Strike (bowling)


In bowling, a strike means that all of the pins have been knocked down on the first ball roll of a frame. On a bowling scoresheet, a strike is marked by an "X".
In American nine-pin bowling, a ringer is an equivalent term for knocking down all pins on the first ball of the frame.

Scoring

When all ten pins are knocked down with the first ball roll, a player is awarded ten points, plus a bonus of whatever is scored with the next two rolls. In this way, the points scored for the two rolls after the strike are counted twice.
An easier non-standard method of scoring a strike is to score the strike with a flat 10 points and then add 1 to the multiplier of the next two rolls. Thus, the scoring of the above example would play out as below:
Strike scoring works similarly for five-pin bowling, except strikes are worth 15 points rather than 10.

Consecutive strikes

A series of two strikes is known as a "double", and a series of three is known as a "turkey". Any longer string of strikes is referred to by a number affixed to the word "bagger" or "pack", as in "four-bagger" or "six-pack". A string of four straight strikes is also known as a "hambone," a term invented by sports commentator Rob Stone. A string of five strikes in a row is a "brat", referring to bratwurst, but "nickel", has become far more common in recent years.
When a player is "on the strikes", a string is often referenced by affixing "in a row" to the number of consecutive strikes. A string of six strikes is sometimes called a "six pack" or a "sixer". A string of six and nine strikes are also known as a "wild turkey" and a "golden turkey" respectively. Any string of strikes starting in the first frame or ending "off the sheet" are often called the "front" or "back" strikes, respectively. Twelve strikes in a row is a perfect game; 36 straight strikes constitutes a 900 series. Due to the difficulty of achieving a game of 300 or a series of 900, many bowling alleys maintain 300 and 900 club plaques.
With the simpler non-standard system of scoring, the above example would be scored as below:

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