Strike Ten Bowl

In Rochdale on a Saturday to spend some quality time with my niece and two nephews, it was raining (standard conditions for the Dale) and so an indoor activity was needed — Strike Ten Bowl looked to fit the bill to while away an hour or two.
As it was the summer holidays, I called them the day before to book a lane. For one adult and three under 12s to play one game it came to £21 (£5 per child). For two games this increases to £10 per adult and £8 per child. I love those kids dearly but they were getting only one game!
I made the mistake of getting us there early — cue the tsunami of pester power for pound coins for the arcade machines. No matter how many times I tried to explain that those ‘claw machines’ and coin pusher games never let you win, I saw my cash disappear faster than greased lightning. Rookie error. Be warned.
With our shoes exchanged at the counter, it was time to bowl. You have to input the bowlers’ names yourself, which wasn’t too daunting.
All of the bowling balls had definitely seen better days (I’m not sure how often these get replaced, but some practically had divots in them). At one point our lane, and only our lane, broke down, but the staff sorted it after a few minutes.
The kids absolutely loved it here, and why wouldn’t they (they’ve requested Laser Quest next time, which is on the first floor — the price structure for this is the same as for bowling).
For me it just felt like the grown-​ups were just being rinsed of cash for a business that didn’t seem bothered about investing in half-​decent equipment.

Not the best bowling alley in the area, the lane we had kept setting the pins wrong and there were too few staff on duty to do anything about it.