Namco Station

Bowling!!! …oh wait… Your excitement has to wait as you’ve arrived at the rush hour of the bowling scene with everyone crowding the desk at 5pm — and they’re there to change coins???
So you finally manage to get to the desk and the person behind it is just OVERwhelmed with joy to serve you! Alas every lane is booked up and you are handed your 40 minute queue statement — like others have reviewed this place, booking is essential!
Excitement returns as you return to get your special shoes to proceed to your reserved lane! Ah the desk lady is once again HAPPY to ask for your shoe size as the other 2 employees suddenly realise all eyes are on them slacking off talking to the dodgems operator — one returns with speedy and polite customer service. Don’t you suddenly feel some compassion for the other one and only HAPPY employee who originally serves you?
Proceed to your lane to enter your nicknames and find the range of balls you require to show off your awesome skills!
If you haven’t already bought a drink, you might regret it as the heat around suddenly starts to boil your skin… Sweating is a must for this place.
So!
The checklist to go and enjoy yourself at this place is as follows:
— take lots of money
— book ahead
— buy drinks
— make sure you smile lots at the happy staff!

The place itself is great cleanish… and works well. However the heating is on full blast the whole time so you sweat your balls off. The staff are very rude, god forbid you bother them on their shift and ask them to help you. Its as if you have taken a dump on the floor and asked them to clean it with their toothbrush.

Don’t mess with the pink bowling ball if you want to survive! It is mine and has been crafted especially to fit my slight fingers, with the perfect weight specification for my delicate frame. My pink ball resides in the 18 bowling lane area of the Namco station in The Trafford Centre. Bowling here is a great way to spend an afternoon and something comes over me as I enter my name on the computer screen. I become a highly focused competitor who will do anything to strike a turkey (not the poultry kind, may I add).
This bowling alley is well kept and organised and my only bugbear is having to hire the bowling shoes which are a crime against fashion. It gets very busy so unless you choose to go early in the morning, booking a lane is essential. Bowling tarriffs are higher at weekends: going from £4(week days) to £5.60 per adult per game and £3.50 (weekdays) to £4.95 per junior per game.
The Namco complex is also Manchester’s answer to Las Vegas with an arcade full of addictive fruit machines, five and ten pence plays– who can resist– and turbo charged racing cars where you can pretend to be Jenson Button for a while. There are American pool tables which can be hired for £8.50 per hour and my personal favourite are the drive dogems which can be hired for corporate events and M. D’s everywhere can release their inner child.

Namco is a great place to come with the family in the daytime, I would leave it to the hoards of teenagers who gather there in the evening though.