Bowling alley set to rock and roll

Jamie Morton | 29th July 2010

The lanes are down, the bar is up, and it should now be just weeks before the first strike is rolled at Masterton's new, rock-themed 10-pin bowling alley.
Darrin Pilcher gave the Times-Age a sneak peek at his new venture, Masterbowl, soon to open in the Queen St building that formerly housed Hire Shop.
Mr Pilcher, with wife Angie, his brother Fabian and sister-in-law Tina, have transformed the building from an empty shell into a nine-lane bowling alley complete with fluorescent, glow-in-the-dark images of rock stars, a stage for live music and a large bar area which will be filled with cafe-style seating.
''We're keen to have league nights for singles or teams. Apparently people out there have already been getting teams together,'' Mr Pilcher said. ''Everyone's been asking when are we going to open, but we're not putting a date on it yet.
''There's a few issues we are still working out, like sorting out the scoring mechanism.''
The alley would be open seven days a week, 364 days a year, and be available for corporate bookings.
Mr Pilcher said the venture had been on the cards since he took his family to the former Bowland centre in Petone and grabbed the chance to buy its lane, underfloor, pins, balls, racks and shoes before its owners set up a new alley in Lower Hutt.
If he had not had to recover from a 2008 flash fire that tore through his former laundry business in Masterton, he said the alley would have been opened last year.
While he had seen a flurry of early interest _ including many people who had tried to make bookings _ Mr Pilcher was not predicting success just yet.
''The proof will be in the pudding.