Pukerua Bay Doubles Plate Final

I'd like to say the plate final was the highlight of the day at Pukerua Bay, but that would be a lie. Brian and I wandered on to court around 10am as a thin scattering of spectators glanced across with vague and passing interest. But Brian's dad graced us with his presence, meaning that for the first time in the tournament we had a supporter!

Spurred on by the occasional faint clap we played a decent match and won the final 9-2. Our opposition were considerably older than ourselves, but we tried to ignore that fact and revelled in our triumph.

Sat around on the grass in the sunshine drinking beer and watching the main finals for the rest of the afternoon. Then came the presentation and our prize was a pair of cordless drills! I really had my heart set on a plate, but the drill was cool too.

Pukerua Bay Doubles Tennis Tournament

The day after my game with Phil Seemann I was playing with Brian in a doubles tournament up at Pukerua Bay. So we put aside the fact he'd put a serve on to my nose the day before, boarded his vintage Holden and drove up the coast via a quick stop to feed his parents' cat.

I was still pretty wrecked from the day before so I was hoping it wouldn't be too hard a day. At least it was all going to be doubles.

We had a good 9-1 win in the first round. The quarter-final was a lot tougher, against a pair from Ngatitoa (who were promoted this season to Regional 1). Brian started in superb form and we got to 4-1 up mostly as a result of his excellent serving and big forehands. It was really windy and I was struggling on my own serve, getting broken as we lost our lead to go 6-4 down. I held my final couple of service games and we got a break back, to recover from 8-5 down to 8-7, but they played a very solid final game to wrap up a 9-7 win.

That consigned up to the consolation plate event! After much hanging around we won our plate matches 9-2 and then 9-0. We'll be appearing in the plate final on Monday.

Apart from the wind it was a nice sunny day, a very attractive club with great views out to the coast and a really friendly tournament. There was a lot of waiting around but the free tea and toasted hot cross buns were a big help with that. We got home around 8:30pm, 12 hours after setting off, and tried to patch things up with our girlfriends who'd been expecting us home about 4 hours earlier.

Thorndon club tournament

I reached the quarter-finals of the men's singles with a 6-2 6-1 win over John O'Donnell. My opponent was number 3 seed Phil Seeman from the first team. He used to be top 10 in New Zealand and is still in pretty good shape as he's a black belt in karate.

I got out to a great start going 4-0 up. Phil then began to come back at me but I held on to take the first set 6-4. The second set was tight all the way through but Phil got it 6-4.

In the final set Phil got a break and was serving at 4-3. I then had a really good patch to win 10 points out of the next 11, and get to 5-4 up and 15-30 on Phil's serve. After spinning his leftie serve out wide all day Phil then came up with a big ace down the middle for 30-30. I got the next point to earn a match point at 30-40. Phil came up with another big serve down the middle and, even though I was half-expecting it this time, I still couldn't return it.

That was my only chance. Phil then saved that game. I held serve to go 6-5 up but Phil came back to 6-6. I went 0-40 down in my next service game, came back to have a game point, but then lost the game with a couple of errors. Phil then closed out the match 8-6 in the third with a very good final service game.

The whole match took around two and a half hours and I had cramps running up and down my legs for most of the third set. Phil's about 12 years older than me and I worked him as hard as I could but he just kept going! Very enjoyable match - I played as well as I could have hoped against a player ranked well above me, and on another day might have managed to close it out. But well done to Phil on a great effort. He now plays Nick White (the number 2 seed) in the semis.

The second team's last hope for a semis spot is Kris Funston. He's plays the number 4 seed Robbie Kirkness tomorrow, and that should be a very good game. The winner of that plays number 1 seed Marc Paulik.

I had to go straight back on court for my first round doubles with Andy Wheeler. We came through a close game with Mark Upton and Brian Francis 6-4 7-5. They played a very good match with Mark getting everything back and Brian serving so well that at one point he managed to hit me on the nose! Fortunately that seemed to put him off a bit and we finally managed to break him.

Final league table

Here's the final league table for Wellington Regional 2 Promotion, with Thorndon pipped to the first spot by Miramar but with promotion comfortably achieved.

And here are my NZ results. The NZ Topdog rankings system is excellent, with rankings updated every couple of weeks and everyone's result history available to see. Always worth checking up on your next opponent!

Thorndon second men's team season review

I play on the Thorndon Tennis Club second men's team in Wellington, NZ. The first team is a bit of an all-star cast, including a number 1 who flies down from Auckland, so the second team is the best that we mere mortals can aspire to!

Here we all are from the summer 08/09 season. From left to right: Brian Francis, Kris Funston, Simon Brown (me), Andy Wheeler and Chris Patete.















This shot was taken during Andy Wheeler's world record coaching session, where he coached for an astonishing 30 consecutive hours to raise money for charity:

http://worldrecordsalmanac.com/sports/longest_tennis_coaching_marathon-world_record_set_by_Andy_Wheeler_90153.htm

I got back to New Zealand in October 2008 with the season already underway and the second team competing in Wellington Regional 3. We got on to a great run winning all five of the remaining matches, finishing up with 8-0 wins against Salamanca and Wellington B. For a brief spell our position at the top of the league looked assured, till it turned out we'd failed to nominate Kris on the 'club ranking list' and 4 walkovers were promptly given against us. A rather desperate appeal was launched after frenzied reading of the rulebook and we got it reduced to one walkover and still stayed top of the league. The original 4 walkovers would have consigned us to the post-Xmas relegation play-offs.

After Christmas we got stuck into the promotion play-offs for Regional 2, which the second team have never reached. First up were Khandallah and we lost on an agonising game countback after a 3-3 draw on rubbers (from being 3-0 up). We recovered with a fine 5-1 win against Petone while Andy Wheeler was back at Thorndon doing his world record coaching marathon.

The next game against Wellington was our low point, where we lost a string of close rubbers to end up losing 5-1. It was a tough day for Andy in particular who was well ahead in the final sets of both his doubles and singles only to have them slip away. We missed Kris (injured) and Brian (in Oz) for this one, though Steve Goodman stepped in to play an excellent doubles. This left us needing a strong run to secure promotion.

Next match up was table-topping Miramar, who brought in one of their top first team players (Alan Ambrose). Andy and I had our what may be our best ever doubles win, beating Alan and Cameron Steel. I had little chance against Alan in the singles, scrapping out a 6-2 6-2, but the rest of the team stormed through and we got a crucial 4-2 win.

The league looked very tight at this point but we had three of the easier games still to come, and Kris 'The Funstonator' was coming back to fitness and just thrashing everyone he came up against.

We got a good 5-1 win against University, with myself suffering the only defeat at 1 against David Buckrell after winning against the same player before Christmas. I'd joined a gym in the meantime so it was good to see all the hard fitness work not paying off!

Against Titahi Bay we got an 6-0 win to virtually assure promotion. It was a beautiful sunny day, and Jane and I wondered over to have a look at the bay once the tennis was over.














The last game was against our closest rivals for promotion, Karori Lawn. This was a tough match played in increasingly wet conditions, but we came through 5-1 to finish the season on a high. For a while it looked as though we'd win the league but Wellington defaulted most of the rubbers in their final match against Miramar, and Miramar beat us by one point! But promotion was what mattered and we're looking forward to next season already.

As winter rolls in to Wellington the tennis continues. The club tournaments are in full swing and the indoor winter Business House league kicks off soon, where the Thorndon team will be playing as 'Yours'.

Photos from our US and Canada road trip

It was a terrific trip in the US and Canada, partly for the tennis and partly
for the endless great scenery and things to do. Several of my tennis opponents gave their own comments on the matches, which can be found on the Tennis Warehouse website:

http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?t=155155


The trip occurred when we were on our way back to the UK from a year spent working in New Zealand. It turned out to only be a temporary return as we (myself and Jane) are back in New Zealand now. So our trip started out with two weeks in NZ's south island. This included a day at the beautiful Milford Sound.




We flew to San Francisco, stayed for a few nights and then drove inland over the Hoover Dam to the amazing Grand Canyon.





























We looped back down through LA and up the coast to San Francisco again, pausing for a stop by the Golden Gate Bridge.














Finally we got all the way up the coast to Vancouver, where Jane met a friendly bear.


















And shortly afterwards we ran across a slightly more dangerous one.














We flew from Vancouver to Toronto, and had a fun day trip at the Niagara Falls. It didn't have the isolated charm of Milford Sound but the waterfall itself was amazing.















We drove from Canada down through New England, in its incredible fall colours.














We headed across to Portland, then down to Salem, Hartford and ultimately Martha's Vineyard where our friend Sophie from the UK met us.














Our final stop was Boston, where we dropped in on a famous bar. Boston was a great city and was the perfect way to finish the trip.

Rommil in Hartford

Match 7

Opponent: Rommil
Opponent Rating: 4.0
Date: Sat 13 Oct, 11am
Location: Hartford, Connecticut. East Hartford Tennis Club
Surface: Indoor Hard
Result: 6-0 6-0



All good things must come to an end and it was nice to finish up against Rommil who was one of the first people to reply when I put up this thread, and has kept in touch since.

A beautiful drive down from Montreal through the New England fall scenery finally brought us to Hartford (via a couple of other stops). Getting to the match wasn't easy - there was heavy traffic with a marathon being run around town, and my girlfriend wanted to be dropped at the mall on the opposite side of town from the tennis club ! I could hardly refuse and eventually got to Rommil around 11:15.

Similarly to my previous couple of matches I ended up being the steady, unspectacular one while Rommil hit some superb winning forehands but made a few errors, particularly on the backhand. Rommil had several game points but they all fell my way and I got the 6-0 6-0 win.

Rommil was generous with his line-calling, giving me anything that might have caught any part of the line, and stayed positive throughout. He was even polite enough to ask me if I was ready after smacking an ace past me! I had to own up that it has just gone by me in a flash before I could even move.

We played one more set afterwards and Rommil broke my serve in the very first game. It just shows how the threat of losing $50 has raised my concentration levels!

I'm writing this up from Boston and am heading back to the UK in 3 days. It's all been so much fun and I'm really grateful to the 7 guys who showed up to play me, and sorry to a couple of people who got in touch but we couldn't sort out a time. I'll post up a 'review of the tour' when I get a chance with a few more thoughts on the whole thing now it's over.

'Deuce' in Montreal

Match 6

Opponent: Deuce
Opponent Rating: 4.5
Date: Fri 5 Oct, 7pm
Location: Montreal, Jarry Park Tennis Centre (home of the Montreal Masters)
Surface: Hard
Result: 6-0 6-3

It`s an honour (UK spelling there) to play one of the legend posters on this message board.

I met up with Deuce in downtown Montreal on Friday evening and we rode the subway out to the tennis centre. As one would expect for a Masters venue it was excellent - great courts and powerful floodlights. Deuce told me how he`d seen Roddick, Connors and Hingis practise on the court we were using, so we had a lot to live up to!

This was Deuce`s first game back after colliding with a fence post and bruising a rib about a month previous - very nice of him to make time for a game with me while still not 100%.

The first set featured lots of long deuce games (appropriately) but Deuce was clearly a bit rusty and kept just missing the lines when he hit out. I took the set 6-0 but that was a very harsh scoreline on Deuce given the competitive play.

At the start of the second set Deuce pulled a different Head Prestige (I think) out of the bag. I don`t know if he just found his range or the racquet made the difference but he steadied up and the match got a lot tighter. Deuce was serve-volleying effectively behind his first serve and staying quite steady from the back, unleashing some big forehands from unlikely positions.

I got a solitary break and just about managed to hold on to it through the rest of the set. Deuce saved several matchpoints while serving at 2-5 and then saved a couple more on my serve to earn a breakpoint at 5-3. I finally managed to close it out though.

So thanks to Deuce for a really enjoyable game and some tips on where to go for an evening in Montreal - hope he`s fully fit again soon!

John in Toronto

Match 5

Opponent: John "Professor Silvian Kuerton"
Opponent Rating: 4.0
Date: Sun 30 Sep, 5pm
Location: Toronto, Moss Park
Surface: Hard
Result: 6-0 6-0



This was arranged at quite late notice with John getting in touch and making himself free for a Sunday afternoon game. We were at a city centre location with fire engines racing by, the smell of narcotics in the air and a chain link net. I've never played with one of those before(!) but it was ok.

I could see in the knock-up that John favoured his very whippy forehand so I put a lot of shots over towards his single-handed backhand. He's a left-hander so my forehand naturally went towards his backhand anyway. John is very quick around the court and hits his forehand well, but he gave me some errors and I came through ok.

John is playing Agassi later this year in Las Vegas after winning Head's "are you Radical enough?" competition, producing a 2 minute film. How cool is that! Here's the video:

http://www.head.com/radical/?tag=player&id=33

I obviously asked him to pass on my best wishes to Agassi. I've been playing with my Agassi Ltd Edition Radical since arriving in Canada (bought from Tennis Warehouse as I passed through San Luis Obispo) as my own little Agassi homage.

Toronto is a cool city and we've enjoyed our stay here. It's been nice not to be on the road for a while but tomorrow we set off for Ottawa and then on to Montreal. Might be playing another game there.

Shaun in Vancouver

Match 4

Opponent: Shaun "TheShaun"
Opponent Rating: 3.0
Date: Sun 23 Sep 2007, 3pm
Location: Vancouver, Stanley Park
Surface: Hard
Result: 6-0 6-0



Shaun very kindly showed up to play me despite having a bad shoulder that messed up his serve, and having already played his regular hitting partner in the morning. By contrast I was 100% fit after a morning on the sofa (they show English football in Canada!) and then a leisurely walk to the park along the sea wall (really beautiful).

It was a great public facility - lots of good hard courts in a nice setting. Our court was surrounded by trees with the only downside being that we had to kick as many leaves off the court as we could before getting started.

Shaun was struggling just to roll his serves in consistently with his injury so I was getting a good start on most points. We had some long rallies and close games, but in the end I closed out a 0 and 0.

It turns out that Shaun took ten years off the game and has only been playing again for a few months since. He spent some of that time professionally driving racing cars. The closest I ever got to that was picking up a speeding ticket on the way up to Seattle, in what was apparently a "safety corridor".

We met up for a beer in town that evening, which was a lot of fun, and Shaun gave us some tips on places to go. Vancouver seems like a cool place so it's nice to be out of the car (we had to drop it off in Seattle) and just relaxing here.

We fly to Toronto on 26th Sep. Nothing arranged for Toronto or Montreal yet. Get in touch if you'd like a game there. Otherwise I've got a break now till Boston.

Wes in Santa Barbara

Match 3

Opponent: Wes "GraniteChief"
Opponent Rating: 5.0
Date: 15 Sep, 3:45pm
Location: Santa Barbara, Cathedral Oaks Club
Surface: Hard
Result: 3-6 7-6 5-7


I had thought the first game with Eric was likely to be the epic of this tour, but I was wrong. This was one of the most physically gruelling matches I think I've ever played and it went on beyond 3 hours. Congrats to GraniteChief for winning the $50 off me!

We'd been scheduled to start at 2pm but domestic matters saw the start time slip back a bit. I left my girlfriend in town around 3, saying I should be back by 6. That turned out to be a mistake and much apologising was subsequently required.

First set - Wes opened up with an ace and held confidently. I showed I wasn't intimidated by opening up casually with a double-fault. But I held and then got a break to go 2-1 up. This seemed sufficient to wake Wes up and convince him to bring his A game to the table. He promptly won the next 4 games with some big hitting and impressive court coverage. I held once more at the end to make the score a bit more respectable - 6-3 to him.

Second set - Again I went up an early break but Wes came back strongly. However I broke again and served for the set at 5-3. It was a long game but Wes broke and levelled at 5-5. Wes then broke again to serve for the match at 6-5. It could have all been over but he was a bit tentative and I broke back to force a tie-break. There were some long, tense rallies and I managed to edge the breaker 7-5.

Third set - Wes decided that going an early break down had been a flaw in his strategy in the first two sets, and stormed to a 3-0 lead in this one. I was feeling tired but I've been hitting the treadmill in my hotels in a bid to hold on to my $50! I managed to claw my way back to 4-4. Some of the long rallies were really hurting now and Wes was still moving depressingly well. I served at 4-5 and Wes brought up his first match point at 30-40. I saved it with a smash, and we then had a lot of deuces. I eventually held after saving 4 match points - big relief but it had taken all I had left. Had to hope that Wes would give it to me on a plate. Fat chance.

I got to 15-30 on his serve but he held on to go 6-5 up. I promptly went 0-40 down on my serve. Saved one more match point but at 15-40 Wes cracked a big forehand return down the line and I could only watch it go by.

It was now just after 7pm. It turned out both our partners were becoming worried that we'd contacted a psycho serial-killer over the internet because surely we couldn't still be playing. But the day ended well as we all met up for a beer at the excellent Brewhouse, which serves very strong beer!

I think this match went to the right guy. It was very close but I mostly felt that I was hanging in rather than having chances to build up a lead. Wes is really fit and can either hit big or grind points out. He also can hit backhand slices that only come up an inch off the surface and turn sideways, and man it really hurts to try digging those up when your legs are tired! I played about as well as I could and left every ounce of strength I had out there. It was a great game and worth the money, although Wes had already signed up to play me before I made the bet so it backfired on me a bit there!

Next day: In need of a bit of cheering up I drove up the coast the next morning to San Luis Obispo and good old Tennis Warehouse! I treated myself to a new pair of shoes (the match had just about finished off my old ones!) and a new racquet - a Head Radical Agassi Limited Edition. I'll use it in stock form (even with the elastic band) for my next match and give a bit of a review of it, in comparison to my lead-taped Liquid Metal Radical I've been using so far.

I'm writing this in Portland, Oregon and just setting off now for Seattle. Next match is due to be 'TheShaun' in Vancouver. Beautiful drive up the coast by the way, and Santa Barbara is a lovely place.

Just look at the state of me after the game. I weighed myself before and after and found I'd lost 2lbs out there.

Max in San Francisco

Match 2

Opponent: Max "Max8176"
Opponent Rating: 4.0
Date: Wed 5 Sep 2007, 6:30 pm
Venue: San Francisco, Golden Gate Park
Surface: Hard
Result: 6-3 6-0

Shorter trip to the match this time. Found the right bus fairly quickly and a friendly jogger pointed me towards the tennis courts when I reached the impressive Golden Gate Park. 12 decent hard courts all available to the public - very rare back in the UK!

We had a short wait while what looked like a girls high school match, taking up 6 courts, finished up. On the nearest court to us a girl who looked about 15 was making steady progress against a girl who looked about 9.

Max hits double-handed both sides and plays with a Yonex RD7, just like a friend of mine back home. It's clearly the "two hands for everything" racquet of choice.

First set - got off to a 4-0 lead before Max won 3 games in a row, hitting some cracking early shots at sharp angles. Was getting worried but Max then missed a few to let me finish the set off 6-3.

Second set - dusk was closing in rapidly! This seemed to hinder Max more than me and I came through it 6-0 despite lots of good hard-hitting rallies.

Overall I really benefited from the previous match against Eric. I served better in this one, possibly because I wasn't trying to compete (in vain) with Eric's huge deliveries.

Max is a really friendly guy and hits a good ball. He dropped me back at the tram stop and gave me a quarter so I'd have the right change, but it turned out that the cash machine on the tram was broken so I rode for free. I owe you a quarter Max!

So I've made it through my San Francisco leg without losing my $50 (just). GraniteChief potentially lies in wait once I make it to Santa Barbara following a loop through Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon and LA. So a bit of sightseeing before I hit the court again, unless anyone crops up wanting a game at the Grand Canyon!

Eric in San Francisco

Over September and October in 2007 I got to do a road-trip up the west coast of the US to Vancouver, and then from Toronto across to Montreal then down through New England to Martha's Vineyard and Boston. During that time I put up a $50 challenge on the message board of the Tennis Warehouse website to anyone that wanted to play me at tennis and beat me. I got some excellent games as a result and met some terrific people. The following are the write-ups of each match.

Match 1

Opponent: Eric "EVW"
Opponent Rating: 5.0
Date: Labor Day, 3 Sep, 3pm
Location: San Francisco, Harbor Point Club
Surface: Hard
Result: 6-2 3-6 6-3

A superb match to start off the tour. Whatever happens the idea of trying to get some tennis during this trip will have been worth it for this game with Eric.

It took me an hour to find the right bus out to near Eric's club, nearly another hour for the bus to get there, and then I had to call from a friendly dry-cleaner to let Eric know I'd made it. About a minute later he sailed round the corner in his open top sports car and we shot off to his club. It was a beautiful California day and a very attractive club, with 6 perfect hard courts and a pool round the corner.

We had a warm-up during which I could see that Eric hits very hard. I had to hope he gave me a few errors when the match got going!

First set - my luck was in as I managed to get a few of Eric's big serves back (first and second serves both equally big) and he gave me some presents on the big points. 6-2 to me. But I could tell that a bit more consistency from Eric could turn the match around as he hits so big.

Second set - Eric proved my hunch correct as he steadied up and started to paint the lines. My level of play didn't really go down but it was soon 6-3 to him.

Third set - went with serve till 3-2 to me. I then broke, with Eric throwing in 2 doubles, but Eric broke straight back to love with some huge returns. I broke again to get to 5-3 up. We had some great rallies in the final game but I managed to close it out to take the set 6-3.

Big relief for me as Eric seemed to have all the momentum at the end of the second set and I thought I was going to be $50 down in my first match. I was very happy with how I played and I think if Eric were playing at his full potential then he'd take me as he hits harder and just gave me a few too many errors when it counted.

We relaxed with a beer afterwards. Got a photo of us both looking a bit ragged after the match. It'll have to wait till I'm home to put it up on the site though.

Due to play Max tomorrow in Golden Gate Park. Will post how that one goes. Hope this great weather keeps up.

By the way - San Fransisco is a huge culture shock after 10 months in New Zealand! So big and so busy. Outside the centre of town it's beautiful though.