Sunday, June 4, 2107 (Court Day #34)
Work and other obligations prevented me from playing on Thursday night or Saturday morning. Even by yesterday, it seemed to be at least week since last playing but it had only been 4 days. It’s been busy.
I arrived at Derby Park at 10 a.m. to a full house—as you’d expect for an hour after start time! (Church this morning.)
You can see the $2 donation money jar while games are progress in the background.
Homework!
Jerry Louis was there ready with a folder with my name on it. “Andrew! Great timing!” Inside were handouts for his upcoming class. Homework! I emailed Jerry a few days ago explaining that my original plan of getting back in town on June 12 has changed and I’d unfortunately be arriving late in the evening the day of his first class! Jerry was very accommodating and arranged for one of the July class students to swap a day with me. By the sounds of things, that other person is Dave Allenbaugh who’s on the steering committee of the SCPC.
Goals
I had two goals set for myself today:
1) Make every serve.
2) Hit no ball short into my side of the net. (Unless it’s an impossible shot.)
I failed on both counts! I’ll have to try again next time. It’d hard to make your goals when you get distracted and forget about them!
There was one game of Marianne and me against Eric and a visiting RN from Southern California (as Terry Long told Eric and me). Marianne and I lost, but not badly. There was one point where I wish I had it on video. From the kitchen line at the left, Eric hit a shot short and angled off the court. I managed to dart there, stretch, and barely hit it back over the net. He hit it back toward the open space created between Marianne and me, but I got that one too. Eric hit it again but I was now at the kitchen too. Back the ball went and this time Eric dropped it about 6″ too short into the net. Point won. Marianne was very impressed. I was impressed with myself too! Something I couldn’t have done a couple months ago!
Bagel
The last game of the day was Terri (tall, tan) versus visor Geoff and a woman . . . I think her name was Christine. Terri and won 11-0. My first winning-side “bagel” as they say around the courts. (I was on the losing side a few weeks ago, if I recall correctly.)
Play wrapped up about 12:30 and I hung out about 15 additional minutes since one of the four rank beginners who had shown up was a pastel artist named Erika who is a patron of our family business. Jerry spent at least an hour explaining the rules to the four of them. Once he left, Maree shared her insight on city politics in terms of its impact on pickleball courts.
Brommer News
Google’s aerial view of Brommer Park when it was in better condition—and notice no visible pickleball court outlines! (Older photo apparently.)
It was announced mid-morning to the group that construction would begin in approximately two weeks on the new permanent Brommer pickleball courts:
Later, Dave Allenbaugh sent out the following in a message to the entire club:
“Thanks to every ones great effort, Santa Cruz County has approved four permanent pickleball courts at Brommer Park. This will include re-surfacing the entire area and re-locating the basketball nets. One tennis court will remain which will have painted pickleball lines so we can play with 8 courts, 4 permanent and 4 lined courts.”
That’s exciting. That means no dragging a 40 pound net bag around and setting up a court if you want to play at non-club times. There will be some ready to go 24/7! Cool!
Number of days on a court: 34
Number of total hours: 97.5
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