Bowling a popular activity in Liverpool

Tim Macdonald, who has been a bowling enthusiast for many years, not only pestered me through a long period of time to record the story of bowling in our town, but he supplied some of the material for this article.

One of the first bowling alleys in Liverpool (two lanes) was located in the rear of Ross Harding's barbershop, Market Street, the first building behind the old post office. Mr. Harding had three barber chairs in front, and three pool tables and two bowling alleys in the rear of the building.

About 1915, when Max Harding was a young lad, he would stop into his father's business and clean it up before going off to school. Max also tells about setting up a shoeshine box outside the barbershop where he would shine shoes for ten cents a shine. One of his favourite customers was James Bartling, who would appear every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for a shine.

Mr. Bartling was a generous man and would give the youthful Max 50 cents each time out. Ross Harding died in 1943 and the business was taken over by Max Wharton. At that time, his wife Stella established a beauty parlor upstairs over the barbershop. Sometime later the Whartons built their home on the corner of Court and Church Streets. Their son Laurie joined the family business and toiled there until his untimely death.

Another barber, Reginald Cohoon, also owned and operated a barber shop, pool room and bowling alley at 212 Main Street, where East Link Cable and other businesses are now located. Lawrence "Lall" Oickle was Mr. Cohoon's right hand man. He ran the two bowling alleys, the pool tables and the shoeshine stand. He even set up the pins on occasion.

The King Pin Bowling Alley was located on the second floor of Milford's Garage, which was located on the back end of the property now occupied by the Pharmasave complex. The King Pin was first owned and operated by Howard McGowan for a number of years. It was purchased in 1942 by William "Bill" Joudrey.

These were the years of pin boys and many local residents recall "setting up pins" to earn a few pennies. Some remember the alleys as being warped and crooked. The pins were made of wood and obtaining a high score was difficult. Nevertheless, bowling was popular and many games were bowled through the years by interested Liverpudlians.

Mersey Lanes, located on Payzant Street, opened its doors in September 1962.

The centre included a nursery, banquet room and lunch counter, in addition to its eight bowling lanes equipped with automatic pinsetters. Isaac "Ike" Seaman managed the complex for a number of years, with Ruth (Dalby) Gosbee operating the lunch counter. Unfortunately, with the area having just so many bowlers having two bowling centers (Mersey Lanes and Bowl More Lanes) was too much, so it was Mersey Lanes who was forced to close its doors. The building later housed TRA Foods, then Frenchies. The current owner of the building is Eugene Ingram Construction.

In 1960-1961, the Riverside Hotel on Main Street was demolished to make way for the IGA Store. Bowl More Lanes opened a bowling alley in the basement of

the new building in the fall of 1961. Gone were the pin boys since this modern bowling alley had automatic pinsetters. Bowling became a popular sport in Liverpool, By the following year (1962), six more bowling lanes were installed bringing the total to 14 lanes. The extra six lanes operated for about six years. They were removed on 1968 and were replaced by five snooker tables, two pool tables and pinball machines.

The managers through the years were: Doug Lucier, Merrill Kaulback, Randy Whynot, William Stitt, Robert Pentz, and Robert Rapp.

Liverpool produced many good bowlers through the years. The list includes: Kit Wells, Artie Wells, Eric Whynot, Frank Leslie, Lew Freeman, George Mitchell, Randy Whynot and Doug Bent Sr. to name a few. On the ladies's side were Mildred (Coops) Evans, Maxine Coolen, Winnie Clattenburg, Gertrude Dauphinee, Katherine Grant, Chris Umphrey and Viv Amero.

Many additions have taken place over the past few years, with the Alley 9 Beverage Room opening on May 6, 1994, and on July 26, 1996, it was enlarged to fill the site formerly occupied by Home Hardware. The Grill Pit restaurant was added and opened its doors on July 11, 1998, to complete the Liverpool Bowling Centre.

Today's bowling alleys are a far cry from the original ones in Liverpool.

Today, there are evening adult leagues, Senior Citizen's leagues, morning Coffee leagues and Youth leagues.

Judy Vienneau has been a familiar face at the Centre lunch counter since February 12, 1980. She has been instrumental in organizing and running a successful Youth league for many years.

If you are interested in bowling, the staff at the Liverpool Bowling Centre is always looking for regular and spare bowlers. So why not dust off your old bowling shoes and re-join or join the game.