CSSC National Final Tenpin Bowling Championships Report

A personal account of the day's event, writen by Colin Argyle.

On the Friday I travelled to Plymouth to compete in the CSSC National finals for Ten Pin Bowling along with three other team mates to represent the North East region.

On arriving at Newcastle airport we joked about the sort of aircraft we would be travelling in and when we got on the tarmac we saw that this one had propellers! (A Dash 3 -800 for all you aviation anoraks). The flight down was very noisy, due to being seated next to said propellers, and when we came in to land it was a bit worrying when the plane was wobbling from side to side, but we landed OK.

We started bowling on the same day and completed six games. We bowled well and this put us in second place in the scratch competition. I was the highest bowler in our team so I was selected to play in the Masters singles, which I thought was a good thing until I learnt that I would be playing another eight games on the Saturday!

On Saturday we couldn't quite manage to keep up the good scores and so we thought that we would not be in the prizes for this year.

The presentation night was held in the hotel (The Holiday inn, Plymouth) and we were treated to a nice dinner. We were absolutely gobsmacked when they announced that we had won the runner up prize in the handicap division and thought that the organisers had got their sums wrong somehow.

The after dinner entertainment, consisted of a DJ with a strange taste in music and when they announced that they were having a whip round to extend the Karaoke for another hour, we all looked at one another and decided to find a local pub for a bit peace and quiet! (For those of you who don't know me I'm nearly 30 years old and getting on a bit).

The local pub we chose also had live entertainment, but the musician turned out to be one of the best musicians we had heard for a long time (he once played keyboard for Elton John no less) and so we stayed there until midnight having a few shandys and the obligatory Woods Navy Rum (Plymouth, Navy – Get it).

On the Sunday we travelled back to Plymouth Airport to begin the journey home. When we got to the checkout desk I was asked if I had any hand luggage and I said yes and turned to show them where it was (If you know Plymouth airport you'll know that it is not very big). I then got a stern lecture from the check in girl about how they take security seriously at Plymouth and how I shouldn’t leave my baggage unattended.

I had just got sat down when the Tannoy announced (I don't know why they just didn't point to me I was only ten feet away!) passenger Argyle to security please. The security man said to me they had to check my bags as part of a random check and I thought to myself yeah sure.

We arrived back safely in Newcastle, after some more wing wobbling and vowed to go one better next year (if we qualify for the Nationals that is!)

Colin Argyle
London pension centre RST