The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-12-10
THE SPORT
OF BOWLING
Ancient Recreation to
Be introduced
Here.

The Country Club management
thinks of fostering the sport of bowl
ing on the green. There is already
a fine green at the Zoo, and it looks
as if this good old-fashioned sport. so
popular among the elderly, would soon
be enjoying quite a vogue in Homo
lulu
Bowling is one of the Oldest games
known to the civilized world. Lovers
of exercise hundreds of years ago in
dulged in a pastime which, excepting
a few radical changes during the last
century or SO, was substantially the
and seems to have been just as pop
ular
Bowling seems to have been origin
ated early in the middle ages. 1t was
al that time purely an outdoor sport.
AS was the rule with everything of
that period, the sport was known by
a variety of names. 1t was called
bowls French bowls and Ca
reen." Those three names seem to
have been the most common.
At that time the game was very
different from the present sport, but
there was much similarity The game
was played with teams, as today. The
balls, or bowls, as they were then call
ed, were made of stone, one-half spher-
ical, the other half oval shape. This
gave the ball a curve as it sped down
the bowling alley or green, as an al
ley was called in that day.
The scene of the game was plot of
ground called a rink or bowling green,
at each end of which was placed a
cone, which was the mark for the bow
1ers to roll to. The cones We're bowled
to from one end of the rink and then
from the other. The object of the
game was for one side to place the
ball nearer the cone than it's oppo-
nents.
Thus the side bowling would try to
knock their opponents ball away from
the cone, supplanting their own, as in
the game of quoits, the nearer the cone
scoring one point for his team. Skill
was required to bowl so as to get near
er the cone without knocking the OPP
ponents' ball closer.
Later the stone ball was supplanted
by one made of lignum vitae. The
latter being made spherical the out
side of the tree from which the balls
were made being lighter than the
heart, naturally gave the bowl the de-
sired basis for curve. Some bowlers
loaded one side of the ball with a
heavy metal, SO as to obtain the de-
sired effect for a curve.
The cones were finally done away
with and superseded by a stone or
earthen bali about three and a half
inches in diameter. These new ones
M
having a stationary mark at which to
bowl, the jack was knocked all over
the green, and it required strategy and
skill to play a good game.
The bowling green of that period
was one of the most cared-for sports
about the village or an estate. plot
of ground as level as it was possible
to find was picked out for it. Drain
ing was the first process in making.
This was done in such a manner that
even the hardest rains could not soak
the ground and make it muddy. The |
size of the plot was usually about
90x100 feet, surrounded by a ditch or
gutter four or five inches deep.
During the reign of Queen Anne and
the first three Georges bowling green
was as popular and necessary TO
gentleman's country seat as billiard
table is today. AS an after-dinner j
sport of our British and Dutch an !
cestors, it was very popular. /
The game was introduced into Amer /
lea early in the eighteenth century.
It seems to have been very popular
in New York early in the eighteenth
century. In 1872 there was a locality
in New York at the foot of Broadway
called Bowling Green. and it is still
known by that name. From the time
that the sport was introduced into
America it has rarely ever died out,
the outdoor game has long
since given way to the indoor. !
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