5 Pin Bowling is a Canadian twist on bowling that emerged around 1909 in Toronto in response to club patrons complaining about the size and weight of tenpin bowling balls, not to mention the delays associated with needing pinboys to set the pins. Tommy Ryan experimented by whittling down 5 conventional pins and arranging them into a “V” formation. A five inch hard rubber ball was chosen to knock them down. The game quickly became popular and after various tweaks — including the addition of a rubber ring around the belly to control deflection — 5 Pin Bowling became a strike!

5 Pin Bowling has things in common with conventional 10 Pin Bowling. It’s a 10-frame game played on a typical 10 Pin surface. 5 Pin bowlers get up to three tries to knock the pin down in each frame with an  underhand roll, low at the foul line.  The middle pin, (the headpin) scores 5 points.  See the diagram to see all pin values. A perfect game is 450 points.