As sporting contests go, this one had it all. Skill, strategy, changes of fortune, and battles against not only the opposition, but nerves and the raging elements (viz. a light breeze). Yes, unbeknownst to the majority of the city one of Krakow's most exciting sporting competitions took place this Sunday on Plac Sikorskiego... the inaugural Krakow Street Ping Pong Championship, contested in 2008 by Cracow Life and Where2b, both of whom had managed to reach the final due to a lack of any other contenders.
The match started brightly for Cracow Life, with star ping pongists Slinky and Rick Dodge extending an early lead as Where2b's own table tennis heroes struggled to find their form. The first game was duly won by CL, and after some Top Gun-style high fives they went on to claim a second. Some confusion then reigned as Cracow Life believed they had already taken the title - but a quick consulting of the rule book by Where2b's Mr. C (who was also refereeing the match) proved that the championship was in fact decided by the best of five.
This lifeline seemed to spur Mr. C and his ping pong partner in crime, Jan Minimal Jan, to new levels of competitiveness, and during the next two games (despite some bickering) the formidable duo were able to claw their way back into the match - at quarter to four in the afternoon the championship was very much in the balance at two games all.
The peripatetic crowd of drunks, street urchins and the odd stray dog could barely watch (or rather did barely watch) as each of the next forty odd points were played out under extreme pressure, with some rallys reaching as many as three shots... but as the trials of this tightly fought contest began to take their toll on all the competitors it was the superior fitness of Slinky and Mr. Dodge that enabled them to bat their way to victory, with Slinky still able to summon enough strength for a couple of crucial topspin winners. It was Cracow Life 3, Where2b 2.
Unfortunately the victors chances of eternal sporting fame were ruined by a freak rain storm which erased their achievements which had been duly engraved in the soil, just besides the ping pong table. A cruel twist in a dramatic day.
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