The Bowling Bowl, Brunswick’s only venue for candlepin bowling, now offers free bowling for Bowdoin students on Thursday nights.
The Office of Student Activities has decided to stop funding traditional bowling on Thursday nights at SpareTime and switch to the Bowling Bowl, in part to save money.
Candlepin bowling differs from traditional bowling in several keys way. Whereas traditional, 10-pin balls usually weigh between 10 and 16 pounds, candlepin balls weigh only two.
Additionally, candlepin pins are much narrower. These factors—along with the Bowling Bowl’s lack of gutter guards—lead to generally lower scores.
The Bowling Bowl has a distinctively vintage milieu. Three of the lanes use machines from 1958 to rerack the pins; the other three use ones from 1959.
Unlike SpareTime’s neon and ultraviolet lights, the Bowling Bowl uses multi-colored icicle lights and homey yellow overheads.
The music is also quieter at the Bowling Bowl than SpareTime, creating a setting more conducive to conversation.
Matt Laffely, the current owner, worked as a mechanic before purchasing the venue from the Catholic charity organization Knights of Columbus, which operated it from 1960 to 2005 and began running bowling for-profit at the site in 1940.
Located on Dunlap Street, just off Maine Street, the Bowling Bowl is within easy walking distance of campus (though free taxi rides made SpareTime similarly accessible).
Vice President for Facilities and Sustainability David Levine ’16, who helped plan the program and has enjoyed a few games at the Bowling Bowl himself, emphasized the facility’s positive atmosphere and willingness to accommodate the College.
“We offered free bowling at SpareTime last year,” he said. “This will be instead of that. They normally close at 10 p.m.; they’ll be open until midnight on Thursdays,” he said. “The place is really nice. The people are really friendly. They’ve got refreshments for really, really good prices.”
He also praised the novelty of the sport, commenting, “It’s also fun because it’s a different type of bowling. It’s a new game, and I know I personally enjoy learning new games.”
These differences do not suite everyone’s tastes. Sam Fitchner ’14 questioned the change of venue.
“[SpareTime is] more of a social environment,” he said, “even though it’s farther. Candlepin bowling’s also just harder, and kids on Thursday nights are probably drunk and want to win more, to speak bluntly.”
“I guess I’d prefer [regular] bowling, because I know how to play,” Emily Serwer ’16 said.
The Bowling Bowl also faces issues of scale and lack of name-recognition. Its slogan, after all, is “Brunswick’s Best Kept Secret.” With only six lanes, it can entertain far fewer bowlers than SpareTime, which has 32 lanes.
SpareTime also offers beer by the pitcher, but the Bowling Bowl only sells single servings. Additionally, the Bowling Bowl has some big bowling shoes to fill, as many Bowdoin students took part in bowling at SpareTime last year.
Associate Director of Student Activities Nate Hintze emphasized the cost-effectiveness of the switch, commenting, “We paid for it and by the end of the year, with the cost of the taxis and the cost of the bowling, it became clear that we couldn’t sustain it.”
So far this year, the Bowling Bowl has attracted an inconsistent number of students. During a visit one Thursday by an Orient reporter, the facility never saw more than three other customers, but on a later week numbers had increased to nearly 40.
An employee at the Bowling Bowl identified as Karen spoke positively about the experience.
“It was really good,” she said, adding, “it was sort of a quiet night. They didn’t get here until 10:30 p.m.”
She also noted that Bowdoin students had patronized the Bowling Bowl rarely before the introduction of the Student Activities’ subsidy.
“They popped in occasionally,” she said of students, “but I think doing it this way gives them more incentive to come.”
Still, Hintze remained optimistic about the program’s prospects by comparing it the introduction of the free bowling at SpareTime last year.
He said of the number of students who went, “First week was 10. Second week was 15. By the winter, we had over a 100 people going...By the end of the year, 856 students bowled on a Thursday night.”
“We really promoted the free aspect and the Brunswick taxi aspect,” he said.
Hintze pointed to seasonal factors and a lack of advertising as a reason for the Bowling Ball’s slow start.
“We’ve been a little slower this year getting the advertising out,” he said. “It’s still nice out, so it might also be a little slower than during the dead of winter when people really want to get out and do something.”