On the evening of Friday, 20th September, an elite squad of bowlers descended upon GoBowling in Dunstable, laser-focused and ready to rack up strike after strike. Just five minutes later, the slightly less coordinated but far more enthusiastic CSC crew arrived, making a beeline for the bar to kick off their pre-bowling ‘warmup’. With disco beats pulsing through the venue (apparently Friday nights double as DJ party nights), our group velcroed up their chic bowling shoes and took to the lanes, prepared for a lively night of competition.

We were 13 strong, spread across three lanes, so we split into a group of five and two groups of four. Some creative liberties were taken when inputting names into the scoring system, resulting in teams of Millie, Libs, Simone (yours truly), Su, and Mandy in the first group; Jacko, Johno (JP), Jonny, and Cammy in the second; and Nevster, Shaaraan, Phylis (Parry), and (Lesley) Smiffy in the third.

Now, I’d love to say we witnessed some stellar bowling right from the start, but let’s just say a few people took their time getting ‘into the zone’—while others never quite found it, even by the end of the night. Techniques varied wildly: Nevster and Jacko launched high-speed cannon balls down the lanes, Su took what felt like 50 steps for each run-up, Phylis Parry thought he was playing crown green bowls, and Jonny almost looked like he knew what he was doing. His teammates even suggested blacklisting him from future events for being too good.

In the first group, Simone and Millie tied the opening game, with Simone winning the second and Millie taking the third. Over in the second group, Johno—somewhat to everyone’s surprise—snagged the first game, while Jonny claimed the next two, posting the evening’s highest score with a solid 147. The final game went to Johno again, although this was impressive mainly because he’d already left by then, leaving Jacko and Simone to bowl in his place. Still, Johno was more than happy to claim the victory!

In the third group, Shaaraan nabbed the first win, while Nevster powered through to win the next two games.

Regardless of the scores, the night was full of fun and laughter, right up until bowling fatigue set in and brought our evening to a close.

Thank you to everyone who came along and made it such a great night. Special thanks go to committee member Millie, for organising another successful sporting social event.