Positive Spin Necessary

The Nationals 8.0 Mixed Doubles tournament is over. Our team had a slow start and then pretty much tapered off. The players on all the teams are very good and we perhaps should have showed up in force a few days early to get ready for outdoors play in bright sunshine in the high desert. The site in Tucson is about a half mile in altitude and that serves as another excuse for our record of 0-3 in team matches and fourth place in our group. There are lots of positive stories to tell, however, and it was a great and positive experience. I'm claiming 15th in the nation from the 17 team tournament. Anyone who disagrees is just plain mean. We played teams from Wichita, Medford (Ore), and New Jersey. The Wichita team went to the semis and finished third or fourth.

The picture below is of our number one team, Becky of the hardcore girls and her husband, Terry, are the team on the left. They are about to call the coin toss before starting the first match on Friday against Wichita. Becky and Terry had a bad day and lost the match



A point of interest is on the grounds of the Randolph Park Tennis Courts. The Little Joe memorial court graced by the bust of Little Joe. We played our matches very near this spot.

I personally played twice at the number two spot. Friday afternoon at 3:30, Becky and I lost to the number 2 team from Medford, Oregon, 6-1, 6-1. We played in a spirited manner but altitude related mistakes and a superior team took us down. The guy on the other team was another older guy, and remarked when I met him, that I was glad to see some gray hair on the other side of the net, and he laughed and agreed. He was 57. And had very consistent strokes.

I played Saturday morning with Barb (the other hardcore girl) against a couple of pleasant folks from New Jersey, both in their 30's or 40's. We did a little better, losing 6-1, 6-3, but I was able to hold my serve 3 times - point of pride for me. Our tournament was over and we spent the afternoon being tourists and rationalizing our lack of success.

Some of us went to the Desert Museum and took in the sights of the desert and the Saguaro cactus. (They are everywhere). The is Jerry, our captain, goofing around, pretending to ride a statue of a javelina, which he called a wild pig, and for which he was corrected by one of the Museum's employees. It's a nice museum, mostly outside, and which has a lot of animals which are not native to Minnesota, including big horn sheep and rattlesnakes.

The tournament is done. The team from Northern California, San Jose, I think, won the 8.0 tourney. It's a travel day for most teams. We stayed around and played a couple of sets on the courts after the action was complete. This group, Marsha, me, Jerry, and Carol are are members of the Minnesota team. A group picture of the whole team is probably forthcoming in a few days. Watch this spot.

I'm sticking to the claim that we finished 15th. That's not too bad for a group from the frozen north. We were one of about 4000 teams that began the whole tournament process, so I guess that's the positive spin that I'd like to leave it at. A nice week in the high desert of Arizona.