Into Year 5 here and I had never been inside the Abu Dhabi Country Club, even though I lived barely a mile from it for three years.

That issue was addressed tonight during a sort of staff holiday party. The second leg of the festivities, where those of us who had been putting out the paper joined up, called for bowling at the Country Club, the only lanes in Abu Dhabi where you can be served beer while kegling.

Still not sure if a person can just walk in and start spending money, but that is what we did.

The Country Club is best known, in recent years, for having a very nice and upscale fitness area. I believe it costs several thousand dollars to get a one-year membership.

But we were there for bowling.

The bowling area is a weird little corner of the building, hard to find without knowing where you are going (unless you can hear the crashing pins, and follow the sound) …

Four lanes, each of them a bit short, which no bad bowler will regret, and a couple of service guys looking after your needs. One handling the bowling side and handing out silly shoes, etc., and the other bringing in buckets of beer.

Bowling and beer apparently are as inseparable as white on rice, but alcohol is served in Abu Dhabi generally only in hotels, or private facilities like this one.

The big Khalifa International Centre, which has 40 lanes … you have to make do with fruit juice or sodas — fizzy drinks, as the Brits call them.

I found no correlation between beer and bowling skill. I had two Coronas (Mexican beer, in Abu Dhabi!) while I bowled one game, and I was worse than usual.

We had 13 people there, broken into four teams, and the winning team was given the coveted “Gaudy Falcon Award”, a from-now-on perpetual trophy that presumably will be contested again next year.

It was all good, clean fun (though by the end of the night it apparently was a little tackier and far boozier), and this little corner of bowling, with beer at hand, is good to know about.

I can certainly see going back, and more than an hour before closing time.