The owners of Campbell River’s bowling alley have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on renovations and things are just about ready to roll.
“Both the 10-pin and the five-pin lanes have been refurbished with synthetic laminate,” said CR Bowling marketing coordinator Barrie Davidson.
The old flooring on the bowling lanes must have been original and around 50 years old, Davidson said.
“They’re no longer repairable,” he said.
A company from Ottawa, Striker Bowling, was brought in to renovate the lanes which were made of rock maple and pine timber. But wood lanes are never used any more, they tend to be labour intensive, requiring resurfacing every three or four years.
“That’s something that will be in the past,” Davidson said. “The new lanes are an extremely dense composite” that should last 20 years.
The result is a a very different look to the old bowling alley. Gone are all the oil stained lanes that will perform better. The new lanes go beyond competition standards. Davidson said competition standards require lanes levelled to a 40,000th of an inch.
The new lanes at CR Bowling are level to 10,000th of an inch.
So a “significant investment” in the hundreds of thousands of dollars has been made by the Fong family which owns the building.
Besides the new lanes, new ball returners have been installed, the place has been recarpeted and painted and a new pool hall has been installed. It’s all designed to bring people back to bowling.
Davidson said the sport goes through its highs and lows of popularity and the old bowling lanes were in bad need of an upgrade. For years it was known as Crystal Lanes but that name has not been used for a few years now.
Davidson said there are generally two different categories of users.
League bowling has always been strong and will continue to be catered to at CR Bowling but in recent years, the family entertainment centre (FEC) concept has come to the fore with a broader bowling experience incorporating food, lights and music.
The Rock ‘N’ Bowl nights of recent years is an example of that. CR Bowling’s intention is to be a hybrid bowling centre catering to both league play and the FEC concept.
Flashing lights and glowing lanes have been installed.
“We’re moving to make bowling way more appealing,” Davidson said.
Of course, like every recreational activity, bowling has to compete with home entertainment through television, video and computers. The challenge is to prompt everybody to get out of the house once in a while and take in some bowling.
CR Bowling is also leaning heavily into focusing on customer service, he said. They’ve renovated everything from the bathrooms to the front door.
The new-look CR Bowling will open on Sept. 15 and league play will restart Sept. 22. There’s still space in league play for players.
Also, if you’re not sure about bowling, you can come down for free learn-to-bowl classes. Contact CR Bowlng at 250-286-1177.
