WORCESTER—In a world that seems increasingly out of whack, the world of candlepin bowling is back in whack.
The opening of American Flatbread at 85 Green St., with its ten new candlepin lanes, marks the return of commercial candlepin bowling to the city where it was invented, ending a five-year absence.
The game was the brainchild of Pop White, who owned a pool hall at 37 Pearl St. in the heart of downtown and devised a new form of an old sport — remember, Rip Van Winkle fell asleep while at a bowling match — about 145 years ago.
White had his moment of inspiration in 1879. Ten years later the game was standardized by Jack Monsey, considered to be the “father of modern candlepins.”
From then until Colonial Lanes on Mill Street closed in March of 2020 there was some form of commercial candlepin bowling within the city limits.
Through the decades Worcester has been the home of at least a hundred commercial candlepin bowling houses and many privates alleys. Those could be found at country clubs, businesses, the basements of private residences and even in churches.
How ironic was that? If any sport can make a person doubt the existence of God, it is candlepin bowling.
Worcester without candlepin bowling was like Springfield without basketball hoops, Scotland without pot bunkers or Canada without pucks. This city has not been the only one with candlepin bowling but it has always been the heart and soul of the game.
In the Oct. 9, 1960 Sunday Telegram, the Mass. Bowling Association ran a full page ad promoting candlepins in the Bay State. It listed 110 commercial facilities. Worcester had the most of any city or town with eight. They were Colonial on Mill Street, King Philip on King Philip Road, Strand Bowling Academy on Norwich Street, Bowling Green and Central on Central Street, Our Lady of Mount Carmel on East Central Street, Recreation on Main Street and 20th Century on Trumbull Street.
State Mutual Insurance had in-house alleys, eight of them, and a company league. The alleys were home for the popular TV show “Bay State Bowling,” hosted by Bob Fouracre.
My hometown of Whitinsville had three houses within a quarter-mile on Church Street — Saropian’s, Sparetime and Pythian. Sparetime is still active.
Statewide, alleys went from the Berkshires to the Atlantic Ocean, from Pittsfield in the west to Provincetown and Chatham on Cape Cod.
Last week, I tried the new place along with a couple friends from the city hockey world, Darryl Hunt and Rich Lundin. Both were longtime avid league bowlers until Colonial went out of business.
The experience was great, the bowling not-as-great. The pepperoni flatbread was wonderful. My partners were rusty but flashed occasional moments of brilliance. My best string was a 101, which meant I missed 199 pins.
Candlepin bowling is not for optimists.
Lundin, who turns 60 next month, also bowled at Metro Bowl on Park Avenue, which became the Skylite Roller Skating Center in 1980. He had bowled only once since Colonial closed.
Comparing the experiences Lundin said, “Everthing is a lot newer, a lot shinier. Colonial and Metro had been around forever and this is brand new. Obviously, things aren’t broken in yet. The pins aren’t broken in, there’s not quite that same groove in the floor, the balls are newer.
“But it was nice to get back bowling. I think a lot of people left it during Covid, and then Colonial closed, too.”
Lundin intends to return.
“Definitely,” he said. “It’s a beautiful place. They did a fantastic job. There are a lot of nice graphics. I think people will really like it.”
Personally, American Flatbread was the 84th different candlepin facility — commercial and private — I have bowled at in the Commonwealth. There are also two outliers in Vermont, Wayne’s Lanes in far northern Canaan and lanes in Springfield.
When Hunt was an active league bowler at Colonial, his average was above 100. That is a very good average. He had not bowled since right after Colonial closed and had to use rental shoes because when he found his regular ones, he discovered they had cobwebs and acorns in them.
Hunt just turned 59, which makes him a relative youth by candlepin standards.
“That’s why this is dying out,” he said, “because kids don’t bowl. They don’t bowl tenpins either. They just don’t bowl.”
Without his regular shoes, and with new lanes, Hunt could not do a slide approach. That hurt his performance.
“Not being able to slide was completely different,” he said, “but once this gets some action, I think this is going to be a pretty good place to bowl even though bowling is kind of the secondary thing here, the attraction to get you to come in and do all the other things.”
Hunt plans to return.
“I’ve just got to get down to the basement and dust off my shoes,” he said.
There are probably hundreds of old shoes in closets, cellars, garages and attics around the city. The birthplace of candlepin bowling finally has somewhere to use them again.
Bill Ballou covered the Red Sox for the Worcester Telegram from 1997 through 2018. He has covered pro hockey in Worcester since 1994 and currently does a weekly column for the Worcester Red Sox. Ballou can be reached at vetgoalie@aol.com
