Sunday, November 19, 2017 (Court Day #94)

I arrived at Derby Park at 8:45 to open up. It was 51° but mostly clear skies. Rolando rode up on his bicycle a few minutes later and helped bring out the net bags.

My first game—it would have been better had it been my last after I’d warmed up!—was with Stuart as my partner against Leslie and Kim. Boy, I think I singlehandedly lost that game and told Stuart so. I was hitting out long, out too far left, out too far right . . . never way out but 6 inches to a foot out might as well be 20 feet! Kind of embarrassing when getting to be on a court with advanced players.

A young couple arrived today for their first visit, Amanda and Guillermo. Nice people from Capitola. Amanda said that Kevin and Bev had showed them how to play and she and Guillermo had just played singles by themselves at Brommer Park since. After I had them sign the waiver, they signed up on the court waiting list board. I told them I was already committed to another game, but afterwards, I’d be happy to play with them. But, they found some partners by the time I got back. They got in on a number of games.

It turned into a beautiful day. Stuart whistled very loudly, stopping play mid morning. “Look up. This is why we live here! That’s all!” Sunny, not much breeze, the perfect pickleball temperature in the mid-60s.

Turnout was large. We played “to 9, win by 1” again today. We had about 40 people there.

My play started inconsistent but improved over the morning. Between a lack of staff at work and heavy rain on Thursday afternoon, I hadn’t played for a week. I was pretty solid later as I warmed up.

Ok. I’ve been debating, but I’m going to mention this just ’cause. Jeff (new, tennis), Terry (Laura’s husband), Warren and I were rotating partners and played four games at the end of the day. Partnered with Jeff, I made one service return where I put a bunch of spin on the ball, it dropped over the net into the kitchen and “did not pass Go”, it bounced up or sideways for a winner with no way that Terry could reach it in time. It’s fun when that happens. Jeff goes crazy with spin on his shots. Once he develops more patience in waiting for a winning shot and a stronger short game, he’ll be deadly.

They’re back!

Eric was back from his east coast trip, but we didn’t get to play on the same court. But it was nice to see him again.

Bruce and Janet were there. When I said I hadn’t seen them in a while, Bruce said Janet was injured. Probably from when she tweaked her back.

Bruce got an ace against me today! I’m not sure if that has ever happened before—anyone getting a clean ace on me. If so, it was once or twice. Quite the rarity. Regardless, it was a fantastic serve. Low and fast and angled off the court. Come to think of it, did my paddle tip it on its way out of the court? Maybe. Still, great serve.

Honesty

I called a foot fault on my own partner today. Warren (gray ponytail) landed on the baseline for a couple of serves. He was quick to properly correct it. He’s a good sport.

Dura

The biggest event of the day was decision by the steering committee of the Santa Cruz Pickleball Club to provide tournament style balls for use by anyone who wants one. Pickleball Inc.’s Dura Fast 40 balls. “The Onix balls last two years. These last 3 months,” said Stuart. One ball got used, but that was it. I’m going to try to play with those going forward.

The games wrapped up at 12:45.

Dave Witte (the SCPC Treasurer) told me to make sure to take the Dura balls home. He said when the temperature drops near freezing, the Dura balls develop “micro fractures” that cause the balls to crack.

I went home, watched the Raiders get wiped out by the Patriots and marked all the new balls with permanent marker: “SCPC”.

Number of days on a court: 94
Number of total hours: 266.5

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