Pickleball Tuesday Afternoon 12-29-09

PICKLEBALL REPORT - TUESDAY,DECEMBER 29, 2009
TIMMONS PARK

We had a good crowd, a beautiful, sunny day with just enough wind to make things interesting (and also a convenient crutch for those of us who occasionally missed a ball by a foot or more).

Present: Ralph, Gary, Muriel, John, Mike, Jan, Sharon, Steve, Bob H and yon reporter. That should add up to approximately 10 players. We occupied both courts and rotated the two sitting players in, so there wasn't much time to rest.

The games were fast and furious, so fast in fact that Stevo (Stevie Wonder) took a rather nice swan dive while lunging for a ball delivered smartly by Spidy. Stevie missed the ball; the good guys got the point, but Mr Wonder garnered a 9.5 by the panel of Olympic judges that just happened to be in the area.

Muriel sported a new paddle, presented to her by Santa Clause himself. She made some blistering shots much to the chagrin of her opponents.

John delivered several nasty back-spin drop shots, while Bob H, Gary and Ralph executed some breathtaking rockets - more than once retrieved by the opposing players' mid-sections.

This was also a special day because Muriel brought along her Mom, Lou. Lou spent the entire 2-1/2 hours shagging balls and watching our matches - but, most of the time she motored around the court retrieving balls and keeping herself warm and getting some good exercise, too. We enjoyed her company.

Lynn & Ken should be back in town on Wednesday, 12/30. They will be scheduling our next match.

If we don't get together for some games on Thursday 12/31, then I guess we'll see you all in 2010.

Drive safely and enjoy the holidays and the New Year.

Ron (Spike)

Pickleball Tuesday Afternoon 12-22-09

PICKLEBALL REPORT. TUESDAY, 12/22/2009
TIMMONS PARK - GREENVILLE, SC

We had a beautiful day again today and a notable gang of players.

12 players in attendance: John, Johnny, Jan, Carol, Bob H, Mike (Spidy), Claude, Steve, Gary, Ralph, Sharon and writer of this missive. Lynne is still on the disabled list, but she stopped by to say hello and to present Spidy with a gift.

Carol played some spirited games after her short layoff. She didn't spare any of her opponents.

Sharon played about 4 games and showed her stuff, sore knees and all.

Otherwise, all enjoyed the day and played long and hard. There were a few matches that were highlighted with lots of noisy bantering about line calls, scoring issues and who was supposed to be serving. In one case, one of our more social players, gabbed with a non-player for so long that one of the players took a short siesta on the court while waiting for play to commence.

An amazing play took place and was duly recorded. Please see the attached sketch, by a roving reporter who happened by, and a photo documenting the event. One in a million!

Lynn & Ken will be heading back to Greenville soon. They will take over the PICKLEBALL notifications and write-ups. My guess is that we'll be playing again on Mon or Tue (28th or 29th).

Seasons Greetings to everyone. Drive carefully.

Ron (Spike)

Pickleball Monday Afternoon 12-21-09

Pickleball Report - Monday, December 21, 2009

We had a fine day for PICKLEBALL and a good turnout for such a busy time of the year.

Present: Jan, Ralph, Mike, Bob H, John, Gary and this teller of tall tales.

Jan's son Rich and his wife Denise came by for a visit. Rich had to leave in short order, but Denise decided to give P'ball a try. She ended up playing about 4 games and did well considering she hasn't played any racquet sports for some time. She got in the way of a few hard shots and probably has some marks to prove it. But, she left with a smile on her face and was on the winning side at least once.

Otherwise, we had many good games. We ended up using one court as players peeled off on their way to other holiday business.

Sharon wasn't present because she had shots in her knees about an hour before the 1 PM start. But, she sent along Christmas cookies, some decorated by yours truly. Pictures attached. Cookies were well received, and Sharon was thanked heartily.

Some of our players have gone missing - due to the holidays no doubt. Hoping some of the lost souls will show up for tomorrow's match at 1:00PM.

See you on the courts.

Spike

Our Pickleball Christmas Dinner Made The Atlantic South Region Website

Click on the link below to see the story in the Atlantic South Region Website.
http://south.usapa.org/2009/12/corbetts-take-upstate-annual-pickleball.html

Pickleball Thursday Afternoon 12-17-09

PICKLEBALL REPORT - THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2009
Timmons Park, Greenville, SC

As expected we had a bang of a turnout today, probably due in part, to the advertised T-shirt giveaway extravaganza. The weather co-operated and as luck would have it, there was just enough parking spaces for our players plus two other folks who played some kind of knock-off net game with big racquets and fuzzy, yellow balls.

P'ballers present: Jan, Spidy, Sharon, Bob H, John, Johnny and Spike.

It was good to see Jan back in action today. She made her presence known by playing some fierce shots, much to the detriment of her opponents. Bob (Buckeye) was on his game as well and managed more than a few kill shots. Everyone played hard and well. Consequently, we had many good games and as always - a few blowouts.

Johnny advises that Carol is feeling better. Hope to see her on the court soon.

Almost Forgot: Is anyone interested in BUYING an imaginary Upstate Pickleball T-shirt? Size: XXXL. We expect a delivery (on February 30th or 31st, 2010) of 100 T-shirts (99% cotton, 1% Spandex, black, with a red pickleball paddle and a yellow ball that appears to the naked eye to be flying through the air at an outlandish speed). We expect to have 93 extras (well, 92 actually, because we are setting one aside for Lynne who would have been there, but wasn't, because someone ran over her foot). Speedy recovery.

We are planning to play again next week - probably Mon and perhaps Tuesday as well. Depends on the weather.
Hope to see you then.
Spike

Pickleball Christmas Dinner 12-15-09

Mike and Ralph, our social planners, came up with a good idea for the pickleball group to get together for a Christmas dinner. So 16 of us met at Coronas' restaurant tonight. Above you see Ken holding a pickle. The pickle is the 2009 Annual Upstate Pickleball Award which was presented by Mike to Ken and I. We have to hold on to the pickle for the next year and we will choose someone else in the group to award it to at our next annual pickleball Christmas dinner.

Thanks to Mike for the planning of this dinner tonight. We had great food, great company and lots of fun. Those that attended were Mike, Anne K., Ron, Sharon, Claude, Josee, Fran B., Page, Steve, Nicki, Lynne S., Johnny, Ralph, Anne, Ken & I. We look forward to doing this again next year.

See below for pictures of tonight's festivities.

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Pickleball Monday Afternoon 12-14-09

It turned out to be a nice afternoon for pickleball. I think it made it to about 55 degrees. We had some sun but not the whole time and the wind was not a factor. There were 7 players that turned out for the games today. Doubles was played on one court and canadian doubles on the other. The players today were Ron, Ralph, Mike, Claude, Johnny, Ken and I. Sharon was with us too but had to sit on the sidelines today as she had had shots in her knees and the doctor had forbidden her to play. She did some walking around the park, picking up balls for the players and read. Jan stopped by to visit. She is still getting over having bronchitis and still has some congestion. We could have used Steve today for a change but he's trying hard to improve his bowling. Hope to play later in the week. Lynn

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Click on picture to enlarge - use back arrow to return to this page.