Lots of Sports Action in the World

The World Cup is using quite a bit of my attention. The USA team managed a last minute goal against Algeria to win their game 1-0 and moved on to knock-out competition, one of 16 WC championship hopefuls. After such an exciting game, I needed to get some late morning outdoors time. My tiger lilies are again blooming in the backyard. They have been in the same spot for the 35 years that I've lived here, and they come back every year. They were out on my way to the garage.



I decided to go to Lilydale Regional Park and see if the wild flowers were blooming, too. By the shore of Pickerel Lake, I came across the new generation of geese. They will soon be fouling a footpath in your neighborhood. But the goslings are pretty cute and the setting was picturesque. I did a couple of miles walk near Harriet Island and even went to the tip of Raspberry Island to see how the vegetation has recovered from the spring flood. Just fine, it turns out.


Wimbledon is in the first week of action and I heard a news bulletin in the car, exclaiming about the very long tennis match in England. The fifth set at Wimby can't be won in a tie breaker. The set must be played out until some one is ahead by two games. John Isner, and American, and Nicolas Mahut, a French guy, were caught up in a very long fifth set. The score I heard in my car was 26-26 and I assumed that the match would be over before I got home to watch the Germany - Ghana WC soccer match. As it turned out they were just getting going, and instead of watching soccer, I ended up watching a lot of tennis. The match is still going, having been suspended at 59-59 in the fifth set. It's the second day in a row that they had to stop because of darkness. They'll finish tomorrow ... probably. This is by far the longest match ever played in a major tournament. By far.

I've been involved in a lot of tennis matches, including sets that needed to be played out, but I've never gone deeper than about 16-14. It's a good thing that those guys are young and healthy, but even they are going to be drained by this match.

I managed to play some tennis myself later in the afternoon after the match in England was suspended. The play at Marie Park was much abbreviated, nowhere near the score from Wimby. We got another round of rain and we called off the play at 1-2 in the first set. The rain went away later in the day, but we were long gone from the park before the courts could dry out.