What: The Saturday Club Inter-Club Sports Carnival 2011, in association with The Telegraph.

On Till: May 8.

Games People Play: The event kicked off Friday, April 29, and comprises swimming, tennis, table tennis, squash, badminton, snooker, and bridge. Ten city clubs are participating in the events, including the host club.

Winning teams from each event contribute points to their respective club’s tally. The final score will determine the champion club. Lots are drawn in advance to decide who will play whom in each category.

“Swimming is one of the most popular events and sees huge participation,” said Atul Anand, the joint convener, entertainment, of the carnival.

The Mood: On Saturday evening, Day II of the carnival, the mood was much like a school sports day, with each club cheering its own members just as students cheer their houses. But winning is serious business too, and each club had brought along its arsenal of “best players”.

For tennis, if it was tense faces and taut muscles on the clay courts, excited shouts of “Go Tolly” could be heard from the sides.

But the real face-off took place away from the sporting arena — on stage. The event in question? The much-talked-about dance competition.

The moves: “We include this event in the sports carnival since it is a huge hit with kids and youngsters,” explained Anand.

For the dance competition, the club hall was packed with participants, members and excited cheer squads as the teams set the stage on fire. Loud cheers, claps and whistles rent the air.

While Tolly opened the act with a Facebook-themed performance with some energetic jungle dance moves, DI followed with a tribute to Saturday Club.

“We’ve come here year after year and treated it like home,” said Barry ’Brien, who introduced DI’s performance. The DI team had everyone dancing to their medley of hits, including numbers from Cats, Grease, Bombay Dreams, My Fair Lady and Dirty Dancing. DI’s home-grown Travolta and Olivia Newton John, drew the loudest cheers.

Saturday Club’s colourful moves with three sets of costumes also won applause. Other clubs that participated in this category were CC&FC, Ordnance Club, The Calcutta Swimming Club and Bengal Rowing Club

UB voice: “This is the 36th sports carnival and one of the premier events of the club,” said Ravi Saberwal, the president of The Saturday Club.

Text: Malini Banerjee

Pictures: Rashbehari Das