Skittled - Glossary

Glossary

Any Old How: a ball that has missed its intended target, but has knocked over quite a few pins that count towards the score.
Backboard: a small optional plank behind the player and/or playing mat- some players like to rest their heels on it during play.
Ball: the wooden ball rolled at the skittles.
Beaver: when a player knocks down no pins in a hand.
Birdie: Worcestershire term for the pin in the centre of the frame, immediately behind the front pin. Also known as "bird in the cage" or the "Landlord".
Bobby: Also known as the front or king pin.
Bolter (South Wales): a ball that fails to hit any pin.
Broken frame: a frame with some pins knocked over.
Cheese: a round, flattened wooden discus (often made of lignum vitae), shaped like some types of cheese, which in some variants of the game is thrown instead of rolling a ball. It may also be rolled, like the oblate ball used in the game of bowls. It is particular used in deck skittles.
Chute: see Trough.
Copper: the pin on the extreme left or right of the frame. In Worcestershire the term 'Copper' is an alternative name for the front pin or 'King' as it's also known.
Cush: the rails on either side of the alley, usually made from timber. Some alleys have ditches/gutters instead (similar to ten pin bowling).
Cush ball: a ball that is bowled & hits the cush. In most variants of the game the pins that are then knocked down are not counted in the players score (see also sidey)
Cut: when the ball hits the side of a pin.
Dam Busters: The theme of which is hummed loudly in unison when a player accidentally bounces a ball down the alley!
Ditch: an area behind the pins that has been dug into the floor. It catches the pins that are knocked down.
Down: the scores for all players in one set during a single hand, combined, e.g. "we just got a 24 down"
Duck: a player's score when he or she doesn't knock down any pins on their turn.
Fat Annie: Bristol and Somerset term for the middle pin, as in Birdie above.
Flattener: a ball that knocks down all nine pins.
Flopper: when a player knocks down all nine pins with one ball or cheese.
Flopper ball: the ball that achieves a flopper
Floorer (South Wales): when a player knocks down all nine pins with one ball
Foul: a ball delivered illegally over the foul line
Frame: the full set of pins (usually nine) standing upright.
Front-for-one (Bristol): Where the front pin is struck without felling anything else with a single ball.
Good strike: Denotes when after the first ball the remaining Pins stood up are able to be knocked down with the second ball for a spare.
Hand: a player's turn at the game
Hill gap: The Gap between the front pin and the front quarter pin
King pin (Worcestershire): The pin at the front of the frame. Also name of type of skittles where front pin has to be floored before any pins count
Landlord: the pin in the centre of the frame, immediately behind the front pin. Also known as "bird in the cage".
Line: the mark on the alley that denotes where the ball must be delivered (before the line in Worcestershire, in-between two lines in Bristol etc.)
Linesman: A member of the opposing side tasked with watching the Line for foul balls
Long Three: three pins that are situated in a straight line when they are the only pins left standing & the player is trying to hit them down.
Leg: known as a set elsewhere comprising 6, 8, 9, 10 or 12 players.
No Ball: same as foul.
Old Market (Bristol): Where the three front, middle and back pins are all felled by a single ball. Considered bad luck as it offers a poor remaining frame.
One ball skittler (Bristol, Worcestershire): Where a player uses only one ball to good effect. Frowned on by purists.
Over: same as foul.
Pin: a skittle.
Pit: same as Ditch.
Pitch: the long rectangular strip along which balls are thrown and at the end of which the pins stand
Plate: the strip on the floor which the balls have to hit when they leave the skittlers' hands. In Worcestershire,Bristol and North Somerset the plate is the square which the pins are stood on.
Punch: when the ball hits the pin dead centre & ploughs through afterwards knocking down the pin behind but not the pins either side.
Quarter: the two pins to either side and behind the front pin
Red Arrows: Front pin and the next two skittles left and right of it plus the third pin behind the front pin
Running three: three pins running diagonally left to right or right to left.
Set: three or four players who play against the opposing teams set
Sidey: a ball played that hits the side of the alley.
Skittle alley: a long narrow building in which skittles is usually played.
Skittle the noise made when the skittles fall.
Skittler's Nine (Worcestershire): a nine achieved where a spare has not been possible, i.e. when the front pin has punched the middle and the back pin out.
Spare: when a player knocks down all nine pins with 2 balls, allowing a third throw with the pins re-set.
Split: The pins left after the first ball has been played.
Spider (Worcestershire): when a player fails to knocks down any pins in a hand with his or her three balls.
Spot: The marks on the plate which the pins are placed.
Sticker or sticker-up: a person who puts knocked-over pins back upright.
Strike: hitting over all the pins within one turn.
Sunshine (New South Wales): same as spider
V/c: used to denote a beaver or sunshine when chalking, also an alternative for those names in North Somerset—said to stand for "very close"
Trough: a feature on most skittle alleys (constructed out of wood or plastic with a slope)that is used by the sticker-up to return the balls to the players end of the alley for the next go.
Winger (Worcestershire): Either of the two pins at the extreme right and left of the frame.
Wraxall 8 (North Somerset): used to denote when a player scores 8 with the front pin still standing