Ten Pin bowling Blog

Switch Entertainment SA, based in Nyon Switzerland, manufacturer of the Pininfarina designed range of bowling equipment, has the great pleasure and honour to announce the signature of a long term co-operative agreement with the Family Leisure Group of Singapore.Family Leisure, a group owned by the NTUC Singapore, operates golf courses, leisure and sports centres, resorts and bowling centres throughout Singapore. They are the largest leisure and sports chain operator in South East Asia.

Singapore is considered one of the worlds leading and most balanced economies and Family Leisure’s management completed a year long due diligence to replace their bowling equipment in all five centres. The result was very much in favour of Switch Entertainment SA.

Family Leisure complimented Switch by stating that; “the entire Switch system is what helped us reach our final decision. Switch can provide a totally customised product that meets all our needs and we were extremely impressed by the professionalism, enthusiasm and sincerity of the entire Switch organisation”.

The contract award was approved by the NTUC Board of Directors. The contract was signed by Family Leisure, Mr Amas Tan of Switch Bowling Singapore and Switch Entertainment SA. The product versus product analysis undertaken by the Family Leisure Group was certainly one of the most professional and clinically focused assessment and evaluation processes undertaken by any organisation in the global bowling market in more recent times.

The contract consists of replacing seventy two [72] Brunswick GS series pinspotter machines with new state of the art Switch ST-1 machines, the upgrading of thirty six [36] AMF 82-90XL machines with the new Switch ST1 electronic chassis and motors, the replacement of thirty six [36] AMF synthetic lanes with Switch Matrix GID Synthetic lanes and the replacement of 108 lanes of ball return systems, masking units and seating. Additionally Switch is installing the latest SwitchV2 automatic scoring systems replacing all Brunswick Frameworx scoring systems across seventy two [72] lanes, thirty two [32] lanes of relatively new Qubica/AMF Conqueror Pro and 36 lanes of AMF Accuscore.

Switch has worked tirelessly to develop an entire product line which matches the most demanding clients’ requirements, and the Switch organisation is extremely proud to be associated with our new clients and partners Family Leisure. Success for Switch in recent years in both Europe and Middle East is now matched by state of the art modern showcases in one of Asia’s most buoyant global market places - Singapore!

We are pleased to announce the arrival of our new stock of Kids Tenpin Bowling Aids!

RRP £165.00 plus vat or 219.00 euro plus tax

Special Offer for Jan 08 Only £145.00 plus vat  

or 193.10 euro plus tax

Just quote RampOffer when ordering

Call Carla on 01455 851010 to order today !

This story is very interesting, on Dec 17th we watched the first annual meeting results and reported closings possible, well it looks to be true. the below artical published on the web by CNN news shows a worring time for the old bowling giants.  

“Brunswick Bowling & Billiards announced today that it is shifting bowling pin production from its Antigo, Wis., facility to a contract manufacturer, resulting in the immediate closure of the Antigo facility. Brunswick Bowling & Billiards is a unit of Brunswick Corporation” .

“The marketplace has evolved, and the industry has more capacity to provide pins than it can support,” explained Warren N. Hardie, president of Brunswick Bowling & Billiards. “By utilizing contract manufacturing, Brunswick will be able to better focus its efforts on serving customers in the global bowling products market.”

The closing of the Antigo facility will result in the elimination of approximately 70 positions. Antigo employees were informed of this action today, and will receive severance and other benefits. The company will be meeting with local union bargaining agents to determine those benefits for union members. Further, Brunswick will continue to pay employees for the next 60 days, even though the plant will be immediately closed, allowing employees to focus their energies on finding their next job, if that is what they so choose.

Closing the Antigo plant is expected to result in charges of approximately $4.5 million in 2008.

 The good news is we have the all new Switch SDG301 pin available,  at RRP£105.00 per box,  However we have reduced the price to an amazing  special offer price of £88.00 per box for JAN 08. Which will be a very competitive price and in return you will recieve the All NEW LONG LIFE SDG301!

Christmas Eve 8am - 12pm

Christmas Day Closed

Boxing Day Closed

27 Closed / Telephone Cover

28 Closed / Telephone Cover

29 Closed / Telephone Cover

30 Closed / Telephone Cover

31 Closed / Telephone Cover

1 Closed

2 Open fully and back for business

If you have an urgent requirement please call 0044 1455 851010 for the warehouse and leave a message, someone will be collecting the messages on a daily basis.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from all at Bowling International.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year from All the team here at Bowling International

We are starting a 300 club ! if you bowl a 300, get the score sheet printed, signed by the centre manager and send it to us, we’ll send out a special SDG300 pin, Switch pinifarnia shirt, and also put your photo in the hall of fame section on the web site.

Please remember to send in your signed score sheet, with where it was achieved and also include a photo and your name and address.

The offer only applies to: UK, Ireland, Poland (Eastern Europe), India & Pakistan.

Best of luck …. Bowling

Having just returned from a trip out to see some customers I was delighted to see one bowling centre absolutely packed out with Bowlers, Normally 11am on a Thursday is a quiet time however the centre staff were ran off there feet. Truly a fantastic sight, they had works Christmas parties booked in the evenings and 50 something’s during the day. They had turned it into a mini league, not competitive nor professional but I did notice a number of golfing types with there wives.

Great work, and gave me a lot of inspiration.

Over the years we have seen our installation staff come and go, Installing bowling lanes isn’t as easy as some think. There is no special trade requirements except common sense (lots of it) and the ability to work hard…. even when you have a job you don’t like, (I can remember having to Plug 24 lanes, Two Days on your knees and bleeding fingers uuumm not funny). Having installed lanes myself over many years, I’ve experienced first hand the enjoyment, job satisfaction & rewards but also the bad sites where everyone is on your back, and don’t understand your time scales and level of finish.

Not so many people these days appreciate the experienced based skill and art of fitting lanes, and there are an awful lot of have a go Charlie’s out there. (believe me I’ve seen some amazingly bad work from one install company who we would never use or even mention there name but they recently were kicked of a customers site and we were asked to go and quote just to put it right, no names mentioned but hell I wish they would go and become painters and decorators or something.)

With modern day construction methods, speed is king, particularly in places like Ireland where it’s a challenge to see how quickly you can build, finish and open regardless of the finished article. The fact is Tenpin Bowling Lanes can take up to two days per lane pair to ensure the foundations are level. To get the lanes to a tournament spec we have to level 40/1000 inch over a 42″ span. There is no point rushing the first four days of the build, simple fact is, if you mess up the foundation you will spend more time putting it right and making things fit than finishing, then when you switch it on “nothing goes to plan”My advice to all our installation staff is, spend time planning, thinking through and talking to each other to ensure all the guys know their role, and what has to be done, and in what order. My other piece of useless advice is always take time to have breakfast. Stupid, but I watched a crew recently whom rushed there morning so much they had take away breakfasts, ate it on the way to site but then spent the morning stressed. It was a prime example of what not to do. However I’m strict on starting times, the morning should always start with a discussion on the days tasks and they all understand,  don’t leave until the goal has been achieved ……. simple. One thing is for sure, I’m grateful for the team I have. Each member has a special skill which they pass on to each other, and with experience comes relaxation, they know the kit inside out and now tell me product improvements and recommendations. There not cheap but they are hassle free and completely reliable.  

Its hard to ignore the new wave of Bowling enthusiasts with the new Ninteno Wii and Sony PS3 hosting Tenpin Bowling Games. Tenpin will reach many new audiences this Christmas and already I’m seeing blogs with comments like ”tried the game and thought is was good so tried the real thing and it was fantastic”. However this isn’t the first time this game has been launched, I remember it when it was available for the PS1 & Gameboy, ummmm the green screen, with black outlines we thought it couldn’t get better. It’s also available on the ipod and now Pc with Sims Bowling. I think it’s fantastic however its time the older centres upgraded and become modern and stylish places to be. This is the whole Switch idea, stylish, functional and durable……….. if only all Bowls were Switch!!!

Hi all,  Please let us know if your on the look out for a second hand lane conditioner, I was offered a very good condition 2004 Express today. We wouldn’t sell it direct but more than happy to pass on the details if your interested……