my family is awesome
by awesome i mean odd...
but by odd, i mean awesome....
due to the amount of people participating in our yearly Turkey Bowl, the family table tennis competition, we have altered the stages of the competition over the years. It's intended for the Thanksgiving holiday, but sometimes we do it over New Years when we get together.
Many years ago, it was done with a general stage where everyone played everyone, then based on point deficits for losses, handicaps were calculated. EVERYONE got a handicap against my Grandpa of 10 to 15 points. He would then proceed to win 21-10 or 21-15.
Well, when the Turkey Bowl was reinstated after about a decade of inactivity due to everyone having small children, it was divided into two competitions. A children's competition and then an Adult Competition. The winner of the children's competition would have the honor of competing with the adult winner for the Overall Title. My cousin Dan(ny) won the children's portion every year, with one exception: the year he was at a hockey tournament. Then my brother won. The winner of the adult competition was always either my Grandpa or, seeing as he began to near 80, sometimes my Uncle Mark. The first reinstated tournament was single elimination, then play offs. This was changed the following year, because A) it went by fast and B) ppl like me, who drew Dan for the first play, whined.
Well, now that we're no longer children, we have grouped into a single, large tournament. Double elimination calculated by random card draw (we did brackets one year, but it got complicated), with byes possible, also due to card draw.
It draws large crowds, although we've noticed that the largest audiences tend to gather for early rounds and play offs are ignored.
Anyway for the first time in years I made it to the third round. I tend to draw Dan and Uncle Mark exclusively. This year I drew my Aunt Cathy, and then.. Brent and Dan. There are always upsets... last year my mom beat three people... my grandpa (she played him very early in the morning, and he couldn't even hold the racket), my uncle tom (after dinner, when he was full plus his back hurting) and my now cousin-in-law jessie (i don't believe she ever played ping pong before). like i said, shocker.
This year we also were granted *nicknames* to be used when playing. I was 1/3. (as in, 1/3 of the fiesta girls present..). Then also granted the nickname Celticy horse girl or something. My uncle kindly nicknamed my aunt The Assassinator and also #2, and we nicknamed him Mother's Favorite. My brother was, naturally, Jeff Dawg, as bestowed upon him by Tommy and good ol Ulan from Kazakhstan over the summer, I believe my grandfather was The Champ or something of that sort, and my aunt was Two Cookies short. the rest escape me... But it was funny. And we used them. And yes, I answered when someone yelled 1/3. Which happened a lot. Because, it's my family.
And yes, we spent several hours choosing cards for everyone and brainstorming nicknames.
Oh, and if you were wondering...
Of COURSE we have a trophy! But it has gotten an addition, as it was out of space several years before, so it's growing in size exponentionally. It's actually big now. Soon it will be like the Stanley Cup.
Oh, and this year there was a lot of conflict. We ended with Brent being 5-1, Dan being 4-1 and Tommy being 4-1. Tommy beat Brent but lost to Dan, Brent beat Dan but lost to Tommy, but since he'd played an extra game Tommy and Dan had to play eachother while he got a bye and Tommy lost. Brent then pulled a huge upset to win the tournament... but the trophy for hte billionth year went back to Detroit.
I gave Tommy my advice of grunting, a la tennis fashion, sadly it wasn't always effective, but he's working on it. For the last point of his match with Dan both he and Dan were grunting and they volleyed for about 10 returns each and there were a good 10+ watching and laughing their ASSES off on the side.
Because I'm bored...
Light crowds watching last year...
Playing Dan last year, don't even think I missed this shot
Last year's Trophy Presentation
Last year's finalists
I got a few amusing pics this year, mostly of the card draw hehe, if only I had my camera cord...
but by odd, i mean awesome....
due to the amount of people participating in our yearly Turkey Bowl, the family table tennis competition, we have altered the stages of the competition over the years. It's intended for the Thanksgiving holiday, but sometimes we do it over New Years when we get together.
Many years ago, it was done with a general stage where everyone played everyone, then based on point deficits for losses, handicaps were calculated. EVERYONE got a handicap against my Grandpa of 10 to 15 points. He would then proceed to win 21-10 or 21-15.
Well, when the Turkey Bowl was reinstated after about a decade of inactivity due to everyone having small children, it was divided into two competitions. A children's competition and then an Adult Competition. The winner of the children's competition would have the honor of competing with the adult winner for the Overall Title. My cousin Dan(ny) won the children's portion every year, with one exception: the year he was at a hockey tournament. Then my brother won. The winner of the adult competition was always either my Grandpa or, seeing as he began to near 80, sometimes my Uncle Mark. The first reinstated tournament was single elimination, then play offs. This was changed the following year, because A) it went by fast and B) ppl like me, who drew Dan for the first play, whined.
Well, now that we're no longer children, we have grouped into a single, large tournament. Double elimination calculated by random card draw (we did brackets one year, but it got complicated), with byes possible, also due to card draw.
It draws large crowds, although we've noticed that the largest audiences tend to gather for early rounds and play offs are ignored.
Anyway for the first time in years I made it to the third round. I tend to draw Dan and Uncle Mark exclusively. This year I drew my Aunt Cathy, and then.. Brent and Dan. There are always upsets... last year my mom beat three people... my grandpa (she played him very early in the morning, and he couldn't even hold the racket), my uncle tom (after dinner, when he was full plus his back hurting) and my now cousin-in-law jessie (i don't believe she ever played ping pong before). like i said, shocker.
This year we also were granted *nicknames* to be used when playing. I was 1/3. (as in, 1/3 of the fiesta girls present..). Then also granted the nickname Celticy horse girl or something. My uncle kindly nicknamed my aunt The Assassinator and also #2, and we nicknamed him Mother's Favorite. My brother was, naturally, Jeff Dawg, as bestowed upon him by Tommy and good ol Ulan from Kazakhstan over the summer, I believe my grandfather was The Champ or something of that sort, and my aunt was Two Cookies short. the rest escape me... But it was funny. And we used them. And yes, I answered when someone yelled 1/3. Which happened a lot. Because, it's my family.
And yes, we spent several hours choosing cards for everyone and brainstorming nicknames.
Oh, and if you were wondering...
Of COURSE we have a trophy! But it has gotten an addition, as it was out of space several years before, so it's growing in size exponentionally. It's actually big now. Soon it will be like the Stanley Cup.
Oh, and this year there was a lot of conflict. We ended with Brent being 5-1, Dan being 4-1 and Tommy being 4-1. Tommy beat Brent but lost to Dan, Brent beat Dan but lost to Tommy, but since he'd played an extra game Tommy and Dan had to play eachother while he got a bye and Tommy lost. Brent then pulled a huge upset to win the tournament... but the trophy for hte billionth year went back to Detroit.
I gave Tommy my advice of grunting, a la tennis fashion, sadly it wasn't always effective, but he's working on it. For the last point of his match with Dan both he and Dan were grunting and they volleyed for about 10 returns each and there were a good 10+ watching and laughing their ASSES off on the side.
Because I'm bored...
Light crowds watching last year...
Playing Dan last year, don't even think I missed this shot
Last year's Trophy Presentation
Last year's finalists
I got a few amusing pics this year, mostly of the card draw hehe, if only I had my camera cord...