The do-it-yourself craze is sweeping the nation, but in Washington area duckpinning, it’s let-the-machines-do-it. Monday, 22 slick new duck pin-spotters, manufactured by the American Machine and Foundry Co., will be put to their first test at the Clarendon Bowling Center, 1047 N. Irving-st, in Arlington.

An exhibition match between Jim Wolfenberger of Hagerstown, the new National Match Game champion, and Bill Stalcup. the D. C. area’s No. 1 ranking bowler, will feature the ceremonies starting at 6:30 p. m.

State Senator Charles R. Fenwick of Virginia and Albert Lundberg, Arlington County manager, will be present.

The machines, latest thing in automatic pin setting, will he given a four-to-flve month test at Clarendon during which time proprietors of durkpin plants throughout the East will visit and inspect them. A completely automatic unit that resets pins and returns the balls, the AMF machine is a modified version of the company’s tenpin pin-spotter. More than 10.000 tenpin models are in use thruout the United States.

The 22 machines at Clarendon represent AMF’s first crack at the duckpin field. Flaws which may occur in the machine during operation at Manager Paul James’ lanes will be corrected before mass production begins. The electronically controlled pin-spotter is operated by the bowler thru a cycle control and reset buttons located on the floor and return rack, respectively.

Should a strike or spare occur, the cycle control button is pushed and the lane cleared of dead wood and a new set of pins spotted. Dead-wood is swept into the pit by the “magic carpet”, a circular belt in the pit which carries pins and balls beneath the pin cushion into a pin-wheel. The pinwheel lifts the pins and ball to the machine’s top and releases the ball on a return rack and the pins into an oriented base, which then resets them.

While Clarendon is the nation’s first duckpin plant to use the AMF machines, automatic pinsetters were introduced to the area last month when 24 Sherman machines were installed at Bladensburg.

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TONAWANDA. NY. (AP) -Kathy Coburn quit the Ladies Pro Bowlers Tour to become a teacher because, her sister Cindy explained, “She didn’t want to work for less than minimum wage.”

Cindy Coburn, who enters her sixth year on the LPBT this month in Florida, has been one of the top (ive tour money winners over the past several years. Still, her earnings come nowhere near qualifying her for the big-money lists in sports, and that’s the big problem on the women’s bowling tour.

“I’ve been making some decent money, but it’s nothing you’re going to be able to retire off.” said Coburn, who made about $133,000 in 23 tournaments last year and finished fourth on the earnings list. That’s before expenses, however. Figure about $12,000 a year in hotel, transportation and entry fees, and a more accurate picture of her income emerges.

“I figured it out.” she said. “In order to have a good year, you have to average about $1,000 a tournament. And right now. fifth place is about $1.000. To me. that means five girls on the tour are making a living at it.”

Coburn, who does not have any outside sponsorship, estimated about 60 percent of the bowlers on the tour are sponsored, but even those bowlers “are just getting by.”

Why are women bowlers paid so poorly in comparison with their counterparts in tennis and golf? The answers, according to LPBT President John Falzone. are intertwined.

“We’re in a chicken-and-egg situation.” he said. “Which comes first? If we had television we’d have corporate sponsorship. If we had corporate sponsorship, we’d probably have TV.”

Falzone said the women’s pro bowlers tour, which has neither a major corporate sponsor nor a television package this year, is looking for “that one magic thing” that will attract one or the other. One thing that hurts attempts to market the game, according to Coburn, is the less than flattering image television gives of the recreational bowler. “When you see a bowler on television, they always make you look like a clown”, she said. “The people fall down and their form is terrible. It’s like Laverne and Shirley”.

“In order to be successful,” she said, “Our image has to be changed. It’s like people think of us like we’re truck drivers. They don’t think a feminine individual can be a professional bowler”.

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Anne Marie Duggan rolled past Carolyn Dorin, 269-212, in the title match to claim first prize at the $ 70,000 LPBT AMF XS Challenge in Overland Park, Kansas, Thursday night. Duggan, the reigning player of the year, took home $ 12,600.

She averaged 229.88 over the 42 games of qualifying to take the top seeding into the stepladder final. Dorin, who qualified third, won $6,300. The event was called the AMF Ninja Challenge last year and was held in Corpus Christi.

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Nick Rinaldi collects bowling establishments and horses. At the moment, thoroughbreds lead, 15 to five, but Mr. Rinaldi hopes to remedy that situation.

He owns lanes In Maryland (Riverdale, Hyattsvllle and Chillum) and in Arlington, Virginia. A few months ago, he purchased Carol City Lanes in North Dade from Jim Facente, Jr. He is now negotiating to purchase another establishment — this time in Broward county.

Twenty years in the bowling business qualify Nick for his bowling activities. His northern houses had been run as duckpin (small pins) establishments, but have now been almost completely converted over to the big brother game of tenpins.

He sported a 190-plus tenpin average in his college days, but Rinaldi considers himself primarily a duckpin bowler and no slouch at that, with a 121 average, and a 203 high game. His daughter, whom he rates as one of the best in the country — carries a 132 duckpin average.

Nick Rinaldl comes from the heart of Fair Lanes country (Maryland), but decries the “chain type of house”, preferring to consider his own operation as an independent.

A certain amount of cautious optimism was voiced by Mr. Rinaldi in the matter of new bowling houses and their effect on bowling. “I feel we may be overbuilding again and may be getting back into the situation of the late 50’s and early 60’s”. His immediate plans call for resurfacing Carol City Lanes this coming summer. Along with the refinishing, he plans to remodel the lounge and control desk area. The restaurant is being reequipped.

A strong supporter of the various bowling related sanctioning bodies (ABD-WIBC-AJBC), Mr. Rinaldi hopes to strengthen and build up his league activities, especially in the junior area. To accomplish this, he has named Barbara Phillips, day manager and Walt Braunat, night manager. Barbara, a long-time employee under the Facente management, pointed out that Carol City already has excellent women’s leagues during the day as well as groups of students from the Dade County school bowling program and Miami-Dade Community College. These, she said, will be expanded in the coming season. Walt Braunat, a transplanted Marylander, worked for Rinaldi in his northern establishment, the 40-lane Shirley Park Bowl.

Nick Rinaldi seemed most proud of his fifteen championship thoroughbred horses which race up in the Maryland area. Eventually, Nick hopes to move to the area permanently, having maintained a home in Miami Beach for many years. This was one of the reasons he decided to invest into Carol City Lanes. Hopefully, as his stable of bowling establishments grows, he can realize his desire.

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