Barcelona Bitlles
There are many ways to knock things over
Dear Readers,
“Variety is the mother of enjoyment,” Benjamin Disraeli once wrote, though it is unlikely he was thinking about bowling. But even in his day (1804-1881) there were many forms of the game in which something is rolled or thrown to knock down standing objects. Humans like knocking things down. Skittles was popular in England and involved a ball rolled at nine pins, sometimes on indoor alleys, sometimes on bowling greens. Varieties of those games came to America in the colonial days. Even today there are still a few clubs—I’ve been to one in Texas—where bowling involves nine pins. Those of us from the Midwest think bowling means one thing: rolling a heavy sphere down a 60-foot lane at ten curvaceous pins. Yet there are still candlepin lanes throughout New England and duckpin bowling in Maryland, both of which use a ball the size of a grapefruit.
This week I got word from Spain about bitlles catalanes a form of “bowling” played in Catalonia. Depicted above is my nephew, who was visiting my other nephew, the scholar who spends the academic year in St. Louis and gets time with his in-laws in Catalonia in the summer. They participated in a bitlles tournament in Mont-ras, north of Barcelona. The game is simple enough: there are six pins set up in two rows of three. The object is to knock down all but one. You get three turns with three throws. If you leave one standing you get ten points. However, if you knock all six down you only get six points. You get four points for four, three points for three, etc. Theoretically, you could get 90 points if you knocked down five out of six pins on each throw. Seth reports:
You’re throwing something that is about a kilo, so it’s a muscular sport. For more context, there’s a show on apple tv right now called “Land of Women” about life in a small Catalan village. Episode 5 has some good Bitlles scenes, in front of the local Bitlles bar. We heard some grumblings about there being no beer at this local municipal event, but afterwards at the award ceremony we were treated to some nice jamon sandwiches with cava and almond pastries.
Niccolo has vowed to return to the tournament next year and win big. He’s already very good, and was just a few bad tosses away from a medal. On his first 9 games, he scored an 84, which is 6 points away from a perfect game. They told us they would give him a jersey if he scored a 90.
It doesn’t seem at all coincidental to me that the object being thrown, which is called a bitllot, looks very much like a wine bottle. I find no evidence, however, that there’s a connection between the name bitlles and the word bottles.
I should note that my title above, “Barcelona Bitlles,” is for euphonious purposes only (i.e., clickbait) and would probably be derided in most of Catalonia. I’ve learned from a Costa Brava website that Barcelona does not excel at this sport:
In official bittles tournaments, the teams from Barcelona almost always lose to bitlles players from deep into the country—Barcelona has fewer quiet corners with suitably flat surfaces and too many other interesting things to do.
The length of the throw in bitlles is reported as 11.5 meters. That’s almost 38 feet long. The game has an obvious similarity not just to bowling but to horseshoes, where you make an underhanded toss of a heavy iron horseshoe onto a steel peg. Turns out that American horseshoes is played at a length of 40 feet. And here is a well-known fact in the world of professional bowling: Walter Ray Williams Jr., who is listed on the PBA website as the winningest pro bowler ever, with 47 major titles, is also a six-time world champion horseshoe pitcher.
Just a hunch, but he’d probably be pretty good at bitlles.
Speaking of the Greats . . . Let’s take a moment to remember Bob Newhart, who died this month at 94. His career in comedy was honored in many obituaries, but at least a few people also noted that he proved himself to be quite a good bowler in his many appearances on Celebrity Bowling. You won’t regret taking a moment to enjoy some of his white-belt highlights, as he shows excellent form on the lanes. Video is here.
While I am writing in the Proud Uncle mode, I must also call attention to a recently published piece of music writing, byline Niccolo Porcello, in a new magazine called Portable Model. (A note on the inside cover of the magazine says “Portable Model is named after the debut album from Chicago based genius band, Joan of Arc.)
In “Click Wheel of Fortune,” the author tells the story of how he’s kept his iPod Classic alive, even though Apple has long since stopped making and supporting iPods. You see, we’re supposed to be streaming music nowadays, even though streaming platforms are notorious for sending very little revenue to the creators of music. What we have here is an ode to the iPod, along with a description of the clever ways he’s learned how to replace parts and keep it going. There’s a joy in going against the wasteful and energy-intensive imperatives of tech companies, he writes, noting “This is a central tenet of the Right to Repair Movement, a great organization fighting Big Tech.” And he’s right! Something stops working and the first thing we think of doing is throw it out! That point really struck me, although his larger message has to do with “how we can create a healthier relationship to digital music.” Listening on an iPod, while being disconnected from the spying algorithms of the streaming world, can be a part of that. I dread the day my iPod begins to fail. But this article gives me hope we can keep it going.
I must say that I also enjoyed an article by Ben Loftus, in which he discusses his fondness for Grateful Dead cover bands, and describes some scenes listening to music at the Brooklyn Bowl in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. He discusses the Very Garcia Band, the Near Dead Experience, and a band called Grateful Floyd, which covers the music of the Grateful Dead and Pink Floyd.
I was able to order a print copy of this new magazine. They’ve sold out by this time, but it appears you can get a PDF copy, here. Check it out!
COLLECTOR’S ITEM:
I came up with a good bumper sticker back in 2020 when Ol’ Joe Biden was seeking the Democratic nomination for president. Now it is but a distant memory, overtaken by events.
August will be a big month in American politics. I’ll be back soon with thoughts on Kamala in Chicago, J.D. Vance and his phony populism, and The Problem of Texas.
Apart from the chaotic bounces you get with wine bottle shaped projectiles, the pronunciation of “Bitlles” is really difficult for guiris like us. The double “ll” in Catalan sounds nothing like it does in Spanish. Put your tongue on the roof of your mouth and say “lou.” Now try “Bitlles.” I think they might have also given us a jersey if we managed to correctly say the name of the sport we were playing.