Mount Faber Bowling Alley With Kids' Bumper Lanes: SuperBowl

SuperBowl Mount Faber is a 34-lane bowling alley on the second floor of the SAFRA Mount Faber clubhouse, and you do not need a SAFRA card to play. SuperBowl, at 2 Telok Blangah Way #02-06, Singapore 098803, charges the public S$5.50 a game on weekdays before 6pm and S$6.00 at all other times. It opens at 12pm from Monday to Friday and at 10am at weekends, which makes it an easy add-on to a morning on Mount Faber or an evening near HarbourFront.

SAFRA runs its clubhouses for national servicemen, and the Mount Faber building is one of the larger ones, with SuperBowl listed among its facilities alongside the gym and restaurants. The bowling centre itself is operated by SuperBowl, a private company, which is why its rate card has a public column next to the member prices. Walk-in visitors pay the public rate and simply queue at the same counter as reservists collecting their member discount.

SuperBowl's own history goes back to 1987, when the Hiap Hoe Group moved into building and running sports and recreation complexes, and the company was incorporated as SuperBowl Holdings on 3 May 1994. Today the group runs centres at Mount Faber, Jurong and Toa Payoh. The company does not publish the year this particular centre opened, so the safest description is simply that it is the group's largest centre, with more lanes than either sister site.

The 34 lanes run in one long hall fitted with AMF equipment, according to the Singapore Bowling Federation's list of centres. SuperBowl says the room can seat up to 170 players in a single game, which is why companies book it for full-floor tournaments. On an ordinary weekday afternoon that scale works in your favour: there are enough lanes that a pair of friends who walk in rarely wait long.

The feature parents notice first is the block of eight bumper lanes reserved for children aged 10 and under. Bumpers here are priced by the hour rather than per game, so a parent with two young children pays for lane time instead of counting frames. The centre stocks lighter house balls for small hands, and the bumper rails mean a first game ends with knocked pins rather than a run of gutter balls.

The public rate card has three bands. Monday to Friday from opening until 6pm costs S$5.50 per person per game, or S$30 per lane per hour. Weekday evenings from 6pm to close cost S$6.00 a game or S$42 an hour, and the same S$6.00 and S$42 apply all day on Saturday, Sunday, eves of public holidays and public holidays. The hourly lane rate allows a maximum of five people on one lane.

Students under 21 pay S$3.50 a game on weekdays before 6pm, but the student price disappears in the evening, when they pay the same S$6.00 as everyone else. Seniors get the best deal of all. A group-wide promotion gives senior citizens a S$3.00 game from Monday to Friday, from opening until 4pm, as long as they show an NRIC or Senior Citizen EZ-Link card at check-in.

House shoes cost S$2.00 a pair and socks cost another S$2.00, and socks are compulsory with rental shoes, so bring your own pair to save a couple of dollars. Shoes cannot be shared between bowlers. The senior promotion does not include the shoe and sock rental, which surprises some older bowlers at the counter.

The listed rates apply to a maximum of two lanes per booking, and each lane takes at most five bowlers. Groups that need more lanes are treated as events and quoted separately. Members must show a valid card at check-in to get member prices, and anyone without one is charged the public rate on the spot.

Walk-in lanes are given out on a first come, first served basis. If you are a party of three on a weekday, simply turning up is usually faster than waiting for an email reply.

The busiest windows are Friday and Saturday nights, when the centre stays open until 1am. For a quieter game, Saturday and Sunday mornings from the 10am opening are the best bet. An honest verdict: skip the weekday evening slot if you are a student, because the S$3.50 rate stops at 6pm and the same game then costs S$6.00. If the hall is full, SuperBowl's Toa Payoh centre charges the same rates and is a straightforward MRT ride away.

For events, SuperBowl offers extras that ordinary walk-ins never see. Organisers can ask for an 8-pin or 9-pin tap challenge, where a strike counts on fewer pins, or for coloured-pin games, and the centre provides microphones and music for prize-giving. Catering is available from a separate menu at extra cost.

Children's parties suit the bumper lanes, since a group of six-year-olds can bowl without an adult constantly retrieving gutter balls. Book these well in advance, because the eight bumper lanes are the only ones set aside for young children. Companies running team-building days often take the whole floor, so ask the centre which weekends are already taken before promising a group an afternoon slot.

The clubhouse sits on the lower slopes of Mount Faber, so a game pairs well with the hill. Mount Faber Park has the classic viewpoint over Sentosa and the harbour, and the trail continues to Henderson Waves, the wave-shaped pedestrian bridge that links to Telok Blangah Hill Park. Walking the ridge in the cool of the morning and bowling after lunch avoids the worst of the afternoon heat.

Telok Blangah MRT on the Circle Line is the closest station, and HarbourFront is the alternative on the North East and Circle lines. VivoCity, beside HarbourFront, is the obvious stop for dinner and air-conditioned shopping once the games are done, and the cable car to Sentosa leaves from the HarbourFront side if the group wants to keep the day going.

SuperBowl Mount Faber, SAFRA Mount Faber, 2 Telok Blangah Way #02-06, Singapore 098803. Hours: Monday to Thursday 12pm to 12am, Friday and eves of public holidays 12pm to 1am, Saturday 10am to 1am, Sunday and public holidays 10am to 12am. Public rate S$5.50 a game on weekdays before 6pm, S$6.00 otherwise. Shoes S$2.00, socks S$2.00. Eight bumper lanes for children aged 10 and under.