Greenies bowl 'em over

Green with envy: Mike Charles (in shades) shows teammates and rivals Tristan Hands, Greg Pingo, Jade Budd, Tessa Macnab and Katrina Cumming the kind of form you need to bowl a decent ball.

Despite its hardiest efforts and its very arresting greening campaigns, the student-run Green Campus Initiative (GCI) has not yet become the household name it would like to be around UCT, especially among members' fellow students.

Also, it would appear that some thought of them as radicals and extremists. And as the GCI's is an initiative to win hearts as well as minds, they thought they'd shatter that stereotype.

So on the evening of 10 February, the Initiative hosted the self-proclaimed "first ever UCT Green Bowls Championship", running it at The Mowbray bowling grounds. The emphasis wasn't so much on the competition - the pros would perhaps frown at the students' technique, and some of the scorekeeping was downright suspect - as it was on fun, many adorned in colourfully green costumes. (There were generous prizes for the best-dressed teams.)

Hair-raising: Not distracted by either his own mane or his teammates skirts, Francis Moult lets on rip.

"We wanted students to know they can party and still recycle and be environmentally friendly," says GCI member Terence Goldberg. "And we wanted to show that we're just normal people."

Going by some of the outfits, normal may be a stretch.