It was only the start of Anders winning streak.

Midday at the Hasenheide park in Berlin at a mini golf course that didn’t stock Diet Coke. Sunny day, thirsty me, and contrary to popular belief, they didn’t have beer either. Just regular Coke. We decided to divide in two groups, one would start from the first hole, the second from the last, eventually meeting up at the middle, or so we thought. Our group was taller, older, and probably better looking. We were four and they were five. The competition was on, indiepop camaraderie was off.

I can’t stop stressing that the mini golf course was terrible. Sounds like an excuse to why I came in last, but let me stick to the facts. First of all, this mini golf is an eternite course. I’m used to the felt courses, where there is some sort of friction between the ball and the surface. Here the ball would just go so fast, bounce so fast, as it was pinball. Secondly, the areas around the hole were warped. So accuracy wasn’t really needed to win. Many times you’d bounce the ball off the sides, and suddenly by magic, the ball would keep rolling and fall into the hole. Luck was very much needed to win. Nevermind talent. No wonder why the world record  on one round of minigolf of 18 strokes on 18 holes has been achieved only on eternite. More than a thousand players have officially achieved this score. On other playing systems a perfect round of 18 holes-in-one is extremely rare, and has never been scored in an official tournament.

In any case, I achieved some hole-in-ones, I missed many shots, shot my ball out of bounds, threw the towel, and challenged my opponents. Around 70 hits for an 18 hole course. Gone were the days that at Boomers in Fort Lauderdale I would smash my opponents on the felt course. I was last now. Perhaps it was because I wasn’t the “home” team, but the “away” team. I felt the pressure of the opposing team, the different ground, the climate, the enraged atmosphere of the German hooligans spitting hefe beer, the lack of diet coke, the long commute from my town to theirs, or any of all the other mathematical possibilities that can be thought of. On the other hand, Anders, already settled in Berlin for many months, cruised the mini golf course. Showing skill and fortune, and a clinical knowledge of each hole, he finished first, just over 40 hits.

Second came Kat, third came Dirk. The other team was slower than us, they must have spent 30 more minutes to finish the course. When they did we averaged our scores, and our team was the victorious one. But that was just a consolation prize for me. I was expecting to win.

It did open our appetite though, and half of us, the winning team went to a German restaurant to savor the delicacies of schnitzels, sausages and roasted kartoffel. The rest, the losing team, faithful to their destiny, just went for plain bagels.

Later that day Indie Pop Days festival was raising it’s curtain and Anders was going to win it all in table football.

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Ultrasport – Ballgames