Sunday, December 5, 2021 (Court Day #442)
I got up, put on sunscreen, got ready to head to Derby Park. My court shoes are ready to be replaced, but I’ll probably eek out a few more sessions.
I looked at the temperature outside as I was about to leave. 47°F. Chilly. Overcast. It seems that the non-summer weather has finally arrived to Santa Cruz.
Member Appreciation Day!
When I arrived at 8:40, Tony was parked with a car full of items for a club “Member Appreciation Day” today. I offered and helped carry some things in. Over the session, players helped themselves to bagels, coffee, and chai. I had a bagel and a half myself!
An early newer couple was surprised that I was still just wearing only a T-shirt and shorts. I told them, “I’ll be warm soon enough!” (And I was.)
There were some newbie players on a court with a city net. These days, with four city portable nets available 24/7, it seems there is always someone at the courts before me even with me coming early to set up.
UCSC
Two UC Santa Cruz Physics PhD grad students were there, Evan and Nolan. They came a week or two ago as well, though we didn’t play any games together. Evan is about 6′ and Nolan about 5’8″. They signed up as “advanced”. Evan is a strong player, easily 3.5. Nolan isn’t bad either, but not as strong a player as Evan. While at the net, Evan was taking advantage of my partner’s drives from our baseline, simply angling them off the court or dropping them short. Unless you are dynamite player with rocket forehands, drives from deep in your own side of the court will only get you so far. Once you are against 3.5 or 4.0 players, that game is up and those drives will put you at a disadvantage. (That can change again if you end up in the pros, but that’s darn uncommon!)
Dave Cox and I played Evan and Nolan. We won. Dave outplayed me in that game, it was not my best. Drops a little too high, lobs too short, things were “off” a little bit for me.
Busy
It was busy enough that, midmorning, I blew my whistle and announced that we were switching to “play to 9, win by 1”. There were no complaints, which was nice.
I got some good games in with Eric S. and Ted B. I only played a few games where I played lefty to even it up or otherwise took it easy on my opponents. John P. is continuing to play a two-handed lefty game. He has an odd drop serve where he then serves the ball with both hands on his paddle.
I asked Janet if she’d close up and she agreed. I was off at 12:45 to share the broadcast of Raiders game (kickoff 1:05 p.m.) with my son Nicholas via FaceTime. Maybe I should have stayed and played . . . it was a low-scoring game that the Raiders lost. Bleh. They have lost four of the last five and are in a late season slump for the third year in a row.
Overall?
I felt I did ok. I told Ted that I hadn’t played my best and he said he though I played well today. We can often be our own worst critics.
Number of days on a court: 442
Number of total hours: 2,161.5
To start at the beginning of this blog click on “1st Post” in the menu above.
Leave a Reply