The ten-pin bowling craze arrived in Dundee in the 1960s and eventually became a popular pastime for families and friends.
The Golden Pheasant Bar in Macalpine Road was a million miles from the rough and tumble of bowling alleys in 1950s America.
But there was an unexpected sporting opportunity hidden away in the basement of the tough pub where regulars could enjoy a little exercise with their beer.
Things went mainstream in 1965, rising above street level.
That’s when the Skyline Bowling Alley in Marketgait opened with its futuristic ‘control girls’ at the helm in costumes that were straight out of Star Trek.
Lord Provost Maurice McManus took the first shot at the opening ceremony but he missed all the pins.
Dundee and Dundee United players also turned up to play a game alongside hundreds of locals who were eager to bowl and support the local business.
There were two sets of lanes in the Skyline which was a great place for a night out and featured a pool room, a slot car racing track, a juke box and pin table.
Bowlers would later meet for league matches at the venue and the opening of the Tay Road Bridge in 1966 proved a further boost in attracting people from Fife.
The boom proved short lived though, not just in Dundee.
The 1970s was a particularly difficult time for the industry with almost two thirds of the bowling alleys in the UK which had shot up in the 60s having to close.
The Skyline shutters went up and the place was eventually transformed into the students’ union of the Technical College where gigs started taking place in 1976.
It kept its old tag though.
Dundonians still generally referred to it as the Bowling Alley.
With the introduction of automated scoring systems, ten-pin bowling enjoyed a renaissance in the 1990s in Dundee but it was short-lived.
The GX Superbowl and Megabowl Dundee arrived on the scene, but both have since closed their doors.
If you’re of a certain generation, your memories of the Megabowl at the Stack Leisure Park in Lochee will be of birthday parties and gatherings, with a Wimpy burger for tea, before heading to the Zapp Zone or over to the Odeon cinema.
GX Superbowl, on Longtown Road, closed in November 1994, only four years after it opened.
It was taken over by DIY chain Wickes, which is still on the same site today.
Megabowl, which had 36 lanes, experienced a longer run, but shut in July 2011.
