The SVM bowling zone located on the rear side of the LEPL Centro Mall on Bandar Road acquired a rare buzz on Tuesday.
A three-day bowling tournament which commenced on Saturday at the venue ended on a boisterous note on Tuesday with the young participants cheering and letting out friendly whoops for the winners. The invite for the tournament, meant for regular visitors to the gaming zone, evoked good response with a total of 64 young enthusiasts enrolling names.
All participants were allowed to play two games each. After filtering, as many as 31 players rolled the balls on the lanes on the second day (Sunday) while the 16 finalists remaining in the fray played the final round of the game on Tuesday. The act of rolling a bowling ball down the wooden lane bordered by semi-cylindrical channels known as ‘gutters’ which are designed to collect the errant balls, may look simple but it needs tactful handling of the ball.
Every strike (all pins down in the first ball) was followed by a loud applause.
Unique scoring system
Bowling has a unique scoring system which keeps track not only of the current score but also strikes and spares, which give multiple marks. Effectively, there are three kinds of marks given in a score; a strike, a spare (all 10 down by the second ball), and an open (missed pins still standing when the turn ends).
The only thing that seemed amiss about the event was that it was an all-boys thing. A good number of girls, who otherwise frequent the place in the evenings, were conspicuous by their absence. “We had one girl interested in enrolling her name. But she backed out when she did not find any girl company,” said Siva, a customer care associate. After declaring the set of rules to be followed by the players in the alley, the organisers positioned themselves at strategic points to monitor the game. Shaik Basha emerged the victor of the tournament by scoring 189 points and pocketed a cash prize of Rs. 15,000,
M. Mohseen emerged as first runner-up (161 points) and bagged a cash prize of Rs. 10,000 and Pavan was declared the second runner-up (151 points) and presented a cash prize of Rs. 5,000.
Maheedhar, who emerged top scorer (214) points, was also given a prize. Besides, some were given consolation prizes and all participants were given participation certificates.
