# Could you manually keep score of a game of bowling if you had to?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-manually-keep-score-of-a-game-of-bowling-if-you-had-to/588454
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [July 9, 2011, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-manually-keep-score-of-a-game-of-bowling-if-you-had-to/588454 "2011-07-09T22:59:12Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Who\_me\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Who_me_1)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2011, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-manually-keep-score-of-a-game-of-bowling-if-you-had-to/588454/41 "2011-07-11T11:54:42Z")
Without a doubt. I no longer bowl, but I used to bowl a lot and had to keep score. As a kid “Sports Math” (my own name for it) was a game for me. I can still determine a pitcher’s ERA with paper and pencil.
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### Author:  [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2011, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-manually-keep-score-of-a-game-of-bowling-if-you-had-to/588454/42 "2011-07-11T20:56:36Z")
I’d love to find a local bowling alley that still offered manual scoring – that’d mean they’d likely charge a reasonable price for a game, _and_ I’d get the fun of keeping score as well!
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### Author:  [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2011, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-manually-keep-score-of-a-game-of-bowling-if-you-had-to/588454/43 "2011-07-11T21:12:06Z")
Yes, and a pox on electronic scorers. Yet another rite of passage from my youth has disappeared.
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### Author:  [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2011, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-manually-keep-score-of-a-game-of-bowling-if-you-had-to/588454/44 "2011-07-11T21:14:27Z")
> [@markdash](#):
>
> You’re saying the 10th is just like every other frame, except you get a “bonus” roll or two to make up for the fact that there’s no 11th or 12th frame.
More important, it’s so the top score of 300 will be a nice round number. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2011, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-manually-keep-score-of-a-game-of-bowling-if-you-had-to/588454/45 "2011-07-13T02:40:36Z")
The way I bowl, a very young child who has received even the most rudimentary of arithmetic lessons could tally my scores.
mmm
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### Author:  [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2011, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-manually-keep-score-of-a-game-of-bowling-if-you-had-to/588454/46 "2011-07-13T03:04:50Z")
> [@Fiddle\_Peghead](#):
>
> More important, it’s so the top score of 300 will be a nice round number. 🙂
When I bowled years ago, I was going for 450 points 😉
Keeping score is like riding a bike. It helps if you have a pre printed score sheet though.
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### Author:  [@JpnDude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JpnDude)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2011, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-manually-keep-score-of-a-game-of-bowling-if-you-had-to/588454/47 "2011-07-13T06:24:47Z")
I learned by watching the PBA broadcasts on ABC Sports as a kid. I started bowling as a teen and tried to figure out the score before the electronic readout did.
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### Author:  [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2011, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-manually-keep-score-of-a-game-of-bowling-if-you-had-to/588454/48 "2011-07-13T09:14:47Z")
I bowled once in Cub Scouts in the 70’s (Got to be the kid who got a ball stuck on his fingers too! :smack:) wouldn’t know how to keep score to save my life.
> [@markdash](#):
>
> What’s so tricky? A strike is 10 plus the next 2 rolls. A spare is 10 plus the next roll. …
>
> > [@USCDiver](#):
> >
> > … If you bowl a strike on your first ball you get to role twice more, a spare gets you one more. a perfect game, 300, gets 30 pins per frame. You have to bowl three strikes in the 10th frame to get there.
I can now manually score a game of bowling!
Yeah, what is so tricky about it?
CMC fnord!
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### Author:  [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2011, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-manually-keep-score-of-a-game-of-bowling-if-you-had-to/588454/49 "2011-07-13T11:13:15Z")
I took a bowling class in college for a PE credit, before electronic scoring. Yes, I can keep score in bowling.
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### Author:  [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2011, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-manually-keep-score-of-a-game-of-bowling-if-you-had-to/588454/50 "2011-07-13T14:58:25Z")
Add me to the people who don’t get what’s so hard about it.
It confused me at one time, so my father sat me down and explained it to me. The lesson ended when he filled out a score sheet with 12 Xes and asked me what the final score would be. I was so proud of myself when I figured it out.
A few years later every alley went to automatic scoring. My soul died a little on that day.
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### Author:  [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2011, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-manually-keep-score-of-a-game-of-bowling-if-you-had-to/588454/51 "2011-07-13T17:43:30Z")
87% of the self-selected poll responders currently say yes.
I bet in the American public at large, the rate is less than 25%.
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