The Making of the Lanes....... 
A Miracle - QubicaAMF style!

 

Is it a miracle to remake a bowling house?  Not necessarily.  But when you do it in the amount of time QubicaAMF did it, it's nothing short of making the impossible happen.

The 40 lane Centro Nacional de Bowing Mampote, outside of Caracas in Miranda, were not nearly useable for the World Cup or any major tournament when it was decided to have the Cup in Venezuela.  They weren't ready even a week before the Cup..  Venezuela's largest bowling center, built in 1983 for an FIQ World tournament was in sore need of renovation, indeed, to use it for the Cup it was in need of a total redo.  The building itself was sound and large, in fact the 40 lanes made it the largest center available in South America.   The lanes which may have been termite ridden, a scoring system in need of modernizing, seating which was only concrete steps and lane machinery that had been cannibalized so that others could be keep running were what QubicaAMF saw.   QubicaAMF had a decision to make, redo the bowling house or move the tournament.  With the cooperation of the Venezuelan government, Bowling Federation, and QubicaAMF, a miracle in little over a week came to pass.  A miracle that only happened with an enormous effort expended.  And here are the pictures to prove it.    Click on picture to enlarge.

Our Thanks to QubicaAMF's Cliff Adair, Senior Product Manager, Consumer & Support Products and Ed Simmons, Technical Marketing Specialist, Performance Equipment Division for their pictures, time and explanations of what was involved in the remaking of Mampote.  And of course the thanks of all the participants and guests of the QubicaAMF 42nd World Cup for a great tournament.

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The control and entry area.  Lanes are to the rear and below level.

And the dust flies.

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Machinery - a lot of time, a lot of work!

Boxes, boxes and more boxes.
Seating in rear ready to install on concrete steps

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How many men does it take to make a bowling center? - many!

Much more to do.

 

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It's getting there.

Are they proud of what they can do?  You bet!

 

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And more to do.

And more to do.

 

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  Now this looks like a great bowling house ready for a tournament.
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  And now the tournament starts.  Picture left: Opening Ceremonies crowd; middle picture: VIP's of tournament - from right: John Walker, CEO and President QubicaAMF, Marcelo Dhers, Pin 1 Bowling Supply, to his left Prof. Eduardo Alvarez Camacho, Vice Minister of Sports and President IND-COV.  Picture right: after Opening Ceremonies honored guests chat.
 

Impressive?  You bet!
And the games began! (Thanks to the effort and skill of the QubicaAMF crew.)

And our look at this massive undertaking by pictures is courtesy of Ed Simmons, QubicaAMF Technical Marketing Specialist, Performance Equipment Division.
All pictures taken during refurbishment of lanes. All rights reserved; pictures may not be copied without permission.