Monday, January 17, 2022 (Court Day #456)
51° on this partly-cloudy morning. I pulled into the last of five parking spots; it was already busy at Brommer Park. With finally enough crew at work today, I told my staff that I’d be in about 12:30 p.m. and I took the morning off to play.
Tall Clayton from Scotts Valley was there and when I yelled “hello”, he trotted over from his nearby game, holding his paddle to the chain link fence in greeting for me to tap mine to his.
Since Mondays are a club day, before 10 a.m. is mixed skill play. For the first game, I asked, “Which of you is the weakest player?” (I commented to Patty later on how there are so many new players who I don’t know these days!) One woman told me that she probably was. I said, “I’ll play with you.” “You must be pretty good.” I likely answered something noncommittal. We were soon down 4-0, but we went on to win by 4-5 points as I started to warm up and nail my shots.
Red, not red?
There was a “Matt” signed up in red on the board. I asked someone who it was and he pointed to firefighter Matt S. Matt should not be signing up in red in my opinion, at least at Brommer, but I added my name. Allan K. asked if he and Robin L. could sign with us. I paused, then said ok. A woman nearby nearby chided, “You hesitated!” I did. But I did say yes.
In that game, Allan made a great shallow cross-court shot, I dashed outside of the sideline to my left to return it, stretching and reaching in the process, then instantly pivoted and had to get back to cover the opening I’d left for Robin’s return shot. I managed that and we won the point, “Did you switch hands for that shot?” “I did.” Matt chuckled and said something to the affect of being in awe. If all my shots were like that, I’d be a 4.0 or 4.5 easy! But consistency is my hurdle.
I pulled something in the back of my right hand in that game. It wasn’t crippling, but it was painful enough that I missed a shot because of it. Almost like a cramp, but I’d strained it exactly like that once in recent months at work. It mostly went away, fortunately. Now, hours later, there’s still some residual from that, but it’s minor.
Last Game
Later, I played my last game with Eric (Anne’s partner) against Matt S. and a fellow named Glenn. (I’d seen Glenn before, but our paths don’t cross much at all.) It was a fairly close game, but Eric and I won 11-7. Not a wimpy game. It started lightly raining with big but sparse drops. By the time the game ended 25%-30% of the court area was covered with drops.
As I walked back to the waiting area, Patty called over, “Andrew! Play with us!” I told her “Sure” and she added me to her box of red players. Patty is a good player. It’s a feather in my cap to get tapped to play with her group. Some recognition! Unfortunately, that game never happened.
Rain
Leslie—SCPC board member and the site coordinator for today—walked over and asked me, “What do you think? Should we stop club play?” This was a “strength in numbers” move. I nodded/head-bobbed in a halfhearted questioning “yes” kind of way . . . like “yes, I think, but I don’t want to stop playing.” She took it as a yes and announced we were taking the club nets down. As several of us took some at 11:15, the courts were now completely wet from the large rain drops. It wasn’t a heavy rain, but it was plenty to make the courts slippery.
“Are you playing Tuesday night?”, Matt asked, as he stood by his wife Carolyn and daughter Sarah. I told him I was planning on it. He said, “Good . . . I want a rematch!”
I headed home then to work.
What did I learn?
It definitely takes me a few games to warm up!
Health
Tennis elbow is still acting up a little bit. The outside of my right knee has bothering me last week or so, but it’s not bad. And as mentioned, the back of my right hand. Various aches and pains from playing two days in a row. I can’t complain, it’s a good problem to have, muscle and joint fatigue!
Number of days on a court: 456
Number of total hours: 2,201
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