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Russell Lights - Vol 9 Issue 25 - Dec 2006

Wooden Bowls

These battered and chipped but solid wooden bowls with a 20cm diameter are survivors of the skittle alley that used to be behind the Pacific Hotel (site of today's Hananui) fronting on York St . The bowling alley was older than the hotel which was built in the 1870s. The bowling alley was also used for community dances, until a proper hall was built on the Strand.

Whalers when ashore did not spend all their time in grog shops and bordellos on the Russell waterfront – some no doubt enjoyed a game of skittle bowls, an ancient game played in Britain and Europe. In America it was later to develop into Ten Pin Bowling. In this earlier version 9 skittles were used.

The photo looks down York St about 1890 and you can see the long skittle alley building parallel with the track that is York St before the era of cars.

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