Jinglepin Alley

A fairground stall at dusk, a rack of wooden skittles with little bells on their crowns, and one beanbag in your hand. Drag back anywhere on the lane and let go. The direction of the pull sets the line, its length sets the power, and a dotted arc shows the whole flight before you commit, because that arc is drawn by the same routine that throws the bag. Where the bag lands on a skittle decides which way it topples, so clipping the right shoulder of a row can knock all five of them into each other. Catch a bell on the way through and the throw is worth more. Twenty four lanes work through six rack shapes: ranks straight across, wedges, shallow bows, files running away down the alley, deep blocks, and loose scatters where nothing chains and every skittle costs its own bag. Bags are the only limit. Clear a lane in par and you take three rosettes; 72 rosettes open the full prize shelf of…