The 7th Annual BR Gathering (2009) was this past weekend (July 25-26th). As usual, it was a fun event with much bowling and camraderie, some fun competitions, discussions of equipment, good food, and reuniting with friends.
We (my wife 10poundBear and I) arrived about noon on Friday and joined up with the rest of the group already at the lanes. We bowled 3 games to loosen up and Ron (Magic Carpet) came out of bowling semi-permantent retirement to bowl with us. At about 2pm we started the for-fun blind doubles tournament featuring a mixed format. The lead changed hands after ever game. The eventual winners were robuster (Doug) and dpmusic70 (Diane), a team made up of someone new to the Gathering this year and a 4-year veteran of the event respectively. I think everyone enjoyed it, although we learned that "Scotch Doubles" format means slightly different things to different people.
Afterwards, the entire group went for italian food at Little Italy 4, in Welcome North Carolina. As you cross into Welcome, the city sign says "Welcome to Welcome, a Friendly Place". Nice. The food was recommended by Ron and Karen and was everything they said it would be, but mostly delicious. The restaurant staff made us feel, well... welcome! ... and the service was impeccable. I think the group would have liked to linger over dessert, but we were pressed for time. A Scotch doubles tournament, which is held regularly on Saturday night at Creekside lanes, was about to start.
Back to the bowling center we drove. For the first time anyone could remember, more women showed up to bowl than men, so a couple of us guys got to double-up with two doubles partners. This event is pretty fun with one or the other of each doubles partner throwing the first ball in the frame with the other partner picking up whatever is left. It's always fun with a large group, especially when marital couples are involved. If I remember correctly, we had two teams from the Gathering finish in the money. By the time the tournament was over, it was late and most of us had bowled 10 games, so it was time to sojourn to our various places of sojourn.
Saturday, we resumed at 11am. A couple more people showed up who did not make it on Friday including both locals and members of BallReviews.com including two first-timers BowlerDawg and SeniorStroker. We bowled a game of practice and went straight into the bragging rights tournament. This was a little early this year because of another tournament - an Eliminator style tournament - coming in at 2pm.
This year, the event was renamed the first-annual ThongPrincess Bragging Rights Tournament. The format was 3 games across 3 pairs of lanes with each pair of lanes featuring a different sport pattern. The patterns were not announced ahead of time and even Ron didn't know what the mechanic was using. My best guess, based on literally minutes of experience, was that the patterns were (or were similar to) PBA Cheetah, the USBC Nationals, and the Kegel Middle of The Road.
Scores are typically pretty low and this year was no exception. I'm hoping that someone from Creekside lanes can post the official results (and the patterns that were used), but the Handicap winner was Strider's (from BR.com) wife Tricia who bowled excellently. My wife finished 2nd for the 3rd consecutive year, which means she beat me for the third consecutive year! The scratch winner was Willynhook who posted a nice 248 on (what we thought was) Cheetah. There was some major gender domination this year on the handicap side as 5 of the top 6 finalists were female and this is the second year in a row in which the event was won by a female.
Strider and I entered the Eliminator tournament directly afterwards. Again, it was hosted on a sport pattern. I believe we were the only two from the Gathering group who entered, but everyone else hung out to socialize and cheer us on (thanks everyone!). Jeff and I both made it to the single-game finals which was comprised of 7 bowlers, and Strider edged me out by a pin. Nice bowling Strider.
We had another large group for dinner at Applebees which provided free appetizers for the group. I daresay we were the loudest group in the restaurant by a factor of 6 or 7. The poor service staff was trying to sing happy birthday to a couple of different people and had to ask us to quiet down. Willynhook's "terror twins" got pictures of the whole thing. Ron was the last to eat. I guess that's what he gets for ordering a steak medium-rare. Seriously though, the staff at Applebees did a nice job of taking care of us and put up with such a loud, rowdy group.
Sunday is usually a day of groaning pain and tired (if not tired and hungover) bowling and this year was no exception. Ron worked with StrikingMachine for quite awhile and you could see big changes in his delivery both from previous years as well as from earlier in the day. Most of us got in at least six games before it was time for boodbyes for the people that were leaving.
Ron shared with us some incredible slow-motion video of some of the past and present PBA exempt and national players as well as some bowlers you've probably never heard of who have exceptional execution and mechanics. That of course spurred new conversations which led to more video and more conersations and delayed departure times. The women-folk mostly socialized and relaxed and simply enjoyed the time with friends.
That's the most accurate description I can give of the Gathering this year - a good time with bowling friends. Sure, we had fewer in attendance this year the economy is bad and people with jobs can't take as much time off work for fear of losing a job that can be hard to find. Sure, most of us only see each other at this one event each year. That doesn't change the enjoyment of the time together. Having fewer attendees this year didn't make it any less fun. As Ron said, we half as many people we get to have twice as much fun to make up for it.
As always, the staff and Creekside Lanes treats us so well I feel like a "regular". It's like Cheers to some degree - "where everybody knows your name". There were a couple of new additions to the staff that were a little shy at first, but joined the fun before Friday was done. Some of the staff are working two jobs now to make ends meet and they still spent every possible minute with the group. That's what makes those of us that descend upon Creekside once a year feel so Welcome, like in Welcome. Andy - Ron's crash test dummy - and his wife Cindy - event hostess extraordinaire - were just returning from a trip to nationals in Las Vegas on Saturday, but drove directly from the airport to the lanes to say hello to everyone and socialize. Andy wasn't able to bowl normally this year as his leg is in a bowling cast after a nasty indoor sports accident that broke his leg in four places.
Many of the "regular" bowlers weren't able to make it to the Gathering this year for a number of different reasons. In particular, the physical absence of our "glue", ThongPrincess / Colleen Becker, was felt most acutely. However, she was there in spirit, enjoying the craziness, chaos, and fun. It was/is still difficult for many of us to talk about her, but we carried on as we know she would have wanted. We hope to see the rest of you return next year.
We also had some new attendees as mentioned above (if I'm forgetting anyone, you should be chiming in about now with your experiences). It's always great to see some new faces and this year was no different.
We also had some new and repeat locals attend. Darrel - you lurker - I know you!
Hundreds of pictures were taken this year so I hope to see them posted somewhere on the Internet for all to see. Dummy me forgot the video camera at home, so full-blown blackmail will need to wait another year.
The Fox News people were awesome and a couple of them stayed to bowl with us. It's a shame we couldn't use one of their fancy cameras for the blackmail. Has anyone found the video on YouTube yet?
Thank you Ron, Karen, and the entirely excellent staff at Creekside lanes for having us again this year. You are entirely too kind to us in every way, but we surely appreciate it. We just wish the entire staff could take the weekend off of life to join in our fun.
A date for next-year's event was decided at this year's event to be the last full weekend in July, July 24th and 25th, 2010 at Creekside Lanes. My wife was nominated to replace ThongPrincess as the bowler-organizer of the event. I'll help her with the web posting. Ron will continue to host the event at Creekside lanes and he and his staff will organize things locally. Stay tuned for more details. We hope to see you there!
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J.J. "Better than Jello" Anderson - Kill the back row
