Sunday, July 15, 2018 (Court Day #170)
I got to Derby Park to open up about 10 minutes to 9. I was the first person there. Tom Sherwood was there not too long after, while I was still blowing off the courts.
It would be a nice nice day, if very windy.
When I saw Brennan, I told him, “I need to thank you. You are partially responsible for our win yesterday by providing us with good competition recently.”
Eric and I played David and Beth Black. When I told Beth I was really fatigued, she said it was normal for the day after a tournament. It was a close game, but Eric and I pulled off a win. (Later in the day, we’d get clobbered by them.)
After about an hour, I was dragging. The tournament had taken its toll on my body. I had not recovered. My play gradually got worse over the course of the morning. I was making some inexplicably bad shots. Eric also made far more than normal of very un-Eric-like shots.
Dale (from Santa Rosa) and Eric played Oleg and me. I was playing horribly. If we didn’t lose 11-0, it was close to that. Maybe 11-3 tops. It was embarrassing.
Eric and I played James and Oleg. We were down significantly, but Eric and I better adjusted to the wind and managed to eek out an upset win. Under normal circumstances, we should have likely lost that game.
It was a very busy court day. We had at least 52 people there to play. Someone told me, “Hey, Andrew! There are 18 people waiting to play.” I yelled out to the players, “Play to 9! Win by 1!” I need to get myself a whistle. It was at least an hour before we moved back to 11 point games.
Visor Tom waiting along with a slew of other people for his turn back on the courts.
David Black in his chair. It was a warm day, but constantly breezy.
I was so beat. I was done. Rare for me. But Eric was willing to play one more with Jeff and Olga and they needed a fourth. Ok, one more. Even without full effort, we took a 5-0 lead and later won 11-7. Jeff laughed after one of my failed service returns. “I looked like you weren’t even attempting to bend your knees!” I was so tired. I used a deep forehand slice on a serve by Olga and it was unreturnable. I told Jeff, “That was a shot by a lazy man.” (A shot made to reduce the amount of effort necessary to win the point!) I made a different “lazy man” shot later in the game. Jeff said, “You were beating us with all your lazy man shots!”
At 1:30, the last game of Oleg and James against the Blacks was done and it was time for me to go home. David thanked me for sticking around.
If I hadn’t won a gold medal yesterday and judged my play just from today, I’d consider giving up pickleball! There were way too many errant shots with no explanation.
In evening, I noticed my right forearm was sore along the top. A sore muscle. I shouldn’t have been surprised!
Monday, August 16, 2018 (No Play)
Dave Allenbaugh sent an email out to the club announcing our win and also providing an update on those locals who traveled to the Oregon Senior Games—Dean Kinston and Susie Dougan both won medals there.
Dave took some amusing liberties with enhancing our photo…
My body is quite sore from all the play over the weekend. I’m a little surprised by the overall physical toll of the tournament. The intensity that is required takes the game to a “whole ‘nother level”. It’s different if you get eliminated after four games (like Paso Robles) than if you work your way to the top and end up playing ten hard-fought games (like Pleasanton).
Number of days on a court: 170
Number of total hours: 473
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