Bowling Scorekeeping 101

Keeping score in bowling is not as difficult as it might seem. Have you ever gotten a spare then wondered why your score went up 17 instead of 10? Well, I am here to tell you all about it. I will tell you what a bowler does in a frame and then I will explain how to add the score.

First, the bowler's game frame by frame pinfalls.

Frame 1 - Eight then one
Frame two - Strike
Frame three - Seven and spare
Frame four - Nine and miss
Frame five - Strike
Frame six - Strike
Frame seven - Strike
Frame eight - Eight and spare
Frame nine - Seven and spare
Frame ten - Eight, spare and nine

OK, in frame one it is really easy. Eight plus one is nine, so the bowler has a score of nine for the first frame.

Second frame - Bowler got a strike. After a strike you get 10 plus the total of your next two shots. So, we cannot add anything yet.

Third frame - Seven and spare. Now, we can finish the second frame. The bowler gets the 9 from frame one, add ten for the strike then add the next two shots which also add to ten. 9+10+10 = 29. The bowler has 29 for their second frame score. After a spare, you get ten plus your next shot....once again, we cannot fill in the score for the third frame.

Frame four - Nine and miss. We now can fill in the third frame score. Take 29 from the second frame, add 10 for the spare and then add 9 for the first ball after the spare. 29+10+9 = 48. The 48 goes in the third frame's score box. Also, since there is no strike or spare...we can add the fourth frame score as well. 48+9=57. Put 57 in the fourth frame box.

Frame five - Strike. We must wait for the next two shots to add the score.

Frame six - Strike. Once again, we must wait for the next two shots to add anything for this frame. Since we have to wait two shots to add the fifth frame's score up and we only got one here...we must wait till the next shot to add anything.

Frame seven - Strike. OK, now we can finally add the fifth frame score. Take 57 from the fourth frame. Add ten for the strike in the fifth, ten for the strike in the sixth and ten more for the strike in the seventh. 57+10+10+10 = 87. The bowler has 87 in the fifth frame. We need one more shot to add the sixth frame and two more to add the seventh.

Frame eight - Eight and spare. Take the 87 from frame five, add ten for the sixth frame strike, ten for the strike in the seventh and 8 from the first ball in the eighth frame. 87+10+10+8 = 115. The bowler has 115 for their sixth frame score. We can also add up the seventh frame now. Add 115 from the sixth, 10 for the strike in the seventh, ten more for the two ball total in the eighth. 115+10+10 = 135. Put 135 in the seventh frame's box. Wait till the first ball of the ninth to add anything else.

Frame nine - Seven and spare. Add 135 from the seventh, 10 for the eighth frame spare and seven for the first ball after the spare. This will give you the score for the eighth frame. 135+10+7 = 152. Since we got a spare, we must wait for the first ball of the tenth frame.

Frame ten - Eight, spare and nine. To add the score for the ninth frame...take 152 from the eighth, add 10 for the spare in the ninth and add eight for the first ball in the tenth. 152+10+8 = 170. Since we got a spare in the tenth frame, we get one extra shot to complete our game (had we gotten a strike, we would have received two extra shots since you get ten plus two shots for a strike). On our extra shot, we got 9. To finish scoring our game, we take our ninth frame score (170) plus 10 for the spare plus 9 on the extra ball. 170+10+9 = 189. This is our final score for this game. Way to go!

Always remember that you add the next two shots after a strike and just one extra shot after a spare. The only exceptions to this are the extra shots in the tenth frame. Those only count towards the tenth frame score (if you get three strikes in the tenth frame...you do not get to add two more shots). Keeping score is easy and if you are competitive, this will help you know how many pins you need to get to win a game.