Ernie's Bowling Score Keeper
A score keeper for the league bowler. Every ball pin by pin, or just the final score; nights that belong to a league of any number of games; your average, your handicap, and which pins you leave. Everything stays on your phone, with a backup copy in your own iCloud.
Before you start
Nothing. There is no account and nothing to set up. Open the app and tap New game.
Scoring a game
The scoreboard shows the ten frames and the ten pins as you see them from the approach, with the 1 pin nearest you. After each ball, tap the pins that are still standing, which is usually none or one, then press the big button. With nothing tapped on a full rack the button reads Strike; on the second ball it reads Spare; with pins standing it reads Next. Miss stands every pin back up for a gutter ball, and Undo takes back the last ball.
The running score fills in as soon as it can be known, so a strike waits for its two bonus balls, as it does on the lane's screen. The tenth frame gives you the extra ball after a strike or a spare. A number with a red ring was a split.
Every ball is kept the moment it is entered. Save, at the top right, closes a game part way; it shows in Games as "Not finished", and Carry on on its page picks it up. After the tenth frame, Next game starts the next game of the night and Finished closes the night.
Quick score
For a night you did not score ball by ball, or a score from a paper sheet: tap Quick score, type the final score, tap Save. It counts in your average and the night's series. It has no pins, so it says nothing about your spares.
Leagues and handicaps
A league is a name, how many games a night (one to six), and the handicap rule. Most leagues give a handicap that is a share of the gap between your average and a base figure: 80% of 200, say. Tap Leagues, then Add a league, and the form works an example out for you as you tap. If the league gave you a starting average, type it in; it is used until you have bowled there.
Tonight already belongs to the league that usually bowls on this weekday. The chip at the top of the scoreboard changes it: Practice, another league, or a new one.
A league's page shows your average there, your handicap, your high game and high series, and every night week by week: each game, the series, and the series with the handicap on, which is the figure the league sheet wants.
Stats and spares
Stats shows your average, high game, high series and clean games for everything, for each league, or for practice, with the last twenty games as bars and strikes, spares and open frames as percentages. Spares shows the deck shaded by how often each pin is left standing after the first ball, and for each single pin how often you pick it up, then splits and the bigger leaves. Only games scored frame by frame count there; a quick score has no pins.
Sending a PDF
Send, on Stats and on every league page, makes a PDF of where you stand, every night, and your spares (A4 in the United Kingdom, US Letter in the United States). It goes through the iPhone's own sheet: Messages, Mail, WhatsApp, Save to Files, Print.
What is free and what is paid
Your first ten games are free, with everything working: the scoreboard, quick scores, leagues, stats, spares, the PDF and the backup. An eleventh game needs the unlock. It is one purchase, with Family Sharing, and there is no subscription. Nothing you have already bowled is ever locked, unlocked or not. Deleting a game does not give back a free one. Restore purchase is on the unlock screen and in Settings.
Backup
The app backs up automatically to your own iCloud, free, and offers to bring your leagues and games back when it is opened on a new phone with nothing in it. On Backup you can see when it was last saved, switch it off, or restore.
Questions
- My league bowls four games a night. Set Games a night to 4 on the league. Any number from one to six works.
- Why is my average a whole number? Because that is how leagues work it out: 566 over three games is 188, never 188.67.
- Can I keep a second bowler's games? Not in this version. The app keeps one bowler's record: yours.
- Can I change a score afterwards? A game can be deleted from its page, and a game that was not finished can be carried on. Balls already entered are changed with Undo while the game is open.
- Is a 4-5 a split? The app calls a leave a split when the head pin is down and the pins left standing do not touch, so the 7-10, the 4-6, the 8-10 and the baby splits count, and the 4-5 does not.
Contact
Anything at all, including bugs and suggestions: conor@conorhannah.com.