This picture was taken on the way home from the CatsNY tourney last Saturday 6/27.
Oh man, oh man… Let’s see
– Gerald (or Gerard Gonsalves?)… oh Man, he taught me the serve
– Rain storm … Oh well, mother nature
– 陪了三个男人 … Oh Man
– A win … OH MAN
Ya.. a win !!
.
Queens College.
21 years ago.
A coach with soft Jamaican sing-song accent (he might not have accent at all … my hearing is going), long hair …
Dick and his sidekick Fred were taking lessons from him too. So I got to know Dick and big Fred.
I didn’t remember much but I credit Ger for my serve.
He made the motion as a swan.
“Just, like, a ballerina.” He repeated.
I haven’t seen him since.
Why Dick brought a coach as his partner?
Ger is the assistant principal at Bayside High; married to Susan, has two boys, 8 and 13. Oh man. He hasn’t changed much, except losing some of his hair.
He still looks fit and handsome but I didn’t get to play with him.
Given the fact how much rain we’ve seen here (hint: feeling like the The Hundred Acre Wood in Winnie-the-Pooh), the weather was awesome, cerulean skies with few clouds. I teamed up with Charlie Chiu against the Mengs; we won 6:2. Haven’t played with Charlie for a long time but we matched well.
Xing ba 星爸 Tom was my original partner. Poor Tommy tried to wrestle out of this lousy arrangement by circling around Queens in angst. Finally out of consideration to Andy, he showed up at 11. We promptly put to work, playing the twin sisters.
There were two all women teams playing in the mixed doubles.
I was wrong. Tommy not only knows how to play singles but is a strategist and theorist also good at coaching too. But unfortunately we received a bagel. We had good time playing, 100% 阿Q精神.
… Then the downpour came.
The water began to wash the tiny little earth that was mattered to us only at the moment, out of nowhere. Did someone forgot to pray in the morning? Large part of the sky was still blue with sunshine.
Ha, good excuse.
Xing ba dashed off like a missile to Gulag. Yes, laboring there beats playing with Irene :(.
I was effectively got dumped.
No wonder the arranged marriage thing only worked in the past. 自由恋爱 is the way to go in the 21st Century.
The gang who organized the tourney perhaps felt bad for taking my money, so they arranged another an unsuspecting man, Jimmy Wang. I’ve seen him here and there but never played with him.
Our first opponents were Josh and DQ. As we were warming up, Jim called me to the net and said,
“Don’t over kill. When you do that, you lose your forms.”
Ok Jimmo.
Jim seems to be a tacit man, mild mannered.
That’s good.
We went to work.
It turned out, we matched pretty well. He saves all the balls that escaped me, which were often. We won 7:1. I lobbed quite a bit.
I always felt unsportsmanlike hitting to the weaker player when I have the control, which wasn’t often the case. But when a match is on the line, over the years, I have less and less qualm of doing so. It’s also out of consideration to my partner. Often I’m being the weakest link on the court I don’t really have to entertain such dilemma.
Our next assignment was, well, against Mary and Paul. Pual Lin that was. Many players had whispered that Paul was the number one player [I assumed in NYS].
I saw Paul play for many years and hit with him, only once; ok twice.
Mary who likes to play with the guys only is considered the best female player in our group, a 4.0.
So, I took gulp. I already got a bagel. What could happen? Adding an egg? That’ll make a bicycle 🙂
Remember what Simon says?
I lobbed.
I lobbed.
I lobbed.
Sorry people. It DOES feel like cheating. I dislike this sissy stuff too. But I do want to win.
I also thought of Wah Zai’s comment that there is plenty of time [to set up a shot]. So took my time. Didn’t rush.
Didn’t Jimmo just say don’t overkill?
We were actually leading 3:0 till Irene served. I haven’t been able to serve regularly for a few months due to the pain in my shoulder. But for some reason, I was able to do half and under-armed the other half. It felt pretty funny.
Serve is a part of my game that’s dependable. The man who taught me well was there too. But I had to invent some way to serve otherwise, to avoid the pain and tenderness. Then it hurt other part of the arm, the inside muscle. Geee, I don’t even know there is a functioning muscle 🙂
There were some tense moments. We lost 2 games at deuce.
But we won at 5:3
OH MAN.
That’s huge for me.
I’ve never beaten Mary.
Thanks Jimmbo. Thanks Simon. And thanks Wah Zai.
Those 4 guys look slow on video – because the TV has trained or altered our eyes – but they’re 5.0 players. Well, I don’t know the pair but IF they challenged Tony, I would assume they’re 5.0 too.
Over all, it’s a great event and hope all had great time.
Andy didn’t get to play: 顾全大局 take the entire situation into account, he only watched. A decent skipper.
Respect is earned.
Wait, who has Jimmbo’s cell number?
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