Glassball Social – A new record?

Well, it's exactly two months after our last entry, announcing the exciting event I've finally got round to reporting on, so you'll forgive me for being hazy on the details.

For starters, we booked a room in the Ramphal building. There are something like 16 or 18 people in our 1025 group, and most of them turned up. Even Becky, who, as far as we can tell, has a love for Glassball to rival her skill at the game (pause while author attempts to remember a tournament she didn't lose – oh yes, when Claire was playing!). Anthony turned up early to set up, with a bag full of empty beer bottles from our good friend Rob – mostly stella, but with a few Buds as well for variation. The tables in the Ramphal are a different shape to Rootes kitchen tables, but since we haven't been able to play in Rootes since moving out, anything was good. We set up 3 games, which has to be a record in Glassball history. As far as we are aware, there has never been a time when more than one game was played at once (unless you count doubles with two balls on a single table). Everybody played at least once. We ended the evening with a tournament, and Christine took charge of the logistics, including impartial player selection ("pick a number… no, not that one – she can't play him…"). The only person she forgot to include was herself. With three games played at once, and more often than not everyone who had more than 2 hours' experience in a game, we had some rookie refs, but by and large everything was done by the book. I don't recall every result from the quarters and semis, but I know that two or three of the newbies turned out to be very good. The group is made up of people from Rootes, past or present, so hopefully they will be inspired to take the game back to their kitchens and so pass on the torch. With over a dozen participants, we confidently expected quite a crowd for the final, but, true to tradition, nearly everyone left after the semis. Only a staunch 3 or 4 stayed around other than the ref, and they sat in the corner playing cards…

They missed quite a reasonable match, though Colin convincingly beat Anthony (did I mention they were the finalists…?). The prize (a friendly hug from Colin) would have been a bit lonely for our conquering hero, so it was exchanged for a friendly hug from someone else. Matthew, to be precise. And there was great rejoicing. As well as lots of confusion among the unenlightened later on about the presence of 3 dozen bottles, 10 ashtrays and a large piece of wood in Colin's bag.

: 26 Jan 2006 10:34 |  Tags: 1025 Budweiser CU Glassball Ping Pong Social Stella |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

It just won't go away

Perhaps it's a little desparate, but two of the Big Three will make a comeback in the Brave and Noble Game (it's like when Queen tour without Freddie) as this week's 10.25 social is gonna be a Glassball-fest. To explain: Colin and Anthony comprise two of the three leaders of the Rootes M-P 10.25 group (the third being Christine). Each 10.25 group is a subsection of CU, kinda, being a bunch of Christians who do Bible studies, prayer, etc. Except, being the end of term, we put aside Bibles for a bit, and instead engage in frivolity… which brings me back to where I was. On Monday, many first-timers – and some experienced players – will engage in what is being termed the 'Glassball Social'. Here's hoping for fun all round! Even for the girls…

: 26 Nov 2005 22:18 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Glassball, Leicester–Style

The Big Three may have relinquished their iron grip on the world of Glassball, but in other parts of the nation, the Brave and Noble Game continues still. Over at De Montfort Uni (which, as we all know, is in Leicester), Glassball has been pioneered by Mr. James Scott, former attendee at Prince Henry's High School, the school that spawned myself. Not only this, but James is in fact the nephew of a lecturer here at Warwick University. Apparently, Although he has no pictures of the momentous sporting occasion of which I write, he has assured me that the bottles, glasses etc etc were regulation (or as near as makes no difference)... It remains to be seen whether Glassball will take off in Leicester (home town, let us not forget, of Anthony. Nearly) as much as it has here at Warwick, but congratulations James, nonetheless.

: 31 Oct 2005 14:32 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Look! It's Becky!

Obsessive readers of this site will already know the name 'Becky Gillies'. People who have visited every UK website except this one will not be. Because the Glassball blog is proud to be the only page in the UK that has mention of Becky… if you don't believe us, try this.
Of course, it may all have changed by the time you check it out, and if so, then we can only apologise… also, clicking on the link brough up will actually ake you to a picture of Rob in a dressing gown, so you might want to go to the Cached version instead.

: 11 Oct 2005 01:27 |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Keep up

Just in case you were wondering what's become of the contributors, Colin and Anthony both keep private blogs to keep you up-to-date with all the exciting (and frequently non-Glassball related) events of their busy lives:

Colin: www.stephscully.co.uk

Anthony: www.stationcrafts.net

: 25 Aug 2005 19:24 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

I can't believe it's over!

We've left Rootes, and with it we've left behind the Brave and Noble Game. To finish, we had the tournament to end all tournaments – literally, it seems – with 12 competitors. Victors in the first round were Stu against Becky, Colin against Andy C, Anthony against Rob, Andy P against Iain, David against Christine (ooh…), and Richard against Tom. The second round saw the highest scoring loser – David – go through, and join the Big Three in the semi-finals, where the second round match of David vs Richard was repeated, but this time David won 16–13 (yes, for the first time ever we played to 16… we've never had a tournament this big before). In the other semi-final, Anthony lost narrowly to Colin, 16–14, before winning the third place play-off. And so we came to the final, by which time the spectators had, as usual, lost all interest, and gone to bed… David, unaccustomed to such high-profile play, lost 21–9, leaving Colin with the Golden Sash – forever…?

: 25 Jun 2005 17:30 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Some shocking news

Remember that fabled Rob vs Colin Glassball match when Rob ended up having to go to a maths lecture in his dressing gown? Well, we have reason to believe that the match itself may have been – gasp! – against official regulations. The referee on the night – stand up, Mr. Clohesy – apparently did not notice that there were a massive 14 bottles forming the Bottles, not the regulatory 13. We even have a picture to prove it – thanks Rob. No sour grapes there, then.
So where do we go from here? Probably what should happen is a rematch – except, Rob has already carried out his forfeit, so if he were to win the rematch, it wouldn't really be fair. Perhaps finishing above Colin in the last tournament he played in was satisfaction enough.

: 18 Jun 2005 19:23 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

More Colining

What is a 'Richard'? That is the question. Ever since the 'David' hit the nation's consciousness (hitting the ball either underneath the table, or – more classically – against the edge of the table while serving… the definition is different to that given below. It's been redefined) people have been queueing up to have Glassball lingo named after them. And so Richard claims that his name is synonymous with trying a new kind of strategy that is doomed to fail (well, he might not have added the 'doomed to fail' bit)... he even goes so far as to claim that a 'Richard' has already been defined as such, and that it was my idea. I have no recollection of this, except a small feeling at the back of my head that he's actually right… therefore I am planning to give up in my attempts to make a 'Richard' a failure to get the ball over the bottles 3 times while playing for serve. There, I said it.

: 17 Jun 2005 02:52 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Tournaments…

Well, apparently I've been charged with updating, which makes a nice change from Richard hogging all the updates. There was a rather dull, mundane and fundamentally pointless tournament held the other day, in which I was knocked out in the first round by the eventual winner, Anthony. We actually played enough matches to rank all eight of us (after four matches, the four winners played knock-out, with a hird place play-off, and something similar went on for the losers of the initial matches… well, it's a bit complex, but at the end of the parenthesis, you'll see…)
1. Anthony
2. Richard (yes, you read that right… not 3rd)
3. Andy C.
4. Rob
5. Colin
6. Tom
7. Stu
8. Andy P.

Now, of course, these statistics are stupid. Ahem. The tournament that really mattered was the one held last night, competitors being the Big Three, David, Christine and David's little bro, Phil (who has almost had something named after him… we'll see). In the first round, Anthony creamed Christine 7–0, Richard was unfortunate to lose 7–3 to Colin, and Phil beat his brother in a tense 10–8 victory… some would say that giong into setting against a relative newbie is not as admirable as coming close against a co-creator of the Brave and Noble Game, but rules stated that the highest scoring loser went through, so David it was. Lake superior, as it were. But not for long, as both brothers came crashing out in the semi-finals, setting up a (yawn) final between Anthony and Colin. And what a boring final it was… watched only by the referee, David, it was simply a matter of waiting for the opponent to make a mistake, and eventually Anthony made enough that it ended 21–18 to me, a nice smash to finish.

: 17 Jun 2005 02:45 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Shavers and Rob

Rob, whose previous contributions to the Brave and Noble Game have largely revolved around his amazing and seemingly infinite ability to lose to Colin, has taken advantage of the old adage, "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" by doing a little bit of Colining. When the ball only just clips the edge of the table, we used to say 'that ball only just clipped the edge of the table'. Thanks to Rob, we will now be saying 'that was a shaver'. Nice one, Rob.

: 14 Jun 2005 20:03 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem