Jai Alai in Connecticut
Celiane Reiner

On Saturday, March 28, 1998, six gnymensans traipsed off to Milford, CT to see what Jai Alai was all about. We met at the Connecticut Post Mall, and started off with dinner at Knickerbocker's. The food was good, and, as usual, the conversation was diverse and delightful. After dinner, we made our way to the Jai Alai arena, where we proceeded to try not to lose too much money.

For those of you who are not familiar with Jai Alai, it is similar to racquetball, except that instead of a racquet, the players use baskets that are attached to their arms to catch and throw a small, hard ball against a far wall. The ball travels at a high speed, so the players have to wear helmets and lots of padding to keep from getting killed by it, and netting prevents the ball from being flung into the spectators.

There are several matches each night, some singles and some doubles. Each match starts off with 8 players, or 8 teams, each team wearing a different colored shirt. First, player 1 starts off against player 2. The winner of that volley gets 1 point, then plays against player 3, and the loser moves to the end of the line. After each player has had at least one chance, the winner of each volley gets 2 points. The match continues in this fashion until someone gets 7 points, and wins. The players switch teams throughout the evening, so a player who was on the red team in Match 1 might be on the yellow team in Match 5.

To add to the excitement, you get to bet on the results of each match, in the same way you would bet on a horse race. You pick a player to bet on, then you decide whether to bet to win, place or show. There are Exactas, Quinellas, Trifectas, etc., just like at the races. When the match starts, you tend to cheer for the player you picked to win, but as the match progresses, the cheers take on a strange context. You may have picked #3 to win, but suddenly it's game point for #4 playing against #8. If #4 wins, you lose, so you start cheering loudly for #8 to win, in each round you cheer for the player who has the fewest points until #3 is back on the court. The attendees on this fun night were Celiane R., Richard A., Marty M., Cloty C., Karen C., and Beverly B.