It was a classic challenge.  Bible study versus bible study in a head to head battle with facial hair on the line.

In February of 1999 my bible study challenged Richard Featherstone's bible study to a game of Wallyball.  To make things more interesting Richard and I agreed that the loser would shave his beard.  It was a close contest.

We played best two out of three.  To determine who served first Richard (the opposing team leader) and I played Rock-Paper-Scissors.  I beat him handily with Rock to his Scissors.  Good old Rock.

My team had practiced the Wednesday before, which gave us a distinct advantage in the first game.  We quickly racked up a five or six point advantage.  The other team managed to close the gap a little, but not enough.  We won the first game.  The second game was more even.  The other team had five players to our four, but our team work was better.  We gained another quick lead and they looked like they were starting to lose spirit.  But then one of their best servers rotated in and they made up their lost ground.  They had gotten their second wind.  We were neck and neck for the rest of the game. At the end we were serving for game point with a two point lead, (you have to win by 2 points).  A series of unlucky serves gave them the chance to pull themselves out of the fire and win 17 to 15.