For more than 40 years, Devonport Tenpin Bowl has been more than just a place to knock down pins - it has been a community hub, a venue for laughter and competition, and a sanctuary where memories are made. But for the last two, under the guidance of Mark Vernon and Kerryn Duncan who took ownership in July 2022, the centre has transformed into a buzzing, entertainment hub. K erryn and Mark can only laugh when they reflect on how long it has taken for their escape rooms vision to come to fruition on the northwest coast. After all, it was building this concept in Devonport as a “side project” which started a process that saw them take the reins of one of the city’s beloved institutions. Two years on and the escape rooms – which hail from Hungary and will provide state of the art experiences – have finally arrived and are installed, rounding out a massive renovation of Devonport Tenpin Bowl which has netted several awards as recognition of the effort the couple have poured into revitalising the business. “I’d spent 15 years in education, I was an assistant principal at the time and we were just looking for a side project because we love doing escape rooms,” Kerryn says. “Being parents ourselves and me working with
kids, we knew what people wanted and what they needed, but it just wasn’t there in Devonport. Initially we just wanted to lease a little space and put in a couple of escape rooms. And then my son went, ‘you know, the bowling alley’s for sale’. We didn’t want to buy a bowling alley, we didn’t have any experience in bowling but then we looked into it and realised that it actually did have space to put those in, so it would have been already generating income while we were getting ready to put in the escape rooms. We sort of did it bigger than Ben Hur once we realised that we had something that could supplement the income on the side.” “I ran my own business for 15 years as an advertising agency and kind of always had been in marketing but just really loved business,” adds Mark. “So that current time I was working for a radio station as their sales manager and this was going to be a side project. We had some funds to invest and when it took off, we just had to make the call that we were all in. I jumped in first to be there full time, we could see the potential.” From the moment Mark and Kerryn announced they were purchasing the bowling centre, interest skyrocketed. The pair created a Facebook page
38 Tasmanian Hospitality Review June/July Edition
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator