Monday, October 30, 2017 (Court Day #90)

I arrived at Brommer Park at about 8:40 a.m. It was overcast and in the mid-50s with only an intermittent slight breeze.

Today was the big dress up club party!


You can see me in my blue Star Trek tunic (fourth from the left). Terry Long is the pickle at the far left.

I ended up warming up with Dean. What an eye opener. Even simple dinking cross-court, he was taking me apart. Looking back, we were using a harder ball which has more springiness, so I was popping the dinks up more, but still he was volleying them out of the air and placing them perfectly at my left foot where I would either backhand it into the net or pop it up again. Miserable. Stuart noticed and after Dean opted to go help finish setting up, suggested I try a slightly bigger wrapping on my handle and perhaps a paddle with a bit more heft. He loaned me a paddle for a game that was 8 and some odd ounces. I have to admit I did like the slightly heavier paddle. I might have to pick up one of those and see.

We rolled into a game of Stuart and Tom S. (rainbow wig) against me and Leslie (I think), who lasted a few points but was needed elsewhere to organize. Karen Long (cat costume) jumped in as my partner to finish the game. We finished the game—it was not taken very seriously–then we all gathered up for a big group photo.

We played a rotational series. The courts were filled randomly with women then men were randomly filled in as their partners. We were short a couple of women, so there were a couple of men that filled out the two courts missing women. Each game lasted 12 minutes. The team ahead at the end of the allotted time won. The losing team stayed and split up. The winning team rotated clockwise to the next court and split up–each partner teaming up with one of the losers that stayed on the court. There was a 3 minute break between matches and a 10 minute break mid-morning. We started about 9:30 and played until about 11:45, playing 8 matches.

Break time! I’m sandwiched between Stuart (“Where’s Waldo?”) and Chuck, who’s dressed up as a gangster. Yes, I’m sporting black socks and black athletic shoes–hey, I wanted to be as authentic as I could get!
I won four matches, advancing after each. Then I lost two. Then won the next two.

The first game was Kevin and me against Dave A. and Kevin’s  wife Bev. With the shortage of women, Kevin (wearing a nightgown and wolf makeup and wig) got tagged to fill in a woman spot. It was a close match, 8-8 at the time of the 12-minute whistle, but It was my serve (8-8-2), we won the point and advanced from “Court 8” to “Court 1”.

Per the rules, Kevin and I split up. Kevin was paired with Lisa–a novice–and I was paired with English-accent Allan (also filling in for the shortage of women). Allan had painted his own skeleton costume (on black clothing) from scratch with a yellow pickleball as a heart. It was impressive! As you might expect, Allan and I won handily and advanced to Court 2.

In my third game, I found myself paired with Gary (who traded his long black rocker wig for a cap) against Allan and Karen. Not Karen Long, but blonde Karen who was wearing a mid-thigh military camouflage shirt/dress. Gary played about as best as I’ve seen him play and so he and I moved on to Court 3. Memorable in this game is i lobbed. I don’t lob very much these days, but they were running in and I had the ball, so up it went. Winner.

On Court 3, I teamed up with Sycha. Sycha is a strong intermediate left handed player. I can’t recall our opponents, but we won and advanced. “That’s the first time that I’ve won today!”, she said. She must have either had some very tough competition or weaker partners!

Onto Court 4, for game 5. I knew this was going to be trouble from the git-go. Sycha was teamed up with lefty Steve dressed impeccably as Fred Flintstone. Steve is very strong intermediate player. He’s got a great ground game with hard hits. If I have any edge over Steve, it might be the soft game and maybe strategy. If I had to pick a partner myself, I’d likely take him over me. Barbara was my partner. We scored points, but in the end, I think we lost by a 2:1 ratio. It’s rare to be playing against a team of both lefties. I’d dink to Steve’s backhand then realize it’s his forehand. Duh. I did that at least 2-3 times. Barb had her challenges too. My first loss of the day.

Still on Court 4, I was teamed back up with Allan once again against Dave Black and Barb R. Barb seemed to play a bit better with Dave–maybe going against righties, maybe that Dave is a stronger player than me, maybe the swap of the side of the court. Regardless, this was a battle. Each side clawed for points. At the whistle, it was 6-6. Dave placed a ball where I ended up popping it up and he hit it between Allan and me for the game winner. Rats.

Game 7 on Court 4. I was getting tied of Court 4. Gary had worked his way up and had won his last game with Bev. Bev became my partner and Gary became Allan’s. This one was painful. We had to play the full 12 minutes and even not focusing as much toward the end, Bev and I won 15-1. For whatever reason, the Andrew/Bev combination was a perfect storm for this game.

On to Court 5 for the 8th and final game of the day. Barb and I were down 9-3 against Bev and lefty Steve until I went on a run–serving to backhands the whole way–until we won 10-9 as time ran out. A nice way to finish up the morning. A win!

John P. as Edward Sissorhands and Dave Allenbaugh as a reefer-smoking hippy.

Play was followed by a potluck with an amazing amount of great food and delightful socializing.

Number of days on a court: 90
Number of total hours: 253.5

Click here to start at the beginning of this blog: PickleballJourney