Monday, September 7, 2026 (Court Day #962)

I spent the last four days in the Bay Area helping run bagpiping and drumming competitions at the Caledonian Club of San Francisco Scottish Games held annually in Pleasanton. I’m pretty beat. I was up late on Thursday, then up early on Friday morning compiling soloist information for the pro piping competition—nothing like learning getting assigned something at the last minute—then I was up at 6 a.m. Saturday and Sunday to get ready and transport the international judges from the hotel to the fairgrounds. Then I was the primary announcer for the pipe band competition. John Biggar, who has done the band announcing for decades wandered off to attend to other things and left me to go it alone at times. It was a fun and enjoyable weekend, though there are a lot of work.

Me at the microphone with announcing veteran John Biggar (light blue) and newbie Hal.

Ouch

I really did a number on my right knee last Tuesday night when I fell on my paddle while going for an ATP. There is still a large welt about an inch above my right knee cap. Surprisingly, there isn’t a whole lot of discoloration, just the big lump and scab where the skin broke. Thankfully, I had my knee brace on, and that must’ve softened and dispersed the blow slightly. The knee brace is primarily just stretchy fabric so it’s not like it made a huge difference, but I’m sure it helped a little.

Nice Day

It was 64° and a perfectly clear sky as I made my way to the courts. With the direct sun, it felt quite a bit warmer than it was.

Being that it was a holiday, I expected the courts to be busy. I had a number of options… Derby Park and Skypark with no organized play, or Willowbrook and Brommer both with organized club play on Mondays. The best bet for the strongest play was Brommer, so that’s where headed. But I expected the waits to be long.

Brommer Park

I pulled in at 9:27 a.m. and took one of the last of two parking spots. Oscar and cohorts were in the process of leaving as I arrived.

The scene as I walked in.

Games

Club play was underway, so the signup board to get onto courts was in effect. I played a couple of warm up games of mixed skill.

At 10 a.m., the various colored pens appeared to denote the assorted skill levels. I signed up in blue, which is supposed to be 4.0+.

Skill Games

I played with a woman named Sam against Mo and Ken Lancaster, the fellow who organizes some local tournaments. It was a close game. We lost 9-11.

We played again and lost the rematch 6-11.

This time, I played against Sam instead of with her. Ashley D’souza and I beat Shawnté and Sam 11-3. That was with me trying to hit more to Shawnté.

Shawnté gave me a compliment, telling me that I have hard, fast serves. He explained that his shoulder is recovering from an injury and otherwise he would’ve been able to return the two serves of mine that didn’t make it back over the net.

Mo and I lost 4-11 against Paul and Ashley. I hadn’t seen Paul for quite some time. He is in his mid 70s, and said that he hasn’t been playing for a couple of years due to a back injury. That said, he played really well.

Mo, Kim, Oscar

Mo told me that she is no longer playing with Spencer in tournaments at
The Hub—the indoor facility in Campbell. She says that she can’t hang in the 4.5 tournaments that Spencer is playing. Instead, Spencer has been playing with Aaron Bartley’s wife Kim. Mo said that Kim is better than her husband and was very likely the best player out on the courts today. At that given time, Sean Lynch and Kiko and some of the other stronger players were not there yet. Mo was saying that Kim can speed up just about anything and hit hard with accuracy and topspin to keep the ball from going out. Mo added that she’s been playing mixed tournaments with Oscar and gender doubles with Kim.

The last game wrapped up, and when I checked the time, it was 12:15 p.m. I was supposed to be at a family birthday party for my niece at noon. Oops. Somehow, I lost about 30 minutes of time! Time to go!!

Pro Shocker

Anna Leigh Waters and Ben Johns were taken down in the semi-finals over the weekend in PPA National Championships. Those two have been a steamroller for quite a while.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Dc7LUffDh8D/
They were beaten by Jorja Johnson and JW Johnson.

Here’s a clip of the final rally of the match:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dc7H72KOQ1A/

Number of days on a court: 962
Number of total hours: 3,535.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 231.5

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