Game ball return balancer

A bowling type game ball return balancer for use with a row of at least two game devices using such balls, said ball return device comprising:

• an elongate, longitudinally inclined, upwardly opening trough arranged along the row of game devices;
• a game ball return board for installation in each game device, each board having a ball drop opening therethrough, said board being positioned so that each ball thrown by a player rolls by gravity thereon to and inclined so that said ball then rolls to drop through the ball drop opening into the trough;
• an elongate ball return rail assembly arranged along the row of game devices, and elevated to be everywhere higher than the ball return boards of the game devices in the row, said rail assembly including a ball gate at each game device in the row, said gate having an open position which allows a ball to roll laterally from the rail assembly, and a closed position preventing the ball from rolling laterally from the rail assembly;
• ball conveyor means positioned to lift the game balls from the lowermost end of the trough to the uppermost end of the rail assembly and to deposit said balls onto said rail assembly to roll thereon along the row of game devices toward the opposite end thereof;
• a ball return chute connecting with the rail assembly at each ball gate to receive the balls from the rail assembly when the gate is in open position, and arranged to direct the balls downwardly onto the ball return board to return to the game device for subsequent use by a player;
• means counting the balls entering the ball return chute;
• means closing the open gate in response to the counting means when a pre-set number of balls have entered the chute therethrough;
• means for resetting the ball counting means when the gate is closed;
• and
• means automatically opening the gate of the game device being used at the beginning of each game.