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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Ron & Sharon's New License Plate

Pickleball Friday Afternoon 12-11-09

Sharon, Steve, Ralph & Ken

We think this was the coldest day that we've ever played pickleball. We don't remember ever having to wear as many clothes to play. 5 of us braved the elements this afternoon to come out for some fun games and good exercise. Steve, Sharon, Ralph, Ken and I were the hearty players of the day. Ralph only lasted one game and then determined that he didn't have enough clothes on and hadn't brought anything else with him so he called it a day and headed for the house. The other 4 of us continued to play for a little over 2 hours. We were able to keep warm by continuous play. I brought some brownies thinking that there were going to be more of us. We munched on brownies between games. We needed some hot chocolate to go with them though.

The weather this weekend looks pretty frightful so we will not plan anything for Saturday and Sunday. Monday looks pretty good right now if anyone wants to play. Right now the forecast for Monday is sunny and 62.

I took a picture of Ron and Sharon's new license plate and will try to put it over in the right margin.

Maybe we'll see some of you on Monday. Lynn

Pickleball Monday Afternoon 12-7-09

Claude is our player of the day!!!!

We had another enjoyable afternoon of pickleball without it being too cold. The sun was out and about 50 degrees. We had a little wind but it wasn't too bad. 9 of us turned out for the games today..... Ralph, Mike, John, Claude, Carol, Johnny, Bob H., Ken and I. During the last 5 games Claude and Ken were 4 and 1 against Mike and company.

Mike is still working out the details on the Christmas dinner get together.

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Pickleball Sunday Afternoon 12-6-09

Christmas shopping must have taken most of our players today but we still ended up with 6. We had 3 hours of good playing. Ralph, Catherine, Dave, Joanie, Ken & I were the group today. We rotated 2 in at a time after each game with everyone getting to play 2 games in a row. The players that were out played half court singles. It was a nice afternoon..... better than I thought it would be. Sunny, about 50 and the wind was not a problem at all. We had fun. Sorry you shoppers missed it. Catherine took a video with her phone so we're going to try to put it on the blog when she sends it. Planning to play tomorrow (Monday). Hope you make it then. Lynn

Pickleball Friday Afternoon 12-4-09

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The weather was on the chilly side and cloudy but it did not seem to hinder our pickleball games today. At least there was no wind. That was a plus. No sun in our eyes either. 13 of the group turned out for pickleball this afternoon. Those that were present were Ron, Sharon, Mike, John, Ralph, Johnny, Bob H., Catherine, Claude, Fran B., Concetta, Ken & I. Concetta is a new player and she took to the game pretty well as she is also a tennis player. We enjoyed meeting her and having her join us for pickleball today. Claude and Fran B. hadn't be out to play with us in a while so it was nice to have them on the court with us too.

We're hoping to play again on Sunday afternoon at 12:00. Hope to see you then. Lynn

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Pickleball Tuesday Afternoon 12-1-09

The Twins..... Ralph & Mike

Ken and I got to the courts today about 12:30 and had to do some court clean-up after yesterday's rain. After we had the courts in good enough order we hit some balls till Mike, Gary and John showed up. Following them were Ralph, Ron, Sharon, Johnny, Carol and Bob H. There were 11 of us total today. The weather was pretty good.... sunny, close to 60 degrees and little or no wind to speak of. Bob H. finally made an appearance after being absent for a few weeks. We're wondering what happened to Jan and Anne today? Were they doing Christmas shopping. That's not a good excuse for missing pickleball. Tomorrow's weather looks pretty awful so we're glad we got to play today. Looking forward to playing on Friday..... weather is looking good for then. Hope you can make it. Lynn

P.S. we sure are missing Steve this week. He's up in the cold country and I'm sure he can't wait to get back down here on the courts with us.

Sharon

Mike

Ralph

Gary