Quarterly charity tournaments will return to The Avenue Cafe with Fear and Trembling, the annual Halloweelection pingolf tournament, on November 2. The course may be started anytime after 4 pm, and the last entries will be permitted at 7. The early start time is to ensure the tournament can finish at a semi-reasonable time. The fee for the first entry is $10, and subsequent cards can be bought for an additional $5 provided they are started by 7 pm. All proceeds minus IFPA fees go to the Capital Area Humane Society. In addition to trophies for the top four finishers, there will also be random prize drawings.
This will be a nine-hole, objective-based course. Competitors will choose one of two objectives on each game and have to stick with the one they chose. Players get a stroke for each ball it takes to reach the objective, up to four strokes for not completing the objective at all in three balls. The lowest four scores on the course will move on to a three-game final match (with non-pingolf 4/2/1/0 scoring).
This is our first charity tournament since the pandemic started. Please come and, as Kierkegaard said, make your choices “in fear and trembling.”
Since IFPA sanctioned events could not be held yet in July, we had a “just for fun” tournament as a way to ease back into league activities. It took the form of a six-hole mini pingolf tournament, using games that had been with the league the longest as the theme. Joseph and I chose the objectives together. Some had been used in previous pingolf tournaments, and some were new, but we thought they were all on the easy side. In fact, my concern was that the experienced players would find them too simple.
Derik, Joseph, and Russell in the alcove.
As Joseph likes to say, “A pingolf objective can never be too easy.” Everyone was happy to see old league friends again, and also very angry at pinball. I had expected several of the top players to get identical low scores on the course, so I made plans to have a final only among the people tied for first. Joseph contributed a great idea for having an unusual pingolf finals format which I was really looking forward to implementing. Unfortunately, the rules I made said that finals would be played between “everyone tied for first” which I assumed would be at least two to three people. Pingolf with three balls usually ends up with a lot of ties.
Josh trying for Tiger Loops.
Instead, the scores on the course were mostly not very good, except for Joseph’s. As the evening wore on I started realizing Joseph was probably going to win outright without a finals because no one was going to tie his score of 13. When past league champion Chris, who made a surprise appearance, turned in a score of 19, I knew Joseph probably had it sewn up and I actually started giving him a hard time for winning because I was worried everyone would be disappointed. It was closer than I realized at first, because Derik and Danny were only one point behind (or ahead), but the rules of the tournament resulted in Joseph going home with the plaque without any playoffs. In retrospect, I should have had a guaranteed playoff. I will revise that if we ever do a mini pingolf tournament again.
Danny playing Indiana Jones. He was the only person to get a hole in one on this hole.
I think it did end up being about the right amount of pinball for our first night back together, even if some people did probably hate me for the pingolf objectives. Medieval Madness (start any three-ball multiball) proved the easy objective overall, based on the number of people receiving 4 (worst score) versus 1. The hardest was Tales of the Arabian Nights (six Tiger Loops): 11 people got a 4, and no one got a 1. Next was Indiana Jones (collect Dogfight hurryup) with 11 people getting 4 and one person getting 1. Monster Bash (start Mosh Pit Multiball) also had no holes-in-one.
Final scores for Silver Balls in July are below.
Joseph (13)
Danny C. (14)
Derik (14)
Jason (16)
Russell (17)
Josh (18)
Chris (19)
Donny (20)
Joe (20)
Mike (20)
Heather (21)
Travis (22)
Bryan (23)
Dan N. (23)
Maribeth (24)
Shylia (24)
Joseph shows his Silver Balls in July plaque. I edited the usual Silver Balls mascot (Rudolph “Special When Lit”) to have him drinking a mai tai.
We will be having our Zen Tournament mid-season for a change, in order to try to catch up and finish Season 14 as soon as we can. We were going to have it in July since it doesn’t need to be sanctioned anyway, but there was an emergency that resulted in The Avenue being closed on our intended date. We will instead be having the Zen Tournament tomorrow, August 3, at 7 pm. Season 14 will resume regular play on August 10.
The Fear and Trembling Pingolf Tournament will be returning to The Avenue on October 25 beginning at 6 p.m. As with last year, the theme will be “hard choices,” but this year there will be a new format and IFPA endorsement for WPPR points. The registration fee is $10 (all of which goes directly to the charity) and players are additionally responsible for coin drop on the games.
Each game on the course will have a choice between two objectives. The goal is to try to meet your objective in 1 ball for a hole in one – or in as few balls as possible. The catch is that you must declare your choice of objective before starting. If you call one objective and accidentally meet the other sooner, tough luck!
Four finalists will go to a three-game final series, and all four finalists will receive a Halloween-themed trophy.
Stay tuned for more details as we get closer to the event! If you’re on Facebook, join our event page.
