Can I bowl Candlepin outside of New England?

April 12, 2004 9:26 PM

I went to Boston last weekend, and we all played candlepin bowling. I like it better than regular bowling, and I want to play again. Is there any candlepin outside of New England and the Maritimes? (more)

... Specifically, around Pittsburgh, PA? I know it's a long shot and Google confirms it, but here's why i'm Asking Metafilter today:

A few months back I received a local magazine that described how some bowling alleys turn up in strange places, e.g. church basements, VFW halls, etc. I seem to recall the article mentioning candlepin lanes somewhere in Southwestern PA. Does this ring a bell with anyone else?

Barring that, has anyone heard of a candlepin alley outside of New England (or, oddly, Cincinnati)? How about New York City? Philly? D.C.? I'm curious.

posted by tss to sports, hobbies, & recreation (6 comments total)

Candlepin exists everywhere, but outside of New England it's called duckpin bowling. I can't help you with Pittsburgh, but google should take care of it with the appropriate terminology.
posted by PrinceValium at 9:50 PM on April 12, 2004

Thanks, PV, but it seems there are two important differences between duckpin and candlepin bowling. The pins are stick shaped in candlepin, but more importantly (to me), candlepin allows fallen pins to remain lying on the ground throughout the frame. This means you can get interesting effects from knocking the "dead wood" into other pins.

Checking your search link, I found a nice comparison of various bowling styles.
posted by tss at 10:02 PM on April 12, 2004

Candlepin bowling is a dying sport. There was candlepin bowling in the middle of the town I grew up in, in eastern Mass. It was next to a postage stamp sized scrap metal business run by two Armenian hunchbacks, brothers. Now, there's a mall.

I'm not crazy about duckpin bowling. I like candlepins - but I've never noticed the sport outside of New England ( I've never candlepin bowled in the Maritimes) and thought that it was somehow of a piece with the classic rock which shows up everywhere on the dial somewhere in Conneticut when driving north.

I remember "Candlepins for Cash" - I thought it was a US national phenomenon!

So - tss - sorry. This is all I have to offer. I bet you could still find some rogue candlepin lanes in PA though. Perhaps in YMCA's. Some of the species might even have migrated to Cincinnati. Why not ?
posted by troutfishing at 6:05 AM on April 13, 2004

my mom was ON "candlepins for cash" and i was in the audience (at age 6)...ahh, memories. i miss candlepin so much, grew up in boston and now live in seattle and HATE "regular" bowling! people think i'm insane when i tell them about candlepin - a lot of folks here have never even heard of it! argh.
posted by tristeza at 7:38 AM on April 13, 2004

I live in Pittsburgh, and have never heard of a candlepin lane anywhere around here. (There is a duckpin lane near my house, Glassport Lanes in Glassport PA)

The only suggestion I have is to try calling or emailing the Greater Pittsburgh Tenpin Association (terrible website, move down the page for contact info) and seeing if any of their bowlers have ever heard of a candlepin lane. It's probably a long shot. Good luck.
posted by ALongDecember at 7:41 AM on April 13, 2004

If you want duckpin bowling, then Baltimore is the place to be. It was almost easier to find duckpin bowling there than to find regular 10-pin bowling.
posted by marcusb at 8:40 AM on April 13, 2004