TENPIN BOWING TECH

 I first walked into a Tenpin Bowling centre at the age of 9 years old when my Mum took me to have a game in the newly opened centre in the suburb where I lived.  It was about the 2nd or 3rd centre to open up for business in Australia.  Well I bowled my first game and scored a meagre total of 39 it was from the moment I bowled that game that I was hooked. (No pun intended).

I soon started bowling in the junior leagues and by the time I was 12 years old I was bowling about a 140 average.  I started just about living in the centre and I knew everyone there.  One day the manager came up to me and asked me would I wash his car and for this he would give me 10 free game vouchers.  Free bowling I thought, of course I'll wash his car.  This became an ongoing thing and I started doing other odd jobs around the centre, cleaning chairs and stuff.  I had more free game vouchers every week than I could possibly use so I had an idea, I would sell vouchers to other bowlers cheaper than the cost of a game of bowling.  50c was the cost of a game back then but I sold the vouchers for 45c, this was effectively a 10% discount and soon I had bowlers queuing up to buy vouchers from me.  I had a nice little business going.

One Sunday the technician didn't show up for work at the bowl and there happened to be a competition on and I was asked if I would be the tech.  I had done plenty of car washing and other odd jobs but never the techs job.  I said I would give it a go and the manager gave me a 5 minute course on how the machines worked.  Now I was a bowling tech on weekends and school holidays.  I had free game vouchers coming out of my ears all at the age of 13 years old.

This went on for a couple of years and when I was old enough to leave school I took on the bowling techs job full time for cash not vouchers.

I became a pretty good bowler during this time and actually ran 2nd in a national junior tournament losing by 1 pin.

40+ years on (I am giving away my age) I am still working in bowling centres, although I tried my hand at a few different jobs over the years.  I did stop bowling for about 25 years, I lost the enthusiasm, but over the last 18 months I have started again and I am managing to bowl around the 200 average mark.

Well thats my story of how I became a bowl tech.

This is a picture of me and my granddaughter putting our bowling gear away.

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