G.T. Leisure Bowl - Bloxwich

Author's product rating:   

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Advantages:	Good fun, exercise, meeting friends
Disadvantages:	I keep missing the blasted things !

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

My partner and I have recently become members of or local ten-pin bowling alley so I though I would write an opinion on it to let you all know how good it is!

The alley in question is G. T. Leisure Bowl, which is in Bloxwich in the West Midlands.

There are twenty-one computerised bowling lanes each complete with a console through which to input the details of your players’ names for the scoresheet. There is a TV screen above the approach to each lane showing the scores updated as each person bowls.

The principle of ten pin bowling as I am sure you all know is to knock down all ten pins with one or two bowls of the ball. Your score is the total number of pins you knock down with a maximum of two balls.

If you manage to knock them all down with one ball this is called a strike and it means that the next two balls count double. If you knock some down with your first ball and the rest with your second this is called a spare and the next one ball counts double.

All the scoring is done automatically and appears on your scoresheet on the TV screen. If you knock some of the pins down with your first ball a diagram appears on the TV screen showing where the remaining pins are and which one to aim for in order to knock them all down. This is easier said than done, especially if you’ve left the two outside pins standing like I often do!

The highest total you could achieve for a game is 300, but I usually get somewhere round about the 70 – 80 mark! Mind you last week I did manage to get over 100 so I was well pleased.

There is a good selection of bowling balls of varying sizes on racks behind the seats at the top of the lane and you have to go and find one that is suitable for you. I usually end up with quite a heavy one just to get decent sized holes for my fingers. My hands are quite large for a lady and I am terrified of not being able to let go of the ball when I bowl! I guess I’ve watched too much Tom and Jerry.

There are buffers available if you have children playing or if you just want to cheat! These run down the edge of the bowling lane so that the ball doesn’t run off the lane and into the gutter. There is also a chute like contraption onto which the children can place the ball and it will roll down the chute and along the lane.

The prices vary from £1.50 to £2.50 per person per game depending on what day you go and what time of day. You also have to pay 50p as an entrance fee and 50p to hire a pair of special shoes. You have to wear the shoes for safety reasons, so if you don’t have your own bowling shoes you are obliged to hire a pair.

We usually go on Saturday evening which is the most expensive time to go and it used to cost us £2.50 per game, plus 50p entrance and 50p for shoe hire. As we had been going quite regularly last year we decided that becoming members would probably save us some money.

It cost us £8 each to join and it means that entrance is always free and the games are generally 50p cheaper. This means if we play two games on Saturday evening, we save a total of £1.50 each, so we’ll soon compensate for the cost of the membership.

There is also a bar and café so you can get something to eat and drink and there is waitress service of drinks to the lanes so you don’t hold up the game while you wait at the bar to get served.

They also provide children’s parties with a set menu from the café together with a game of ten-pin bowling.

All in all it’s good fun providing you don’t take yourself too seriously and it’s good exercise. What more can you ask for?