Hi-tech bowling proposals

Press, 4 February 1987, Page 8

Hi-tech bowling proposals

By

DIANA HALES

Three new hi-tech 10pin bowling centres in Christchurch, collectively valued at $13.5 million, are due to be completed by the end of July. Bowlarama, a 30-lane fully automated 10-pin bowling centre in Watts Road, Sockbum, will be completed first. Construction began in November last year and the centre will open on April 15. It includes indoor cricket, pitches, a family restaurant, a recreation centre with a supervised creche for children, a snack bar, and a shop selling bowling equipment and apparel. Mr Frank Szedlak, a managing director of Devonport Estates, Ltd, the owner of both the Bowlarama Centre in Watts Road and a second planned for Ferry Road, said that both centres would contain the very

latest equipment and technology. Bowlarama would be fitted out with the latest AMF bowling equipment, he said. AMF, an American company, is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of 10-pin bowling equipment. Bowlarama would be in operation between 9 a.m. and midnight every day and employ a staff of 20, said Mr Szedlak. “It is going to be the biggest bowling centre in the South Pacific.” Later this year Mr Szedlak plans to hold South Island 10-pin bowling championships at Bowlarama and hopes the 1988 national championships can also be held in Christchurch. , The second, smaller 20lane bowling complex to be built in Ferry Road, next to the Fisherman's Restaurant is also being built by Bradford Construction under contract to Devonport Estates.

The Ferry Road centre would cost about half as much as Bowlarama, but at $2.5 million it would still contain the most recently designed 10-pin bowling equipment, said Mr Szedlak. Both centres would promote the family image, he said. “Ten-pin bowling is a sport for everybody.” At a cost of $6 million a third bowling centre in Iverson Terrace, off Moorhouse Avenue, will be the most expensive in Christchurch. This complex, being built by a consortium of Kerridge Odeon and two investment companies — Prime West Corporation, Ltd of Christchurch, and Keycorp Pacific, Ltd of Wellington — will also include a licensed restaurant, a children’s playroom, and an electronic games room. Mr Alistair Blair, of Prime West Corporation, said a Christchurch-based

company, Design Construction, Ltd, won the tender. It was expected the building permit would be granted by the end of the week. The best of 10-pin bowling equipment from the United States should arrive in six container crates' at Lyttelton within the next month and state of the art computer equipment was being imported from Zurich, Mr Blair said. All the bowlers would have to do to play would be to simply enter their name into the computer and technology would do the rest. Mr Blair said his centre would be completed early in June and there were plans to have a few open days to show the public “how to have a lot of fun.” Mr Blair said that the sudden increase in numbers of 10-pin bowling centres in Christchurch was unusual but he was

convinced that the centres, which offered the latest inventions to the sport as well as alternative pursuits, would create enough interest: "With four centres there could be a wee bit of a glut. We are in the centre of the city which makes it easier for us to attract league players,” he said. Until this year, Christchurch has had only one 10-pin bowling alley but Mr Szedlak said he was sure that the sport would “take off’ in Christchurch as it had around the world. Mr Szedlak said that he had been involved in 10pin bowling for four years and had spent the last year making a feasibility study on the sport in Christchurch. “Everybody else in the country is interested in it and I cannot see why Christchurch people will be different.”