Gutterfest 2007

We thought we’d take a break from strategy on our blog and share a bit of summer fun. Recently Babcock & Jenkins employees took part in Gutterfest 2007. This event is our almost-annual trek to the local bowling alley to determine the company bowling champ. Well at least that’s how I look at it.

I would guess most employees view this event as a chance to get out of the office, have a couple beers, eat some pizza and have a few laughs. The most common goals probably include not letting go of the ball on the backswing, avoiding the cartoonish balancing act that inevitably follows when you cross the foul line onto the oily lanes and… breaking 100 on the scorecard. I found, however, that this year we had several worthy competitors trying to win the Top Score award.

Dave Smith began one game with 3 strikes in a row, so I casually walked over and made sure to remind him he was well on his way to a perfect game. I’m not really that competitive but I couldn’t resist. That’s usually all it takes to turn those strikes into threes and gutter balls but Dave persisted. By the 5th frame Dave still had a perfect game going, so I upped my game. I inquired if Dave had cleaned his GUTTERS the previous weekend. I wondered aloud if he knew how much a banana SPLIT cost. 7-11? Really? I would’ve thought closer to 6-10. Throwing out the worst bowling terms I could imagine seemed to do the trick as the splits and tough breaks followed Dave the rest of the game.

R.D. was on my team and bowling well, so I pretended to root for him, but Dave Richardson was an adversary bowling right next to me—and a worthy adversary at that. This Dave seemed impervious to my competitive jibes though and bowled well throughout. Both R.D and Dave finished in the 170’s and 180’s, but that wasn’t quite enough for the top score.

I strolled down a few lanes to see how Phil Topness was doing because I know he can talk a big game, but I’d never witnessed his bowling style before. After viewing one throw I was assured he wasn’t a threat.

Apparently Ali BenBen has bowled in a league before and she turned in some nice scores for the event. Julie Wisdom seemed on the way to a great score in the first game but a tweaked back slowed her down.

Jack Kauppila is definitely capable of the 200+ game but he was a little off this evening. I think he was too concerned about his car. Apparently in an attempt to make the evening a little more interesting, he had offered Lindsy a chance to win his car. If only she could bowl 10 straight frames of a gutter ball followed by a spare, the car was hers. She was game and intentionally threw a gutter ball on many of her first throws, but too often that was followed by another gutter ball on the second attempt.

Jim Barntish has been known to bowl in the 200s as well, but he spent most of the evening muttering under his breath and asking for another beer, so I figured the Top Score award was not on his mind.

All in all in it was a great evening, and I’ll hold onto my Top Score award for one more year(ish). For everyone involved there was a lot of laughing, a lot of cheering and of course, responsible drinking. I’ll keep practicing until the next Gutterfest because I’m sure everyone will be gunning for me after they read this.