Work Sport

I’m on a bit of a roll because I have been looking at my pictures from work and it has reminded me of the sport we occasionally played.
The only one I organized was a weekly table tennis game with a guy from Taiwan.  The table was in a real hidden corner of the campus.  I had been at the campus a number of years, and I did not know the table, let alone the room, was there. He was the only person I ever played that had a penhold grip.  We really enjoyed our lunchtime hit.
Someone organized a cricket competition.  We submitted a team.  I was responsible for organizing it.  I was so not a political animal.  I was told I had to include so and so – not because of their ability but because of their position.  We got knocked out in the first round.  It was not because we were beaten by a better team, it is just when it mattered to us, their bowlers could not get the ball on the pitch.  The reward for us was not enough to overhaul their total.  We had a great day anyway.  They were looking at changing the rues for the next one.
There were squash courts on the campus.  I suggested to the student union they get a table and use a court for table tennis.  I was chuffed when they came to me.  My friend Peter purchased (the cost of any purchase was reimbursed), delivered and set up the table.  The student union even went with what I suggested to charge (the same as for squash so they didn’t lose money.)  We used it and had fun.
That building has gone now.  So is the one where the Taiwanese guy and I played table tennis.  I choose to ignore any messages I should have gotten out of that.
Once a month our Division had a sports afternoon.  It overlapped work time and free time.  The object was staff fitness, but it was not to be a free pass to do no work.  Someone organized an indoor soccer competition.  I was too old for that, but I did not know so I was in.  Again we organized a team.  We even practiced, but that got off to an inauspicious start.  We had not even gotten to where we were going to practice, and someone kicking the ball twisted their ankle so badly they had to be assisted back.  We did have another practice though, and it was just kicking the ball to one another.
Fat lot of good practice did us.  We were done.  Just scoring was cause for celebration for us.  However we did not score enough.  These young ones make me sick.  So fit, so good, so into it.  We never stood a chance.
Sporting events at work were few and far between, but they were always fun.