Those of you familiar with ten-pin bowling will know what the word "strike" means. It's when a player knocks over all ten pins with the first ball of a frame. Not that it mattered much to me - I was having enough trouble keeping my balls out of the gutter! But let me start at the beginning.
Norman is perhaps my biggest fan at work. He was the first in the office to know about Sally shortly after she came out of the closet, and has since seen her blossom into a confident individual in her own right. Norman also happens to be an accomplished ten-pin bowler, and during some idle office chat one afternoon, we came up with the idea of a bowling match between a team of trannies led by me and a team of non-trannies led by him. I'm not actually sure who mentioned it first, but I'd certainly been toying with the idea for some time - probably because there's a KingPin bowling complex just outside the site where we work, and I therefore drive past it at least twice every day. It also happens to be one of the places where Norman regularly plays. I immediately saw great potential for a tranny publicity stunt - assuming I could raise a team reckless enough to join me!
The first thing to do was to get the agreement of the staff in the complex, so on the way home that evening, I popped in and introduced myself. They knew Norman well, of course, and were quite amenable to the idea of a group of cross-dressers invading the place. Norman subsequently arranged the appropriate number of lanes and match-times for two teams of four people, and also suggested that we play on the 'cosmic' lanes - UV-fluorescent pins and balls would add to the fun!
Next, we needed to form our teams. Norman easily rustled up his three people - Nicola (also a keen bowler) and Anne-Marie, two of the local secretaries, and Paul from the office next door. To my pleasant surprise, I had little trouble persuading Felixstowe Girls Rikki, Chris and Mary to join me. By chance, Mary was a bowling champion in her heyday, and I was relieved that the odds of us being totally humiliated would be somewhat reduced with her on board! However, my hopes were soon dashed when she discovered that she'd double-booked, and had to back out. So at the eleventh hour, having been unable to find a replacement, I'd attempted to negotiate with Norman for the 'loan' of Nicola in order to try to balance the teams - but Norman was having none of it! Of course, it didn't really matter who was on which side, or which team won - the whole thing was simply meant to be a bit of fun. In fact, the only mention of competition was in the e-mail I sent round finalising the details of the evening, in which I suggested that the winning team (which would be the non-tranny team, of course) should buy the drinks in the bar afterwards!
The match had been arranged for 7pm on 20th April. Despite the near-Arctic temperature and a gale-force wind, I'd decided that it would be appropriate to wear my sports outfit - in any case, I needed something to help distract Norman! So I wore a simple white top, a short white pleated tennis skirt, frilly knickers, ankle socks and trainers. Yes, I know trainers aren't my style, but I also knew that I wouldn't be allowed on the lanes in my regular high heels! Rikki, by comparison, was the height of decorum in a short-sleeved red top and a pair of torn-off jeans, while Chris looked very elegant in a black polo-necked sweater and black trousers.
I left home just after 5pm, and dropped off some literature at Mary's house, making sure that she knew how much fun she was going to miss! I then picked up a few emergency items in Tesco's, and went in to work to check my mail, and to meet Norman before crossing the road to the bowling complex at about 6.40. Anne-Marie and Paul had gone over earlier to get a bite to eat in the bar, and we were soon joined by Nicola, Rikki and Chris. While we were getting our shoes, Norman entered the 'Trannies' and 'Teletubbies' teams into the scoring computer, and in a moment of compassion, assigned Nicola to our side. I actually think he'd intended to do that all along!
The next couple of hours passed very pleasantly, and all too quickly. No, I didn't get any strikes (I was the only player to achieve this feat), although I did get four spares - however, because of the way the points are accumulated, this did little to boost my overall score. I put my poor performance down to the fact that I was concentrating on displaying as much of my frilly knickers as I could - well, there's no point in wearing pretty underwear if you're not going to show it off, is there? However, Norman - the true professional - wasn't distracted in the least by this blatant exhibitionism, and scored more points in each game than I scored in the entire evening! But despite his valiant effort, the Trannies just managed to beat the Teletubbies, undoubtedly due to Nicola's not-inconsiderable skills. In fact, if her contribution had been added to the Teletubbies' score instead of to ours, we'd have been trounced! Of course, this meant that I was now the leader of the winning team, so the drinks were on me in the bar afterwards. Me and my big mouth! Fortunately, everyone was able to stay and chat for a while, which provided a great end to a very enjoyable evening - and the barman was even on hand to capture the event on camera [1]!
Oh, I nearly forgot the mention the result. No, I mean the real result - nothing to do with points, strikes or spares. As I'd anticipated, the combination of regular guys and regular girls in our group gave us trannies credibility - there were very few double-takes or raised eyebrows from anywhere. So at around 10.30 on my way out, I found the manageress and personally thanked her for the warm welcome we'd received, and took the opportunity to ask whether it'd be OK to have an all-tranny meeting there - taking in a couple of games and maybe a bite to eat - at some point in the future. She thrust a pile of 'special deal' leaflets into my hand, and replied that she'd be happy to have us in whenever we wanted - if I said I was "Norman's friend - the guy in the skirt", she'd remember me! With her subsequent comment about my "great-looking legs" still ringing in my ears, I left the building and got into my car. As I drove home, I reflected on what a wonderful success the evening had been - except for my performance on the lanes, that is! I soon found myself starting to work out the teams for the next match ......
Oh, alright! You're obviously desperate to know just how badly I played, so here are the full results:
| Name | Points (  first game  second game) |
Strikes | Spares |
| Norman | 366 |
 8 |
8 |
| Nicola | 310 |
4 |
9 |
| Paul | 220 |
4 |
4 |
| Chris | 200 |
2 |
5 |
| Rikki | 172 |
1 |
2 |
| Anne-Marie | 138 |
1 |
1 |
| Sally | 135 |
0 | 4 |
From personal notes.
