Local leagues taking precautions in wake of coronavirus outbreak

The pool tables at College Bowl are empty Wednesday afternoon. Holiday Bowl, Texarkana Dart Association, and Twin City BCA Pool League have suspended league play for two weeks, and College Bowl suspended part of its league schedule for two weeks.
The pool tables at College Bowl are empty Wednesday afternoon. Holiday Bowl, Texarkana Dart Association, and Twin City BCA Pool League have suspended league play for two weeks, and College Bowl suspended part of its league schedule for two weeks.

TEXARKANA - Texarkana area adult leagues are dealing with the precautions of the global coronavirus pandemic.

Holiday Bowl, the Texarkana Dart Association and Twin Cities BCA Pool League has suspended all of their league play for two weeks. College Bowl has suspended some of its leagues and is allowing three other leagues to continue.

Larry Himes, general manager of Holiday Bowl, has slightly changed procedural daily operations for the time being.

"We've shut down some of the stations, so our customers aren't next to each other," Himes said. "We have two leagues here with 38 teams, which is around 170 bowlers. We haven't been mandated to do it but we're cutting our capacity down for our customers' safety. We're practicing social distancing. It's a fluid situation with the government but I think we should all do our part to stop the spread of it.

"We always try to keep clean stations but we're in times like we've never seen before. One person's safety is everyone's safety here. We do not want any of our customers to suffer anything that was caused here."

Both Holiday Bowl and College Bowl will change their hours of operation during the next few weeks.

Holiday Bowl will open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., while College Bowl will open from noon to 10 p.m.

College Bowl will have some leagues that will be suspended, while a few of their leagues will continue to bowl but will follow precautions.

The Commercial League, Terry Larey League and Thursday Night Mixed at College Bowl are suspended for two weeks.

The Monday night league with 32 players will continue to bowl. The Wednesday morning senior league with 27 members will continue to be held, and the Tuesday night men's league with 50 participants will also continue to bowl.

Melanie Clay, manager of College Bowl, is prepared to take proper precautions during these times.

"We want to make sure our customers and our staff are as healthy as possible," Clay said. "We're trying to do the best that we can to ensure we help out as much as possible. With that being said, postponing our league play is the best way we know how to do that.

"We're wiping down bowls, tables, chairs, keypads and also the ball return. We have a cleaning service that comes in each day and fully clean the bathrooms, floors and lobby. We've gone strictly plastic and everything disposable, so we're cutting down the chances of something not being cleaned properly. We're going to take every measure to make sure our bowlers are safe.

"Our bowlers do not want to be suspended, our bowlers want to bowl."

The Twin Cities BCA pool league has suspended its session for two weeks. This is league is composed of nine teams with nearly 50 players.

The Texarkana Dart Association is also suspending league play for two weeks. This league has 12 teams with almost 80 players.

Lindsay Evans, Texarkana Dart Association president, is taking a proactive approach to COVID-19.

"We're going to suspend play in two-week increments," Evans said. "So in two weeks, we will revisit it and if the situation hasn't gotten any better, then we can suspend it another two weeks. We will take as long as we need to take until the situation is handled. We have procedures in place for times like this.

"Last season, we actually had a member pass away. We suspended play for a week, then we held a luck of the draw tournament, where we gave all of proceeds to the member's family. We also delayed the season by a week. That's what we actually plan to do in this situation. We have elderly members in our league and we also have members who take care of their elderly family members in our league. Their safety and health is our No. 1 priority. I want everyone to be safe and to take this thing serious."

Upcoming Events