Thursday, May 18 will be a sad day for Willowbrook Lanes owners, Bob and Cheryl Randall.

That鈥檚 the day the 91原创 bowling centre, that opened Canada Day, 1981, closes its doors for good.

The land, as well as the building that houses the 20-lane bowling alley, has been sold.

鈥淎 Korean specialty grocery store will be using our building,鈥� Bob Randall said last month.

Technically, the final day of public bowling will be Sunday, May 14. Willowbrook Lanes closes at 10 o鈥檆lock that night.

鈥淚t鈥檚 the last day that anybody will be able to bowl here,鈥� Randall said.

The Randalls have owned Willowbrook Lanes for much of its existence, taking over operation on July 1, 1986.

But for a number of reasons, the couple decided to sell 鈥� leaving Alder Alley in Aldergrove as the last bastion for 91原创 bowlers. There is also a bowling alley in Cloverdale.

The decision to sell was a combination of it not being the best current use for the property and 鈥渦s aging out,鈥� said Randall, who is about to turn 69.

While the sport is relatively inexpensive for kids to participate in 鈥� only $250 a year, with no equipment to purchase 鈥� the upkeep of bowling facilities is very expensive. The first 20,000 to 25,000 games that are bowled at Willowbrook Lanes every year cover just the property taxes.

Randall said Willowbrook Lanes is, 鈥�100 per cent community supported.鈥� 

鈥淭here was no government or group that subsidized us, and we鈥檙e one of the few sports that do that,鈥� Randall said.

Randall said selling the property and closing the bowling centre 鈥� the first in B.C. to implement 鈥榚xtreme bowling鈥� geared towards youth, as well as automatic scoring for five-pin bowling 鈥� was 鈥渧ery tough for us.鈥�

鈥淚t gives us purpose, it gives us satisfaction, it gives us responsibility,鈥� said Randall, the former president of Bowl Canada, Bowl BC, and Bowling Federation of Canada.

鈥楨xit strategy鈥�

Selling Willowbrook Lanes wasn鈥檛 a snap decision. The idea had been bandied about for the past eight years.

The Berezan Group proposed high-rise apartments for the area around Willowbrook Lanes back in 2009. 鈥淎t that time, we felt we had a window of three, four, five years鈥� so we started organizing an exit strategy.鈥�

Randall gave the group right of first refusal if they received another offer to sell.

鈥淲e had levels of interest from other parties 鈥� people would phone me from Vancouver saying, 鈥楢re you interested in selling?鈥欌�� Randall said.

The buyers who eventually finalized the offer told Randall that they were interested in using the building as well as the property.

鈥淭hat was the only opportunity we ever had to use the building; the building is of quite some value so we鈥檇 at least listen to these folks.鈥�

Alder Alley keeps bowling alive

While an era ends in mid-May in Willowbrook, it doesn鈥檛 spell the end of bowling in the 91原创s.

鈥淲e tried to find a place for our bowlers to go, because the organized leagues are very important to us and the kids and the coaches are very important to us,鈥� Randall said.

鈥淎lder (Alley) opened their doors and said that we could re-employ our staff and bring our bowlers down there, and run a youth bowling program. That was agreed upon before we even agreed to sell 鈥� that we wouldn鈥檛 be displacing the people who truly wanted to bowl.鈥�