I apologize for not posting about this sooner. I'm starting a pinball league for women in downtown Oakland. Our first meeting is today, September 15th at 4pm.

I realize that is probably too short notice for tonight, but we will have seven more meetings over the fall season. Players who attend at least three meetings will qualify to participate in league playoffs. Cost to play in the league is $10.

We will have four meetings on Sunday afternoons at 4pm: September 15, October 6, October 20, November 10. We will also have four meetings on Monday evenings at 7:30pm: September 30, October 14, October 28, November 25.

Meetings will be held at Rico's Hi-Life at 400 15th Street in downtown Oakland (15th and Franklin). There is ample street parking available in the vicinity, and the location is about two blocks from the 12th Street/City Center BART station as well as several major bus lines.

I'm happy to answer any questions people have. Otherwise, hope to see some of you ladies there! Men, please pass this on to any Bay Area based woman pinball enthusiasts you know.

Website: bellesandchimespinball.com

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Thanks, everyone! We had thirteen women come to play for our first night. It was really fantastic, everyone had a great time. And I've gotten a lot of interest from other women who want to come to future events.

I've posted a brief recap on our blog, along with some of Gene's awesome photos: http://blog.bellesandchimespinball.com/2013/09/scenes-from-belles-chimes-meeting-1/

You gamble with 9 year olds!?

Updating this topic now that our first season is over. It was fantastic, absolutely exceeded my expectations. We averaged 12-15 players per meeting, and had a total of 37 players over the course of the season, more than half of whom had never participated in organized pinball before. I had a ton of fun and got to meet a bunch of really amazing women.

We also got some media attention this week! The East Bay Express, Oakland's alt-weekly paper ran a story about the league in yesterday's paper: http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/a-league-of-their-own/Content?oid=3767283 and a local online news site, Oakland North, did a audio/visual slideshow featuring quotes from some of our players: http://vimeo.com/79822332

I encourage any women pinball players in the Bay Area to sign up for our e-mail list, I'd love to see you at one of our events sometime!

Sorry, Gene! Our shirts are for dues-paying members only. They are pretty awesome, though!

Gene, you should tell her to come play with us next season! Attendance at one meeting + dues gets you a shirt.

caligirl, you should definitely come play with us sometime. Several of our players said they've tried out other leagues and not liked the experience very much, but they love playing with us. We also plan to start hosting some informal meetups with different play formats on non-league nights, so you should definitely sign up for our e-mail list to be notified of events: http://eepurl.com/DDiKv