Bowling Alley

Police arrested two men Tuesday on charges that they vandalized the inside of Crofton Bowling Lanes and cars parked in the lot.Brett Anderson McDowell, 18, of the 1700 block of Reynolds St. in Crofton and Nathan Woody Postle, 23, of the 700 block of Oster Drive in Crownsville were charged with destruction of property.Patrons at the bowling alley in the 2100 block of Priest Bridge Drive in Crofton called police shortly before midnight after the two left.Manager Blanche Pfarr told police two men were part of a bowling group that was asked to leave after breaking a $50 clay ashtray.

The bowling alley business dream of Baltimore Ravens star Ray Lewis lies half-built in a far corner of the Hunt Valley Town Centre. Cinder blocks and plywood cover the entrances and windows; rubble and metal vents sit piled inside a chain-link fence. Lewis announced MVP Lanes with great fanfare more than two years ago. It was supposed to include a posh sports-themed bowling alley, restaurant, sushi bar and live radio booth - and create more than 100 service and construction jobs on the site of a former Wal-Mart.

The Mount Airy Planning and Zoning Commission will consider tonight revised site plans for a proposed addition to the Mount Airy Bowling Lanes.Owner Joseph Rineer Jr. plans to add 12 tenpin lanes to the west side of the building on Center Street. He now has 10 duckpin lanes.In March, the town Board of Appeals approved a variance in yard setback requirements to allow the bowling alley to expand. Side-yard building setbacks were reduced from 25 feet to 14 feet.The building addition was initially planned for the east side of the existing building.

Sharp and svelte but also funny, Nicole Ari Parker typically hits the screen as put-together characters like Eddie Murphy's ex-wife in "Imagine This. " So she leapt at the chance to play Zenobia, the comically confused sportscaster heroine of "35 and Ticking. " Parker was born in Washington and raised in Baltimore from age 2. She also lived for six years as an adult in Atlanta. "35 and Ticking" opens Friday in Atlanta, D.C., and in Baltimore at the AMC Owings Mills and the AMC Security Square.

A duckpin bowling alley in Glen Burnie near Crain Highway and Baltimore-Annapolis Boulevard that was destroyed in a five-alarm fire Friday afternoon was torn down yesterday. Fire officials estimated damage at $3.5 million.Battalion Chief Gary Sheckells, a spokesman for the Anne Arundel County Fire Department, said that the cause of the blaze at the Greenway Bowling Center was still not known.He said the fire began in a concealed open space behind the mechanical pin-setters on the second floor.

Gaylord Gibson fondly remembers Sunday nights when he and others in the church bowling league went to Bowl America Dundalk and prayed for strikes or to be spared the lone tenpin.That was two years ago, before the neighborhood bowling alley closed down and the church league died.Memories of those bowling excursions came back to Mr. Gibson this week. His congregation is buying the old bowling alley and turning it into a church."We jokingly said, 'Well, let's leave a couple of lanes in,' " he said.

A 17-year-old Glen Burnie youth learned two lessons in March.First, never hold up a business near a police station.Second, never hold up a business near a police station just as a fresh shift of officers is arriving for work.Jimmy Almongori of the 8000 block of Greenleaf Terrace, who was charged as an adult, faces five years in prison after pleading guilty yesterday in Circuit Court to armed robbery for holding up the Greenway Bowling Alley in the 8200 block of Telegraph Road in Odenton.Almongori went into the bowling alley about 11 p.m. March 16, threatened a cashier with a handgun and took $3,800 in cash, according to court records.

A 19-year-old Morgan State University freshman from West Baltimore was charged yesterday with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of a fellow student outside a Timonium bowling alley on Saturday, Baltimore County police said. Christopher Ahmed Bacote of the 3200 block of Milford Ave. in Forest Park was being held without bail at the Baltimore County Detention Center. He is accused of shooting Lorenzo M. Hardy III, a senior from Philadelphia, after an argument in the bowling alley, police said.

The ceremonial ribbon won't be cut until Friday, but Taneytown seniors already are flocking to their new center on Roberts Mill Road, at Antrim Street.While many of the regular members said they enjoyedmeeting in their former space at the Thunderhead Lanes bowling alley, they like the new center because of the longer hours and increased space and a general sense that it's their own."I think everything is real pretty," said Germaine Strzelczyk of McMullen Road. "I used the exercise bike. I did two miles."

A man walked into 2105 Eastern Ave. yesterday to look the place over, thinking about buying it from a family that has owned the building for 65 years.Bernie Ruzin hopes the guy likes to bowl.That's what people do at 2105 Eastern Ave., that is what they have done there just about every day since October 1927.They bowl: seven lanes upstairs, seven lanes downstairs, $1.50 a game, seven days a week."I was 6 years old when my father bought this place; it used to be a broom factory," said Mr. Ruzin, now 70. "I remember my father taking me down there and walking on the rafters before the alleys were put down.

Register your kids at KidsBowlFree and enjoy cheap bowling excursions until September. In Maryland, three Baltimore-area alleys ( Stoneleigh Lanes on York Road, Glen Burnie Bowl and Greenway Bowl in Odenton) are participating in the promotion, as well as lanes in Frederick and Easton. Sign up with your kids for the lanes nearest you and you'll receive coupons every week that you must print out to redeem for two free games per kid per day. You'll still have to pay for shoe rental at all three of the Baltimore-area lanes, but Stoneleigh also offers an unlimited shoe rental pass option.

At long last, eating in a bowling alley doesn't mean noshing on scary hot dogs or dense, doughy pizza. Mustang Alley's, which opened in August, has brought a popular West Coast trend to Baltimore, combining a bowling alley with a fun bistro and lively bar. Located on the second floor of the former Holland Tack Factory, now home to a handful of recently opened urban-trendy businesses -- a fitness studio, a beauty salon and two Asian-themed restaurants --...

At AMF Country Club Lanes in Middle River yesterday, starry-eyed children asked their heroes to autograph pins, the crowd murmured about "bump areas," and Ed Austin and Shannon Barnes stood by the Lustre King ball-polishing machine, discussing their joy that the Professional Bowlers Association Tour had returned to the Baltimore area. "It's the love of the game," said Austin, a Bel Air resident, as he turned so pro bowler Ryan Shafer could sign the back of his T-shirt. "We grew up with this game."

Woodlawn's runner-up finish to Carroll County power North Carroll in last weekend's Class 4A-3A North regional wrestling tournament is part of what has been an outstanding winter at the Baltimore County school. Seniors Charles West (152 pounds) and Jariel Waters (160) and juniors Justin Wildy (130) and Alex Harper (275) all won regional titles to pace the Warriors, whose effort came on the heels of a fourth-place finish at the Baltimore County tournament. At counties, West (29-3) won a title, and Wildy (21-7)

After Chris Carter met professional bowler Parker Bohn III last year, his star-struck mother, Ginny Carter, told him not to wash. After all, he had just shaken hands with one of the biggest names in bowling. "I don't think that before that day they knew what it meant to play with Parker Bohn," she said of Chris, 16, and his brother, Kyle, 18. The Freeland residents were looking forward to mixing with some of bowling's top stars again this weekend at the Professional Bowlers Association Wild Turkey Bourbon East Region tournament at Forest Hill Lanes.

A 19-year-old Morgan State University freshman from West Baltimore was charged yesterday with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of a fellow student outside a Timonium bowling alley on Saturday, Baltimore County police said. Christopher Ahmed Bacote of the 3200 block of Milford Ave. in Forest Park was being held without bail at the Baltimore County Detention Center. He is accused of shooting Lorenzo M. Hardy III, a senior from Philadelphia, after an argument in the bowling alley, police said.

Baltimore County police have linked a robbery and kidnapping of the Security Square Cinema manager last week to 12 similar robberies of bowling alleys and McDonald's restaurants dating to August in the northern and western parts of the county. County police spokesman Bill Toohey said Friday that Metro Crime Stoppers is offering up to $10,000 for information about two armed men wearing black ski masks who police think might have committed the robberies. Toohey said in the two most recent robberies, the men showed up at the victims' homes and forced them to drive back to their businesses to give them cash.

Hoping to save one of the last forms of community entertainment in Arbutus, residents have launched a petition drive to stop the closure of a decades-old bowling alley in the center of the southwestern Baltimore County community. But those efforts may be in vain.The drive to halt the June 1 closing of AMF Arbutus, a 30-lane brick facility on Leeds Avenue that opened in 1957, includes pleas from the nearly 85 children who bowl in a popular Saturday morning league, many of whom walk to the alley.

A Morgan State University senior was fatally shot in Timonium early yesterday after leaving a party at a bowling alley. Lorenzo Roc Hardy III, 23, was killed during an argument outside AMF Timonium Lanes, in the 2100 block of York Road, police said. He was shot once in the upper chest by an unknown man who then fled, police said. Police said that earlier in the evening, inside the bowling alley,Hardy and the man had gotten into a fight, which was broken up by security. About 2:30 a.m., Hardy, of the 5700 block of Bowleys Lane in Baltimore, was leaving the bowling alley when he was confronted by the man and was shot, police said.

When Jason Harding first walked into Westminster's County Lanes Ten Pin Bowling with his grandmother, he was a 12-year-old novice with little understanding of spins, splits or lane conditions. Eight years and thousands of practice hours later, he is a certified pro with dreams of making some money off of his talents. He is ready to go out on his own -- and he is taking the alley where he learned with him. Plank by plank, pin by pin, shoe by shoe, Harding, 20, and his friends, with help from the occasional crane and forklift, have spent the past two weeks picking the place clean.