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Cariboo Bowling Lanes seniors’ bowlers in Williams Lake all smiles

Social seniors enjoy bowling league afternoons

It was high-fives for five-pins at the Cariboo Bowling Lanes during Seniors’ bowling league play on Friday, March 11.

The consensus was the game is a bunch of fun and the crowd is pretty OK too.

“It’s a good bunch of people,” said Shirley Hopkins, the longest-playing bowler in the plus-fifty-five league.

The afternoon bowling league has been going on for a long time, and both veteran team members Duncan Roberts and Hopkins have been playing so long they can’t quite recall just how long exactly.

Roberts said he first started playing at the Cariboo Bowling Lanes back in 1969, Hopkins was already playing, and the bowling alley had only six lanes (now 10) and the other four lanes made up the owner’s residence.

While the owner likely enjoys a more peaceful abode being separated from the spares and strikes, not a whole lot else has changed since then, according to Roberts.

He said the automatic pin setting was already there, though the automatic scoreboards were not.

Roberts and Hopkins are on team Gutter Dusters, which is leading in the league, and both managed strikes while the Tribune was there to catch a bit of league action.

The strikes and spares earned players a card towards a rolling poker hand with a $0.25 buy-in to make your best hand, as well as a round of high-fives from both teams in the game.

Player Joan Foster, who has been playing for about five years, since she retired, was on the opposing team Help, and said the seniors’ bowling is “one of the best leagues in the city.”

“I just enjoy the comradery,” she said, adding she enjoys the challenge.

Audrey Hyde said she also has been bowling about five years or so, after her partner, a longtime bowler, suggested she fill out a team that was short players.

She hasn’t regretted it.

“It’s just a lot of fun and good people and just a good outing.”

The league runs from September to April, has 30 bowlers and six teams at the moment and play goes from 1 p.m. to about 3:30 p.m.

While they had to reduce from 50 bowlers due to COVID-19, they will be opening back up to full capacity, so will be looking for more teams to join or re-join the league.

Peggy Bennison, the seniors bowling coordinator, has been playing the inexpensive sport for between 15 and 19 years and said the league is more social than serious.

“We bowl and enjoy life,” she said.

Read more: Williams Lake Youth Bowling Association sees an increase in bowlers

Read more: Youth bowlers still throwing strikes, despite pandemic



ruth.lloyd@wltribune.com

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Ruth Lloyd

About the Author: Ruth Lloyd

After moving back to Williams Lake, where I was born and graduated from school, I joined the amazing team at the Williams Lake Tribune in 2021.
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