Monday, November 5, 2018 (Court Day #219)

I went to work. Smoke was hanging low in the morning sky. As I stepped out of my car, small bits of ash were falling. I was a bit concerned, but I figured I’d hope it was not an issue a few more miles to the south at the courts. I put in about 50 minutes preparing an order. I left for Brommer Park around 8:45 and arrived before 9. No ash or noticeable smoke. Five people were already there: Leslie, Tom S., John P., visor Tom and Wayne.

Warming up for the first game of the day. Tom Sherwood (left) and Leslie taking on visor Tom and John P. (crouching).

Midmorning, starting a game, Visor Tom said, “I get Andrew? I won the partner lottery!” High praise indeed! We did win, though I played a notch down from other games on the day.

Stuart and I played a game against Allan and Rich. After I hit a winner, Stuart said, “Too bad no one is watching, they’d be cheering that shot!” Jane had been watching earlier and commented, “Andrew. You get a lot of curve on your serves!” There are days where all you can do is get your serves in. And others where the opponent’s service court is like a football field that you can’t miss—that’s what it was feeling like today. On those good days, I take more risks to “make trouble” for my opponents as Mark Renneson would say. Stuart and I won.

I left the court around 11:15. Today, I’ve hit the 600 court hours milestone.

Another Tournament?

Tonight, I messaged Colleen Gilmartin—who plays regularly in Scotts Valley—asking if she’d be willing to play in mixed doubles on November 17. She got back to me and said it “sounds fun”.

I went to email Jennifer about getting Colleen and me registered and it occurred to me to check Colleen’s USAPA rating online. Oh. 4.0 doubles. 4.0 mixed doubles. Hmmm. This could be a problem since I’m a 3.5. I could play up, but by the book, even with an unsanctioned tournament, she shouldn’t play down. I messaged Colleen again about it. She was quite surprised that she was listed as a 4.0. She said she’d played her first senior tournament last week as a 3.5 and her 3.5 opponents were all better than her. And, she’d played a few tournaments 3 years ago, but they were all as 3.5. Quite a puzzle. Anyway, 3.5 it is. I emailed Jennifer—C.C.-ing Colleen—asking how we get registered. We’ll see how long it takes for Jennifer to get back to us.

Number of days on a court: 219
Number of total hours: 600

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Wednesday, October 31, 2018 (Court Day #218)

I arrived at Derby Park around 9 a.m. It was cold, but sunny and warmed up in short order.

After warming up, I had to take a short break to check-in online for my Southwest flight tomorrow to New Orleans for a trade show. Using my iPhone, I signed up in the first 20-30 seconds once permitted, but I still ended up in the “B” boarding group. Ah, well.

It was a lightly attended day. Maybe an effect of it being Halloween.

New Paddle

One thing of significant note. My new replacement Tempest Wave paddle. Holy cow! An AMAZING difference in performance from the old delaminating one! Super noticeable! It was like night and day. It has much more pop. The old one was dead in comparison. I have to wonder how much better my performance would have been in San Juan Bautista had I had this new paddle. Boy.

One of the early games was Carrie and me against Ron and Sue (tall blonde woman). Carrie and I led 10-0 before they finally scored a point. We won 11-1. I felt bad at one point as they were giving me easy winners. Afterward, Carrie said, “I like playing with Andrew. He makes me look good!”

New Guy

A new guy named Charles came to play. Charles is a stately older African America gentleman. Sometimes, players will grunt when they hit the ball. Charles is one of those. Grita and Charles took on me and MaryAnn. (Not Marianne.) Grita is funny. She was hitting almost exclusively to MaryAnn. Grita likes to win. While I was hitting to Charles about half the time, they were mostly lollipop shots. Easy serves, easy drives. Granted, I hit a few that weren’t, but I was taking it easy on him. If Charles weren’t so new, I would have been hitting much more to Grita. I’m not there to win in rec play, I’m there to get better. MaryAnn and I lost 11-9. Charles will catch on with time. He drives too much into the net, but he’s a newbie. He has very promising hand-eye coordination.

The last game of my morning—I had to get to work by noon, too much to do before my trip—was Eric, Chris, me, and Ted B. Eric asked, “How do we want to do this? I think we should split up.” “I’ll take Ted.” Ted was funny: “I don’t know if I should be honored that you want to play with me or offended that you think I’m the worst player!” I was expecting us to lose. But I was playing very, very well. And Ted did fine. Ted and I won 11-3 which was a big surprise.

About 11 a.m., it was time for me to hit the road. I was very happy with my play today after a forced 10-day break. It might be another full week before I get to play again, but we’ll see.

I need to register for the Templeton tournament with Dave Cox. Dave will be my fourth tournament partner: Eric, John P., Rob. Now Dave.

Friday, November 2, 2018 (No play)

Surprisingly, my right shoulder muscle is sore from Wednesday. Sheesh, I get a little break and I lose my edge!

I registered last night for the Templeton tournament—I almost completely forgot being out of state in Louisiana and busy with a trade show—but I forgot to tell Dave that I had done so. I texted him late, about three hours before the deadline, hoping he was not still traveling himself.

YouTube suggested a video for me, it’s a fun point to watch. It’s not visually clear, but the ball clips the net cord right before it gets hit into the net. The announcer does point that out.

Sunday, November 4, 2018 (No play)

Dave didn’t get my text message in time to register before the deadline for Templeton. I emailed Mike, the TD, to see if he could add Dave manually. He got back to me and said he added Dave but Dave would have to pay the day of the tournament. Excellent. We are good to go. It’ll be interesting to see who our opponents pick to target in each game. It may just depend “on the day” which of the two of us is “on” and which is have a subpar day.

Number of days on a court: 218
Number of total hours: 598

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Sunday, October 21, 2018 (Court Day #217)

After a lot of warm days, this overcast morning started in the low to mid-50s. It would burn off and get very pleasant.

It was an unusually light attended day at Derby Park, maxing out at a mere 25 players. With the Bay Area Senior Games one week away, Stuart figured that many tournament players were over at a Brommer Park instead. Not that we typically see the strongest players at Derby regardless. Once permanent courts went in at Brommer last year, the advanced players showed up less and less. It’s a shame for players like me who are pushing the skill level available for intermediate opponents. That’s not to say I don’t get challenged, I do. Bihg has very quick hands. Oleg is frequently the best player on a given day at Derby, like today. Grita provides good games. Nick (of Nick and Tammy) is catching on quickly with his strong tennis background. John P. keeps me honest, Karl is continuing to improve and gets some good shots in but you can catch him with some shots. The surprise of the day was playing against Art. The tournament wasn’t a fluke. Art played much better than I would think of him. He’s gotten a lot better. After the day wrapped up, Art mentioned that he’s planning to move to Mexico. That’s a bummer.

Oh, funny moment. Cameron and I were on one side of the net and were warming up with Bihg. Things were going normally until I decided to spin a dink sideways to my left to Cameron. As you’d expect, he was taken by surprise. We all laughed. We did more dinking then I did it again, but Cameron was ready this time! Bihg christened the shot a “Berne”—a twist on the naming of the Erne shot. Obviously, any time it occurred in a serious game, it’d be a mistake!

Paddle

I was talking to John P. mid-morning about my paddle after a game. To demonstrate the delamination issue, I pinched the end of my paddle between my thumb and fingers and wiggled it back and forth and it’s made a bit of a crunching noise. Not good.

I received an email back from Barrett Kincheloe and he says that he’s completely switched from his Tempest Wave paddle to the Prince Response paddle with the thick grip. He says it has a “bigger and more consistent sweet spot.” The funny thing is that Paddletek makes the Prince paddles though an agreement, so it’s got the Prince name and maybe the Prince design tweaks but it’s a Paddletek paddle.

I’m really tempted. $148.00. Not cheap, but it’d get a lot of use.

Monday, October 22, 2018 (No Play)

Janet, the office manager for Paddletek got back to me first thing this morning and graciously offered to replace the paddle under warranty. But, she added:
“Please ship your paddle back to us when you receive the replacement so that I am able to submit it to the warranty department.”

At that, I sent a message via Facebook to Nanette who had responded to my post a couple of months ago in the Pickleball Forum and said I could keep my autographed paddle if I had it replaced under warranty adding that her husband is one of the co-owners.

Tonight, Nanette got back to me and said I could keep my paddle and she’d let Janet know that it was ok to do so. Great!

Tuesday, October 23, 2018 (No Play)

Today, I emailed back Janet to which she replied and said she was getting the replacement paddle shipped out.

Lucky me, I get to have a molar pulled out this afternoon. I am not looking forward to it. Typically, it’s at least four days of rest and no strenuous exercise afterward. No pickleball for a bit. I was given tickets to the Oakland Raiders game on Sunday and I’m taking my dad. I’ll be forced to rest that day. That’s probably good, or I would have been tempted to play.

Wednesday, October 24, 2018 (No Play)

Ouch. Remind me to try to not have any molars pulled out in the future.

Thursday, October 25, 2018 (No Play)

Scotts Valley had play tonight. My wife called and asked, “Aren’t you going to pickleball tonight?” “I don’t know. I haven’t decided yet.” Being on antibiotics and work demands just made me tired, so I ended up not going.

Dave Cox asked if I wanted to partner with him for the Templeton tournament. I checked and men’s doubles is on Saturday, November 10. The good news is that it starts at 10 a.m., which means we could just drive down early and not have to rent a place to sleep the night before. Now, if work necessities will just permit me the time off. It’s my call, but I need staffing to be covered.

Saturday, October 27, 2018 (No Play)

I noticed last night that my back was a little sore. What’s interesting is that I haven’t played pickleball since Sunday. Granted, it’s typically more sore after pickleball, but to have it sore at all having not played is curious.

Monday, October 29, 2018 (No Play)

I received another box today at work. A second replacement paddle. Oops. Being that I’m an honest guy, I let Paddletek know and they are sending a pickup tag for it.

Number of days on a court: 217
Number of total hours: 596

To start at the beginning of this blog click on “1st Post” in the menu above.