As sure as radio announcers will always talk over the best parts of your favourite song, bowling will always be a favourite entertaining past time.

Getting back into bowling is just like riding a bike - only better, because you can't really fall off a bowling lane.

The sport has been around since the Flintstones, and no childhood is complete without a handful of guttterballs, that first taste of a strike and the eventual success of a game well won. Remember your very first bowling birthday party - then think about the first time your kids bowled their first strikes and beat you (even when you were trying!) There's nothing quite like that satisfying sound of a strike - except perhaps the excitement and apprehension in the air when you first walk in. 

So when you drop the kids off at AMF for a day of bowling these school holidays, don't just drive away - get inside and enjoy it with them!

What's new?

If you haven't already heard, bowling is back in favour, showing resurgences around the world. In the US, it is now the country's number one participatory sport according to a recent Forbes article.

The technology is vastly improved, the balls better balanced and the lanes slicker than ever.

And people are beginning to take notice. Between April 2009 and March 2010, 71 million people went bowling in the US - around three times the population of Australia and the highest figure on record.

What's hasn't changed?

As a social sport, you're still guaranteed a great chance to get together with some friends, enjoy snacking on great food and share in the laughs at your bowling shoes and little rituals that everyone performs for a strike or great bowl.

You'll find that your technique will come back to you, or you can ask the staff on hand for a quick tutorial in case you don't remember - or never learned in the first place!

If you were something of a strike wizard back in the day, why not head along and find out if that's still the same too?