My favorite sport is Bowling, because I do it in RL in competition.

Here is a review of the history of bowling :

Bowling is an ancient game invented originally by the Egyptians around 3200 (BC) Before Christ.

Of course that wasn’t the bowling we know today. It wasn’t, like nowadays, automated.

Then around 300 AD there was a German historian named William Pehle, who claimed that bowling was first played in his country around 300 AD. There is some proof of that, but much later, around 1366 in England, when King Edward III outlawed it to keep this troops focused on archery practice. A certain fact is that bowling was popular in the days of Henery VIII. In those days there were too many variations on "pin" games. The ball was thrown at many other objects than pins alone. This fact makes it clearer to us that the games had to be developed over time, in an earlier period.

One of these developments is found in Edinburgh. Scientists found out that in those days, the player swung a fingerless ball between his legs and heaved it at the pins. By doing that, the player "flops" on the lane on his stomach. There were many variations of ninepins found in Western Europe. It was found very related to Italian bocce, the French petanque and the British lawn bowling.

Surprisingly, it seems that even English, Dutch and German settlers all imported their own variations of the game.

The first written proof of American Bowling was found in New York’s Battery area. This is now is the financial heart of New York. But New Yorkers still call it Bowling Green.

The game had some ups and downs in those times. There was even a law in 1841 in Connecticut that made it illegal to maintain "any nine pin lanes", probably because bowling was the object of much gambling.

The game was so very popular that in the industry captains of industry built lanes in their houses.

One thing was sure, the game had evolved by the late 1800’s spreading all over the United States of America.

Some women even played bowling, but the sports was mainly for men at the time. (Sorry Ladies!)

The first rubber ball was made in 1905 and in 1914 Brunswick made a Mineralite ball, which had a "misterious rubber compound " in it.

The bowling technology took a leap when AMF or American Machine and Foundry Company made some automatic pin spotters.

The first commercial installation was completed in Michigan in 1951. A year later, in 1952, a production model pinspotters was made available.

Then in the 50’s, television began experimenting with this "new game" called bowling.

Many tournaments were broadcast on television and the sports became popular, as it still is, even today.

People in over ninety countries worldwide enjoy bowling.