TEN pin bowling in Bolton has made a series of technological innovations which has made it a thoroughly modern offering to its 21st Century devotees.

Back in the day, the balls and the alleys were made of different materials but the players who had an eye for it could always manage to send the pins tumbling.

In and around Bolton, there was Walkden’s 22 lane Excel Bowl, opened in 1964, which tapped into the first boom period, after the game made popular in the United States, opened up in Britain. It closed in 1969.

Then there is the 30 lane XS Superbowl on the East Lancs Road. It was followed in 1990 by the opening of the Hollywood Bowl in Carlton Street, which eventually moved to its current site at Horwich’s Middlebrook Leisure Park.

Here we cast our eyes back at some of the photographs which captured the yesteryear of this most popular sport.