TENPIN Bowling is more than an hour with the kids during the holidays.

It can be your regular weekly sport with a multitude of health benefits and cash prizes at the end of the season.

All for around $22 per week for a three-game league.

Best of all – because it is a handicap sport, even novices can win.

Consider these facts:

– An hour of bowling can burn anywhere from 219 to 327 calories depending on how much you weigh (Mayo Clinic). That’s more calories burned than walking three kilometres in an hour.

– Bowling requires a short burst of physical activity when throwing the ball.

– It speeds up your metabolism through consistent movement.

– A bowler uses 134 muscles during a game.

– The repetitive swinging, flexing, bending and stretching tones muscle groups in your arms, chest, back and legs, developing and maintaining flexibility.

– Bowlers throw the ball up to 21 times per game – 63 times in a normal three game league. Bowling balls weigh from 2.7-7.2kg. How much do your barbells weigh at the gym?

– Exercise such as that from bowling lowers your risk of stroke, heart attack and diabetes. It also lowers cholesterol and blood pressure while improving circulation.

Bowling is a sport for life with a low risk of injuries.

The oldest person to bowl a perfect game of 300 was 89, and an estimated 18 million kids between 6 to 17 bowl every year.

Raymond Terrace’s own StrikeZone Tenpin Bowl is in the final stages of a $3m expansion so there is no better time to consider taking the step into weekly league bowling.

New Singles, Doubles and Triples leagues will all start fresh in the new year.

Why not grab some friends and enter the Friday night Triples league.

You can all be novices together.

There are also afternoon leagues specifically for kids.

These are a great way to tear the youngsters away from the video games and get them into a non-contact sport for life.

The centre provides both supervision and free coaching.

Newcastle has a strong record in the development of Junior Tenpin Bowlers.

World champions Amanda Bradley and Ann-Maree Putney both started as juniors in Newcastle.

StrikeZone owner Neville Marchbank is strongly committed to the purist form of the sport.

His recent investment in the centre has focused on providing the very best in bowling technology and he has refused to go down the cost-saving arcade games approach of hanging pins from strings.

However, he does appreciate that there is an expectation that venues will provide more than just bowling.

He has tripled the size of his amusement arcade games area and is building a mini golf course and a licensed area for darts and pool.

These should be open early in the new year.

Neville welcomes people calling in to inquire about leagues and suggests that his Friday and Saturday night deals of three hours unlimited bowling for $18 per head are a perfect way to get a feel for the sport while having a lot of fun.

Raymond Terrace Strikezone is in Leisure Way opposite the aquatics centre.