No-Tap Bowling

I had never heard of no-tap bowling until I played a game of it. It's not actually a different way to play, just a way to inflate scores. It made sense when I read that it's a way for kids to compete with grown-ups on the same playing field. (The explanation was that since we're supporting Big Brothers Big Sisters, the extra pin was like the help from a Big Brother or Big Sister.)

We played nine-pin no-tap which means if you got 9 pins on your first shot, it counts as a strike. 9 pins on your second shot does not count as a spare. 

So here's my score from last night:

My previous high score was 162, so 173 would be something to get excited about... if it weren't for the fake scoring.

You can tell I got 3 fake strikes in the 2nd, 5th, and 9th frames. I got two real strikes in the 7th and 10th frames.

So how much did those inflate my scores? For simplicity, I will assume that I would have converted the spare attempts. (I was 4 for 4 on converting spares with 3 or less pins.)

These rules added an artificial value of the 2nd shot following a fake strike.

So that's 3 pins in the 3rd frame, 3 pins in the 6th frame, and 7 pins in the 10th. That's 13 extra pins.
So my 173 should have at most been a 160 under normal scoring. Of course if I had missed one of the spare opportunities, say the first, that would have deducted another 8 pins from my score. So it's a 160 with an asterisk.

I figure, it's not really fair to assume I would have missed a shot that I didn't get to take. But still, it's not a given that I rolled 160.

July 11: 160*

- - -

It was cosmic bowling and if the orange pin was your headpin and you got a strike or spare, you won a prize. The first time it came up was in the 4th. I had just rolled three consecutive closed frames, so of course I left it open when the prize was available. It was a split, even though it's not circled. I got another chance in the 7th and got my first legit strike. I got to choose from various items, sunglasses, deck of cards, but selected a pizza cutter.

We started a second game but I stunk. In the 4th frame, they told us we only had 5 more minutes. So I picked up a light ball and did the hook attempt and got a strike. That was cool. So I did it again, just as perfectly, and left a split with multiple pins on both sides. So that's why I don't do that.