The women's team of the Kegel-Sport-Vereinigung Wieseck e. V. plays at the highest level and spreads Bundesliga flair in the district. As a loyal partner, Stadtwerke Gießen is supporting the players and extending its sponsorship for a further three years.
Whether at children's birthday parties or with friends in the pub round the corner, bowling continues to enjoy great popularity. The players of the women's team of the Kegel-Sport-Vereinigung Wieseck e. V., who are successfully competing in the 1st Bundesliga, prove that this traditional leisure activity can be much more challenging. Their discipline: scissor bowling.
"A national league team in particular needs reliable partners," says Stephanie Orlik, who is responsible for sponsorship at Stadtwerke Gießen (SWG). SWG has been supporting the best female bowlers in the region since 2014. Just in time for Christmas, both parties can announce that they are extending the partnership for another three years. "Promoting top-class sport is important to us," says Stephanie Orlik, explaining the continuation of the sponsorship.
The somewhat different sport
There are four different areas of bowling in Germany - scissor, classic, plank and bowling. "Scissor bowling differs from the well-known classic variant primarily in the nature of the lane," explains team captain Luisa Stark. The ball has to overcome a height difference of ten centimetres from the support plank - the place where the ball is launched - to the pins on an even incline. And the running surface widens from 35 centimetres to 1.25 metres from around the halfway point. The most interesting feature for the game, however, is that the track is curved inwards by a few millimetres. This curve influences the path of the thrown ball. "That's what makes our game so exciting. Because no two lanes are the same and we play on four lanes per match. As a result, we always have to adapt to the new conditions," says Luisa Stark, describing the main challenge.
Another attraction of scissor bowling lies in the two forms of play that make up a match. On the one hand, the game into the full, in which the athletes always throw at nine skittles with every throw. The second is clearing. In this mode, the aim is to bring the skittles down completely with as few throws as possible. Only the centre cone - known as the king - is allowed to remain standing, but this does not count towards the score. With a total of 120 throws per game, the maximum achievable score - also known as the wood count - is 1080. Hobby players score around 650 wood per game, while the Bundesliga cracks from Wieseck score around 850 wood. That requires years of experience and plenty of skill. Attributes that the women's team of the Kegel-Sport-Vereinigung Wieseck e. V. can boast.
Regulars in the national league
The club emerged from the merger of the "Gut Holz Wieseck" and "Vorwärts Wieseck" bowling teams in 1994. The club celebrated one of its greatest sporting successes in 2009 when the women's team was promoted to the 1st Bundesliga. Since then, with a brief interruption of one season, the team has been bowling in Germany's top division - and they want to keep it that way. Consequently, the players at the home venue in Philosophenstraße, the "Am Ried" bowling centre, regularly hone their technique. Luisa Stark puts it like this: "To be able to compete with the best teams, everything has to be right. Even the attitude. That's why we always give 100 per cent. But in addition to the will to win, there is something else that characterises us - the fun of the game and, above all, the team spirit within the squad."