Bowling alley cake - ideas please

[AliMonkey]

I'm trying to come up with a cake for DS's bowling party so thinking a rectangular bowling alley cake. He's not keen on lots of fondant icing, so am thinking of a chocolate cake covered in caramel buttercream, then somehow adding bumpers / lane markings / balls. He loves meringue so wondered if there was any way I could incorporate that into it as well?

Any inspiration for how best to decorate it? I have some mini plastic skittles already from a game My ideas so far for the rest are different coloured fondant icing bowling balls (make three holes with skewer?), perhaps just strawberry laces to make the edge of the lane and some fondant icing triangles for the bit near the start of the lane? Would love to somehow colour the buttercream so it looked like wood but not sure how to do it without it just looking like I've not mixed it properly - any tips? Would love a little scoreboard showing his name and a row of Xs for strikes, but I'm not great at fiddly icing even with icing pens so think that might be a bit ambitious!

Also any tips for a long thin cake - or should I just bake it eg in a 10" x 8" tin and then split it in half to make it 20" x 4"?

What about <a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=4.bp.blogspot.com/-TpCaaVSi-Go/UL8shA_PmEI/AAAAAAAAUHs/782ajGXPeM4/s1600/P9291439.JPG&imgrefurl=sensationalcakes-online.blogspot.com/2012/12/bowling-10-pin-strike-cake-singapore.html&h=752&w=800&tbnid=SNmoOHhyW1jCyM:&zoom=1&docid=MoL7k_aRVRJrkM&hl=en-gb&ei=7lFFVZGnC4fqaJnAgZgJ&tbm=isch&client=safari&ved=0CIgBEDMoYDBg" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this type of cake?
I googled bowling bag cake!

Rather than using fondant, you could use modelling chocolate, v easy to make. If you roll white and dark together it will give you a marbled, wood like effect. You'll find recipes online, it's v easy to work with and delicious.

Thanks. Looks great - that wood effect is just what I want but need to know how to do it! Though I see its fondant type icing which he doesn't really like so don't know if would work on buttercream. Also love the smashed pins - more effective than just lining them up as I planned. Would have to do a trial run though to work out if I could do that bit.

x posted - just had a quick look at modelling chocolate and will look into it more tomorrow but that looks like an excellent idea, thanks.