nuggets of chocolate coated mint or caramel.

Tournaments

There are many YBC tournaments held annually at both the regional, provincial and national levels. The annual 4 Steps to Stardom tournament is considered to be the most prestigious YBC tournament event and are essentially the national youth bowling championships. Boys and girls compete in this event separately. The 4 Steps to Stardom is a scratch tournament and involves ‘4 steps’ to achieve the gold medal at the national level. The steps are as follows:

1. Qualifying as single (i.e. individual) or as a member of a team in your home bowling alley.
2. Winning at the zone level (the city/region where you live, e.g. Hamilton).
3. Winning at the provincial level.
4. Getting to/winning at the national level.

These YBC tournaments are run only at the home bowling alley level with no zone or provincial final:

* Buddy tournament - the YBC member invites a friend to bowl in the tournament.
* Family Twosome - a parent-child tournament. Most YBC leagues run this tournament with four divisions based on the genders of the parent and child.
* I Beat My Coach - the youths bowl and try to score a better score than one game bowled by the coaches. The coaches usually bowl in awkward manners to maximize the youths’ chances of winning.
* I Beat My Average - the youths attempt to beat their current average in this one-day local tournament.
* Bowler of the Year - the top bowler in each month (usually based on cumulative pins over average) is declared as “Bowler of the Month” and thus qualifies for this year-end tournament.

These are YBC tournaments that may be offered in some provinces, culminating in a provincial championship. Most of these events are scored on a handicap basis. The tournaments may not be available in all provinces. In some cases, the host centers for the zone finals report their winners to a central headquarters via fax or Internet in order to declare a provincial champion.

* Combo Team - the bowling center qualifies a team that is composed of bowlers from each division of the YBC. Depending on the province, the team can vary from three (separate boys and girls teams) to six players (one co-ed team). Most provinces operate a provincial championship for this event.
* High Low Doubles - the bowling center creates doubles teams by pairing the highest average bowler with the lowest class bowler. The process is repeated until all the bowlers are paired. After a qualifying process at the home alley, successful teams may advance to a zone or provincial final.
* Kids and Golden Agers - Bowling centers offering YBC leagues as well as Golden Age (now known as Club 55+) leagues can qualify a team of four - a boy and girl from the Bantam division and a man and woman from a Club 55+ league. This tournament culminated in a national championship for several years, but now is scaled back to no further than a provincial final in some provinces.
* Master/Bantam/Junior - In some provinces, bowling centers can qualify a three-player team consisting of one bantam bowler, one junior bowler, and one Master Bowler. This tournament culminates in zone and provincial finals.

YBC team tournaments - particularly the 4 Steps provincial and national finals - are known as being notoriously loud from cheering bowlers and parents.

Youth Bowling Canada Website

Born in Guelph, Ontario, Ryan moved to Toronto at age 18. He is said to have been a baseball pitcher good enough for a professional offer, although the details are sketchy.

Ryan had been running a pool hall on Yonge Street and in November 1909 co-founded the Toronto Bowling Club above a store at Yonge and Temperance Street. Ten-pin bowling had been growing in popularity, but some of Ryan’s customers complained that the ball was too heavy. Around 1908, he devised a new game with a smaller ball and only five pins, with a new scoring system. After receiving complaints about the pins bouncing out the window to the street, he added a rubber ring around the pins.

Ryan purchased the Turtle Hall Hotel in Toronto in April 1914 for $45,000. He later bought the former home of the Massey family, which he converted into an antique gallery and auction house. For decades, he was a judge of the Miss Toronto pageant. He remained a bachelor until he was 82, when he married his secretary.

Ryan died in Toronto at age 80. He was inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1971. He is buried in the Mount Hope Catholic Cemetery in Toronto, Ontario.

Thomas F. Ryan, owner of the Temperance Street Bowling Club, in 1909 was inspired to create a new sport based on that idea. He had five pins whittled down and he set up a system in which each pin was assigned a number of points from 1 to 5.

Five-pin bowling caught on quickly. The first league was formed in Toronto in 1910. Two years later, a rubber band circling the throat of the pins was added to increase the amount of action.
The first women’s league was established in Toronto in 1921 and two years later the sport was introduced to Western Canada. That resulted in the founding of the Canadian Bowling Association, based in Toronto, 1927.
However, bowlers in Western Canada adopted their own scoring system in 1930. Ryan’s original system had assigned the values 4, 2, 1, 3, and 5 to the 1 through 5 pins respectively. The Western system used the values 1, 4, 5, 3, and 2.

In 1944, the Western Canadian Five-Pin Bowling Assocation was founded in Regina, Saskatchewan. The two areas of the country continued with their own scoring systems until 1952, when a new national system was established, assigning the values 2, 3, 5, 3 and 2 to the five pins.

Most of Ontario stuck to the old scoring system until 1959. Five-pin bowling throughout Canada was brought under a single governing body, the Canadian Bowling Congress, in 1965. The CBC was replaced by the Canadian 5-Pin Bowlers Association in 1978.

Although five-pin bowling has been played, at times, in Scotland, the British West Indies, the Phillipines, Argentina, and small areas of the United States, it now seems to be confined entirely to Canada, where there are more than 500,000 participants.

Shelley MacDonald

Ron Millar

2008 Provincial Ladies Team Champions

Kathy Taylor

Joanie MacLeod

Kim Longaphie

Sue MacPherson

Nina Costain

Andrea Gallant

Coach: Ernie Doucette

2008 Provincial Men’s Team Champions

Chad Gallant

Albert Shepard

Randy Diamond

Cory Gallant

Kenny Squarebriggs

Andrew Bryenton

Coach: Rickey Burns

2008 Provincial Mixed Team Champions

Freda Stewart

Stephanie Creed

Helen Morrison

Jeremy Sudsbury

Bill Giggey

Donnie Burke

Coach: Vince Carragher

Ardy McClintick Apr 7th, 1984 Showboat Lanes Prince Edward Island

Donald Burke Dec 4th, 1986 Basilica Rec. Centre Prince Edward Island

Greg Taylor Mar 17th, 2002 Kensington Lanes Prince Edward Island