We’re a competitive lot where I work, so most of our company outings include some form of scoring and subsequent winning…or losing (along with a prescribed volume of alcohol, of course). We’ve been known to scoff too many Jaffa Cakes, drink from babies bottles and even ‘get married’ all in the name of competition. So when a night at basement ping pong venue, Bounce, was suggested no one could refuse.
The trash talk started a few days before, with vicious rumours of people sneaking in some practice beforehand and tactical choices of footware being noted – not a high heel or skirt in sight.
Walking into the ‘home of ping pong’ there was evidence of hard fought matches. A giant tournament diagram covers one wall, just waiting for serious entrants to chalk up their names and a champion to claim the centre. Opposite, the walls are decorated with shards of pong tables and paddles, presumably smashed with frustration and over zealous winners’ celebrations.
Armed with paddles and a bucket full of balls, chaos soon ensued on our table. In just a few minutes we’d fired most of our balls around the room, narrowly missed our newly delivered drinks and hit the same guy twice! Unfortunately for him, we seemed to have a bottomless bucket of balls, or rather a poor guy was scooping up the many strays with a net to replenish our supply, whilst dodging anything airborne and head height.
Our keenness to get started meant that no rules or set matches were in place – lucky for me. It seems ping pong is not my game, so each hit over the net was a mini victory – even if the ball had already bounced on the floor twice and off my arm to finally reach the other side of the net. But with other players on tables lined up beside us, pressure was on to get a longer rally going – and to stop ill judged serves interrupting their games.
After working up an appetite, we sat down in the dining area away from the barrage of balls. The food was delicious but we were a little disappointed with the portion sizes of the Italian menu – after chasing pinging balls all night, we were hoping for something more substantial. Though this did provide a valid excuse, neigh, reason to have dessert…and another contest to see who could eat it the fastest.
Thank you to Bounce for photos 2 & 3
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