Also, a guy I have not played with for a long time dragged me to a bar where I have not played in a long time.
Why have I not played at this bar in a long time? Well, it's a bar. And being a place where recreational players are allowed to think they are good, I used to go there because it is entertaining to play someone who has never played someone who is a club level player. It no longer interests me to do that. And something dumb always happens when I go there. Always! Like someone walking into your racket or trying to start a fight.
So why did I go. The guy who dragged me is a good friend who I have not seen in at least a year. And he likes to perform. He is a chopper. Well. He can play however he wants. But he likes to play with a wooden block. And it is impressive. If I am looping and he is chopping, we have some great rallies and people are always asking him: "how can you play with a piece of wood?" It is part of his show and he likes the attention. Other people try to give him a "real" racket only to have him come up with some line about how his block of wood was custom made for him. So, basically, the layman's version of: "But this is a National Issue 2x4!"
Anyway, if I went there and all that happened was that I hit with him, it would be great fun and great practice. The chance to play against a good chopper is one that I will always jump at.
However, we hit three balls and this woman with a bit too much testosterone running through her veins for my liking stands in Tyrone's way until he agrees to hit with her. 5 min later I am roped into hitting with her which, I must confess was totally boring. She had a good forehand if I just fed the ball to her. But she was using a hardbat and when I returned her shots, she could not get the ball back because it had too much spin even when I was trying to be nice.
So I am hitting with this woman who grunted quite loud ever time she planted her left hand on the table to hit a FH. And Ty got roped into playing with everyone else in the bar. After about an hour of hitting with this crazy woman, all the people who played Ty wanted a match vs me.
Ty plays nice. They were playing games to 21 and all the games were 21-19 or 21-18. Never more than that. When I was playing then he asked the score a few times and when the guy I was playing would say 15-1, or something like that, Ty would say: "Play nice Carl!" But, sorry. I'm not going to play like I can't play when I am playing someone I didn't really want to play. I know, I am not always the poster boy for TT diplomacy. [emoji2] if we are just hitting, I can make these guys have fun. But if they want to play a match, if it is someone that bad, I am okay with letting them know the difference in our level.
Anyway, so what of the things that always happens happened? Someone walked, or maybe stumbled is a better term into me while I was in the middle of serving and my racket slammed into the side of the table.
Here is the damage.
That is the most damage my V+ has sustained and that was from a full force, full acceleration, hook serve into the metal edge of a Cornelieu outdoor table. The place is not outdoors. But the outdoor table ensures the table is protected from drunken fools and alcohol.
I know that is not much and, the force of that blow with any other blade I've used would mean tech work to fix the damage. But it still sucks.
Anyway, it would have been much more worth it if I got to play for longer with Tyrone. But 30 min with Ty and 90 min of torture almost makes me feel, I should not have gone.
Next time I will force Ty to meet me somewhere where we can play and not be swarmed by grommets.
Sent from the Subterranean Workshop by Telepathy