The Hub March 2016 | Page 12

There are defiitely difference between five and ten-pin bowling, starting with the size of the ball. spare, the ten is carried over into the first ball of the next frame. A perfect game in ten-pin (all strikes) is 300. Dave Forfitt belongs to a men’s senior league at Super Bowl and has bowled in leagues and tournaments on both sides of the border. He’s had a few of those perfect games. “I just remember the shot…and that was it…I think it was at Rose Bowl,” said Forfitt, referring to Windsor’s other major ten-pin bowling centre. Clarkson has come close to a 300 himself.“A 299,” said Clarkson with a laugh. “That 10-pin sat up there. It kicked me pretty good.” Between Windsor’s Pillette Village and Riverside sits a brick building that’s been there since 1946. The building, near Brennan High School, houses Playdium Lanes, Windsor’s only remaining location for a uniquely Canadian pastime: five-pin bowling. Mariano Meconi, the manager at Playdium, has spent a lot of time around the sport. He’s been at Playdium in some capacity since 1980. “I came from a management perspective,” said Meconi. “My dad was a silent partner here for many years. He plugged me in here as manager and it became a lifestyle that I found agreeable.” The smaller facility has very strong connections for those who run it as well as those who use it. “A lot of people become family, it’s only a ten lane centre,” said Meconi. “There were only two five-pin centres in town. You got to know the players, the coaches, the people who coach the kids. So friendships developed and kind of glued me in.” The other five-pin centre, Parkview Lanes on Ottawa Street, closed in the early 2000s, leaving only Playdium. Meconi says there are definitely differences between that and the ten-pin version, starting with equipment. The bowling ball, for example, fits easily into one hand. “The five-pin ball is five inches. They’re allowed to be four and three-quarters to five inches in size,” said Meconi. “They vary in weight from three-pounds-six to three-pounds-ten ounces.” Like their ten-pin counterparts, pins in the five-pin version are spaced in a triangle with the point toward the bowler. They are spaced further apart than the ten-pin version. Each pin has a point value assigned to it once the bowler knocks it down. The head pin is worth five points, the pins on either side of that are three, the farthest ones two, making the point total for a strike 15. Five-pin bowlers get three chances to knock all the pins down per frame, with scores for a strike or spare carrying over, as in ten-pin. A perfect game in five-pin is 450, and Left: Steven Scherle, pro shop manager at Super Bowl Lanes, works on customizing a new bowling ball for a customer Right: A bowler delivers a ball down a five-pin bowling lane at Playdium Lanes