Tuesday, December 26, 2017 (Court Day #105)
Being that work was closed today, I took the opportunity to spend the morning . . . playing pickleball! Duh. I pulled up at outside of Willowbook Park in Aptos a 5-10 minutes before 9. Tom S. was setting up. Richard, who sometimes appears at Derby, parked and started walking to the courts as I parked on the street. (There is no dedicated lot.)
Tom Sherwood gets to work setting up the first net.
I helped Tom by setting up a net. Richard helped as well. There was a large—and several inches deep—puddle on one court. I can see why Tom said people don’t like to play on that one—it has a significant indent! So much so that there was an orange traffic cone marking the little lake! There were, therefore, four pickleball courts available. Three on either side of the tennis net and one taking up one of the two half-court basketball courts.
Getting Started
I officially introduced myself to Bob, one of the site coordinators for Willowbrook. He would be my first opponent of the day. Bob is a pretty decent player. He’s not a young guy, but he consistently makes most of his shots.
I was playing a few times today with a woman named Erin who said she’s a 4.0 player. Early in the day, I overheard her saying that she made it through four rounds at the Nationals. Maybe she was having an off day, but I would have put her at 3.5 tops. At least, today, I played better than she did.
Near the end, Colleen and Rich played a match against Tom S. and me. It was a good game. “You are getting my winners back!”, yelled Colleen. The thing is, she does the same thing to me! I hit a ball that I don’t think will be coming back yet it finds its way back over to my side. She’s quick with her paddle.
I was playing a game with Erin and myself against Jukka and Erin’s former doubles partner . . . I can’t remember her name. Jukka served a hard angled serve. It was nearly impossible to get to, but I managed it and returned it to the enter of their court. I was completely off the court though. Erin did a decent job holding her own until I got back on the court but she ended up hitting it into the net just as I got back into position. It took me a few seconds—I was way off the court! Afterward, Jukka’s partner said, “I can’t believe what I saw! I can’t believe you got that!” Sometimes I make highlight shots, sometimes I embarrass myself!
Afterward, I told Jukka, “Thanks for playing, you always make for a good challenge.” He thanked me back and said I’d improved so much from the time I started. I told him I didn’t know what I was doing when I started!
I wish I’d gotten more games in with Colleen. And Greg’s wife Angie was there too, but I didn’t get to play with her.
Official
After I got back home from pickleball about 1 p.m., I dropped the registration for the February Livermore tournament for Eric and myself into my mailbox. Off it goes! Based on advice, we’ll give 3.0 a go. Sounds like Eric is lining up a “tournament lesson” with Jerry Louis for us, John P., and Tom Sherwood.
Number of days on a court: 105
Number of total hours: 295.5
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