It’s so interesting watching Paul play as he susses out his opponent, starts honing in on his weak points and then he begins putting his battle plan into action – I imagine it is very much how he tackles work issues as well. Another meticulous execution by Paul who arranged an early game against Jan-Jan so he could still be at his daughter’s birthday party. (Thank you Emma for letting daddy play, you can be proud that his time away from you was not in vain and it certainly bolstered ours points on the log – “Happy Birthday to you!”). Jan-Jan, so named because he could hit the ball so hard it made an echo, was not skilled enough for our Paul who simply played the basics and the occasional trickle boast which left Jan-Jan with no real reply. I was accused by Chairman John-Gone-Wrong of being too lenient on one of my calls where Jan-Jan was standing in front of the ball. But Paul was not deterred or distracted from his mission and apart from losing a tight first game; Paul sailed home in fine style to win 3-1. A good start!
Lyal started like he didn’t have the correct opponent, he dictated the terms of the game and had his opposite number making all kind of mistakes and frustrating him to no end. Then something happened and I am still not sure what it was (a little like the fact that the 4th & 6th where “B” stands for “Blunder” league teams ended up at the wrong venue with nobody to play) but suddenly Rob got his groove back and Lyal was under pressure and started rushing and could not come up with a decent length. After being 2-0 up, Lyal stepped off the plane that he was cruising in for an early sabbatical and Rob took the next 3 games without so much as giving Lyal a parachute. I will, however, never berate a team-mate about losing 2-3. At least we had some games to barter with should we need them.
Herkie – dear Herkie!!! Herkie was in sublime form and has just promoted himself to the position of top-diggerdy-dog spot. Apart from a minor lapse in concentration in the second game, he did not give an inch and showed no mercy. Dylan could not match the sheer class of a rampant Herkie Sandenbergh. His drops were out-of-this-world and his placement of the ball was just top class. A performance that made me smile with delight knowing that this guy is in my team! Well done Herkie - ldj! A 3-0 victory meant that I only had to step onto the court for us to win.
The less said about my game the better (but you should know by now that I have a bad case of waffleitis). This was not my proudest moment but I can only say in my defense that karma had its day. I was less than impressed with the marking – the first “bad” call was when I was “supposedly” in the way of a winning length shot and on two other occasions where Jeremy “turned” at the last minute and instead of asking for a “let” he nailed the ball past me and I was left ducking for cover. Safety first was not the watchword in this instance! In all three instances I was not granted an appeal, so when the marker denied Jeremy a “let” that was sooo obviously a “stroke” in his favour, which would have won him the match – I kept my righteous mouth shut and let matters take their own course. If two wrongs don’t make a right then three certainly does! We had an old man vs. older man battle where there were many – many - many, physical clashes, getting in each other’s way, words with a measure of aggression and disputed points, mostly by Jeremy who was a past master at buying recuperation time. But in the end the gods smiled upon me for some unknown reason and I managed to hang in for a 22-20 decider. Karma and a great lumping dollop of good luck, I believe, had their day.
For the first time in my Crappy Cappie existence I can say the following words:
“We are the log leaders – long may we prevail!”
We all managed to pack our disgruntled demeanors in our kit-bags and retired to Doppio’s for a pleasant nosh!
No: 1 – Lyal vs. Rob (2-3) 15-13 / 15-12 / 6-15 / 7-15 / 5-15
No: 2 – Herkie vs. Dylan (3-0) 15-7 / 15-12 / 15-9
No: 3 – Paul vs. Jan-Jan (3-1) 16-18 / 15-8 / 15-12 / 15-9
No: 4 - Gary vs. Jeremy (3-2) 15-12 / 13-15 / 9-15 / 16-14 / 22-20
“There’s always the same amount of good luck and bad luck in the world. If one person doesn’t get the bad luck, somebody else will have to get it in their place. There’s always the same amount of good and evil, too. We can’t eradicate evil, we can only evict it, force it to move across town. And when evil moves, some good always goes with it. But we can never alter the ratio of good to evil. All we can do is keep things stirred up so neither good nor evil solidifies. That’s when things get scary. Life is like a stew, you have to stir it frequently, or all the scum rises to the top.” – Tom Robbins, Still Life with Woodpecker
“Ear-Ear”
Gary
Overall result: Won 14 - 6
