Sunday, August 31, 2025 (Court Day #846)
This is a total aside, so you can skip down to “Brommer” if you want.
A friend of mine, John Biggar, is heavily involved in the regional bagpipe band scene. He’s been involved for years at the annual highland games held in Pleasanton. In fact, his parents were involved in founding the Pacific Coast Pipe Band Association in the mid-1960s, which was later renamed the Western United States Pipe Band Association. Back in 2011, John was the president of WUSPBA and he asked me to take on the role of Executive Secretary—the #3 position under the President and the VP—which I did for three years.
Unless something prevents me from going, such as the highland games being canceled for COVID or some major family event, I’m there every year at least for one of the two days.
Yesterday, I got up and ended up volunteering as tech-support at the announcers table next to John, helping him get the information ready for the next performing band so he could properly announce their details to the crowd. At the end of the day, he asked—hopefully—if I would be back the next day or not. He offered a free lunch and a ticket to get in. It’s about an hour drive to Pleasanton from Santa Cruz—and of course, another hour to get home afterward! Being a good husband, I checked in with my wife about coming up for a second day and she said “OK”. (Little did I know that she actually wanted me to stay in Santa Cruz and come with her to a party Sunday afternoon and meet a bunch of acquaintances of hers. Alas. I did tell her later to make sure to tell me what she really wants.)
Today
I did go back today and helped John again at the announcing table. I made very few comments through the microphone to the crowd, that’s John’s job!
I was up at 7 a.m. this morning, I wanted to make sure that I gave myself plenty of time to give our dog Pepper a long walk.
Anyway, it was a long day of activities and two hours in the car. When I left the Bay Area at 4:29 p.m., I told my wife I’d be home about 5:45 p.m.
Brommer
At 5:16 p.m., Frabrizio put out a call to the Whatsapp group that Rob was bringing lights and who wanted to come. I asked where. “Brommer.” Frabrizio later texted me privately and begged me to come. I was beat, but I decided to go.
I pulled in at Brommer Park about 8 p.m. It was sunset and the sky was pink.
Lights
I walked in and found one court lit up and the darker adjacent court had the last vestiges of a game going on. The lit court had Frabrizio and Rob playing against Ben and a woman who I don’t know.
Rob had three fancy portable lights set up, one at either end of the court and one along the sideline attached to the fence above the wall. After I arrived and it was getting darker, Rob brought out another light and—after permission of our court neighbors to put a light on their netpost—he secured a fourth light.
Right after I showed up, Michael “Beefcake” O’Brien appeared, but he didn’t bring a paddle or any of his gear. He said he was planning just to come and hang out. He said his son Colin was moving to a new place within Sacramento and it was 103°F. That sounds pretty miserable. While Rob and Frabrizio were drinking water and talking to each other, Mike hit a ball around with Mike using Rob‘s paddle. But that was the extent of his play. He stuck around and watched the game or two then decided to head home.
Games
By happenstance, I was teamed up with Rob against Frabrizio and Ben. We did win, but it was close.
After that first game, the teams seemed fairly balanced, so we continue to stick with the same partners—me/Rob, Frabrizio/Ben—for the rest of the session.
The games went like this:
1st: Won
2nd: Lost
3rd: Won
4th: Won
5th: Lost 0-11 (Yeah, ouch!)
6th: Lost 5-11
The last seventh game was tied 3-3, but then Rob and I went on to win 11-7.
We wrapped up that final game shortly after 10 p.m. Ben had to go, saying that he had homework to do. Would I have stayed to play another two games? Probably.
And?
Let’s see. Mistakes. A couple of drives into the net. I missed one serve into the white tape, but the rest were good… including two or three that were returned to the net by my opponents. I remember hitting a crosscourt return to Ben’s backhand that sailed way to the left. There was one shot that been hit that I thought it was high enough for me to slam when we were both at the net but I wasn’t low enough to keep myself from hitting it into the net.
I felt that I played ok, decently, especially considering that I simply wanted to stay home and rest. I consider my performance tonight a win.
After one dynamic rally, Rob paid me a nice compliment, “Your backhand drop shots are better than my forehand drop shots.”
As I drove home at 10:23 p.m., my car was still showing it is 66°F outside. That’s quite warm for a Santa Cruz night. After a few games, I had already been a bit sticky from perspiration.
One of my biggest concerns was how my left hip was going to feel both during playing and afterwards. Well, during playing it didn’t bother me at all, though I could feel it a little bit driving home afterwards. I’m hoping it’ll just heal up and any pain will go away.
Number of days on a court: 846
Number of total hours: 3,266.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 161.5
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