- Amy King

At first glance, the scene looks typical. Outside, the glaring neon lights resemble signs found in towns everywhere. Inside, the worn half-red and half-blue shoes also provide a reminiscent stench. This place offers shelter from the rain, and it also marks their specific destination. More importantly, however, this place houses one of Canada's best kept entertainment secrets: five-pin bowling.       Annually, more than 1 million Canadians try their hand at five-pin bowling, and more than 600,000 test their skills in leagues, said Terry Burns, avid five-pin bowler.       Burns, who has been five-pin bowling for more than 20 years, also coaches Youth Bowling Council teens and competes regularly in five-pin tournaments throughout Canada.       Burns describes himself as a "fanatical five-pin bowler," and says that five-pin is the most popular form of bowling--in Canada.       "All other sports have become international in nature," Burns said. "Yet five-pin remains the only truly Canadian sport being played in every province and territory of Canada."       Novice Americans may consider the radical differences between five-pin and 10-pin bowling something to be experienced first-hand.             Five-pin initially diverges from 10-pin because of the obvious reason of number of pins. Positioned in a perfect migration-pattern "V," the pins form a point facing the bowler. Unlike 10-pin where the pins are tightly crowded together, the pins are separated by gaps a hair larger than the five-inch ball diameter. In fact, the gaps are just wide enough that a ball thrown at that annoyingly perfect angle can skip directly between two.       And in five-pin, striking the center pin head-on does not guarantee the domino effect that arises in 10-pin. Consequently, a ball striking a pin directly may only cause that single pin to tumble.       What facilitates this frustrating effect is not so much the wide spacing of the pins as it is the size of the ball. Unlike 10-pin balls, these balls weigh on average 3 pounds, 8 ounces and lack holes. Instead of using the index and ring fingers to throw the ball, the five-pin bowler cradles the cantaloupe-sized ball in the palm of the hand.       Complex scoring adds another unique feature to five-pin bowling. Unlike 10-pin where each pin is worth one point, pins in five-pin hold different values. Not only are the pins valued individually, the bowler gets to throw the ball three times per frame. Despite what 10-pin bowlers might think, that doesn't make it any easier. Reaching a perfect game of 450 in five-pin requires both skill and luck.             "A perfect game in five-pin is very rare," said Ken Hayden, president of the Bowling Proprietor's Association of Canada.       In fact, it took 12 years after five-pin's creation for the first perfect game to be bowled.       Still, five-pin skepticism is very common, especially among Americans, Hayden said. "They say, 'Don't you have any real bowling?' And I reply, 'This is real bowling. What are you talking about?'"       It's surprising that this unique form of entertainment is such a well-hidden secret. Perhaps that's its draw.       "You can get 10-pin anywhere in the world," Hayden said. "You have to come to Canada to get this."

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