Beer Ping Pong? Where? Hatch End. What is it? Read on.

Story

It was a fine sunny day in London, England and all the restaurants in Hatch End had put their tables on the pavement (to my USA readers that's British for sidewalk, not the roadway). Here's Chuck burger bar. 

I was walking along Hatch End's Broadway admiring the restaurants, and minding everybody else's business, when I saw two members of staff at Chucks restaurant throwing something into red plastic cups. I thought, "Why are they doing that? Why are the staff at Chucks chucking things about?"

Problem
What is that long table doing? And what are those red cups on the table? Why does the man on the right have a ball in his hand?

Answer
I asked the man on the left. He is Michael (nicknamed 'Fish') Sherry, the restaurant supervisor. Michael, or 'Fish', told me.
"This idea has come from America. It's a game called beer pong. You throw a small ball into the plastic cups. The winner gets to drink (the) beer!"

I noticed the red plastic cups were in a triangular pattern. It's a game. Like a snooker table, I thought.
Looking closer, I saw the words B e e r Pong on the other end of the table. Good gracious. It's not just two guys larking about. It's big business. Somebody actually makes and sells tables with markings for Beer Pong.

The member of staff explained it to me.

I was distracted. Dreadful ants were flying about everywhere. I said, "Look at these dreadful ants."

Michael replied, "Yes - they do that every year. But luckily they're only around for two days. They will be gone soon."

That was a great relief. I asked, "What are they called?"

"Flying ants."

"Thanks. I must fly," I said.

Before I did, I took a photo of them, not the ants, the staff at Chuck.

I read the rules in Wikipedia.
"Beer pong, also known as Beirut, is a drinking game in which players throw a ping pong ball across a table with the intent of landing the ball in a cup of beer on the other end."

Does it make the customers drink more beer, or delay their reaching the beer? I'm not sure I'd drink beer with ping pong balls landing in it. You can play with water in the cups, and then buy a beer.

Tips
For a discussion on the terms ping pong and table tennis see
https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/

More details of the game from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_pong

Play it in Hatch End at
Chuck 322-326 Uxbridge Road
Hatch End
HA5 4HR
W chuckburgerbar.com
E info@chuckburger.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have many more posts on restaurants and things to see and do in Hatch End, London, England, the UK, the USA, Cambodia, Italy, Romania, Singapore and all over the world. Please share links to your favourite posts.