Team Event:
Bowling Experience
Groups of two employees are
picked to decide the activity for the following month. This month Ed and
Aysegul picked bowling as the venue of choice. With a bottle of (extremely)
well matured wine as the prize and the pride of all involved at stake, it was
time to see who would be crowned Rocktime
Bowling Champion.
It was 2:30 pm on a pale grey
Monday afternoon. The clouds hung thick, low and menacing. They threatened to
shower us at any moment, there was a drop in pressure; it may have been the
weather outside but deep down we all knew it was time for the fun to begin. We
shut down our stations, packed up our stuff and headed to the Bowlplex.
The Rocktime Bowling Championship
(RBC) is a highly coveted title. Guy decided to warm up by cycling to the venue
in as short a time as possible. Mark, Dave and I decided to talk tactics.
Kieron and Ed felt that the best way to warm up was a cheeky game of table
hockey to get the motion going in the arms. Krishna and Aysegul felt that the
best technique was to work on their accuracy by perfecting their basketball
shot at the arcade hoops. Paul decided that quiet meditation followed by
humming his favourite songs would swing the title in his favour; and just as
the game was getting underway, Alex made a tactically late appearance, designed
to confuse and bewilder the opposition in to forfeiting the title before it had
begun!
Tactics aside, we were broken
into teams of two with an individual winner and a team winner as possible
outcomes. The teams were as follows:
The first team: ‘Solid shot’ -
Dave, ‘Mr Inconsistent – Guy, Aysegul – ‘The spinner’, Krishna – ‘The “Rookie”
’, ‘Gutter ball’ – Jay(me), ‘Slippery’ –Fiona.
The Second team: ‘Mr Consistency’
– Kieron, Mark – ‘The marksman’, ‘A beer will help’ – Ed, ‘Performance
enhancing’ – Paul, Alex – ‘The striker’.
Round one
Finding
our feet
The first round got off to a
shaky start for all competitors as we warmed into the game, Ed hadn’t used his
trump card yet and was struggling to get into form. Krishna the (apparent)
rookie was hitting a lot of pins which saw him head to head with Alex for first
place. Kieron cranked up the pressure on the front runners with his consistent
form of 9’s.
As we entered the twilight of the
first round our team was in the lead. But suddenly a late flurry of strikes
from Alex, Mark and Kieron turned the game on its head. The first round went to
the second team. With Alex as the
individual winner on overall points.
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Alex performing his low bowling technique.
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Round one winner: Team
two
Individual winner: Alex
Round two
The
competition heats up
By the second game everyone was
warmed up and a lot more pins were being knocked down. Aysegul’s spinning shots
continued to frustrate her as they defied the laws of physics and span away
from potential strikes right at the last meter of the bowling alley. Guy, Dave,
Mark and Paul were all putting in solid bowls which saw the score count creep
into the hundreds. However Kieron, Krishna and Alex were setting the pace with
solid hits from all three.
Ed had had enough and decided it
was time to use his trump card. Throughout the first game he was bowling off to
the sides. He postulated that the best way to counter this accuracy flaw was to
use a pint of beer. The equation (known as Ed’s theory of relativity) went
something like this:
Natural Accuracy = negative +
Beer Accuracy = Negative, Combined (double negative) = positive accuracy.
It was a stroke of genius which
saw him rise up into contention with the front runners for a spot on the
podium.
For me, the bowling ball seemed
to be magnetically drawn to the gutters on every swing. I decided to invest in
Ed’s theory of relativity, this paid off and my score crept back up with the
contenders.
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Me - looking
flustered after getting another gutter ball!
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Guy was having some consistency
issues which saw him hit 1 pin, and then spare, throughout the round. However
his occasional spares and strikes insured that he kept up pace and challenged
for a podium finish.
Towards the end as the pressure
for first place mounted, Krishna just crept over the foul line and saw crucial
points lost as the game came down to crunch time. Paul was sneaking into first
place with some consistent and powerful strikes, however Alex had hit several
strikes in a row and as the round came to a close he finished as the clear
winner.
Round two winners: Team
two
Individual winner: Alex
Round three
The
controversial round
The atmosphere was merry as the
third round got underway, the lane that team one were playing on had taken a
beating from Krishna’s controversial bowling techniques that had made him an
RBC title contender in the first couple of rounds. Now, some members of the
team were adamant that a small crater had formed. I concurred, especially with
my gutter ball shot count suddenly rocketing!
Solid bowling performances from
Fiona, Paul and Dave saw them mingling with the front runners, the pressure was
on. Paul was in the lead with consistent and masterful strikes, pars and high
pin counts.
Some people were calling foul as
they believed Paul had taken something to enhance his athletic ability. His
score was high and he was singing to himself a lot more than usual. However, no
one could prove this to be true.
Fiona decided that this round she
would switch up her tactics to try and find one that was suited to her, this
achieved mixed results with some spares and strikes but the scoring was the
same across the board.
Just as the teams were getting
into the swing of things, lane one began to creak and moan at the impact of
shots. (Krishna!) Eventually it ceased
to work which resulted in some down time.
When the game got back under way
the break had caught Fiona and her new bowling technique by surprise. As she
swung the bowling ball low and hard she stepped over the foul line and on to
the neatly polished bowling alley. As she quickly attempted to prevent a foul
call from the computer she jerked her leg back transferring her balance onto
the foot in the bowling alley causing a fall that would be difficult to
replicate!!
The lane was back on now and it
was incredibly temperamental. This was a good thing for me as it gave me
another go every time I got a gutter ball. Krishna also made the most of it,
getting a free strike without even having to bowl! This change of luck saw my
team quickly snatch the lead from team two. Paul had tampered with one of the
arcade machines and somehow managed to upload his music onto it. Little did he
know it would have detrimental effects for his team mate Alex, who found the
music a struggle causing his high strike percentage to dip just enough for
Krishna to snatch away the lead at the last minute. Giving Krishna and team one
the round by only 20 points!
Round three winner: Team
one
Individual winner: Krishna
ROCKTIME BOWLING CHAMPIONSHIPS INDIVIDUAL WINNER: Alex
ROCKTIME BOWLING CHAMPIONSHIPS INDIVIDUAL RUNNERUP: Krishna
ROCKTIME BOWLING CHAMPIONSHIPS WINNER: Team two
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The Rocktime team
after the bowling event.
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Author: Jay (Web Developer)
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