Split

A split is a situation in ten pin bowling in which the first ball of a frame knocks down the headpin (i.e., the "number 1" pin) but leaves standing two or more non-adjacent groups of one or more pins.

The most infamous of splits is the 7–10 split, often called "goal posts" or "bedposts", where the bowler is left with the leftmost and the rightmost pin in the back row (the number 7 and number 10) to knock down with a single ball to achieve a spare.

The only way to pick this up is to let a pin fly back from the pit area. This is very difficult to achieve by itself as a pin flying out from the pit is a fairly rare occurrence. Sliding the pin directly will not work since the ball will fall off the lane before it gets far enough aside the 7 or 10 pin to slide it directly across.

It is sometimes possible to slide the 7 pin onto the 10 pin by using a bowling ball which comes into contact with the 7 pin just before dropping into the gutter (usually the ball would be on the 1st or 2nd board near the gutter at the point of contact). There is nearly no margin for error in order to achieve this and the contact must be made before the ball enters the gutter or it would be considered an illegal spare.