Doubles Racquetball Tournament

Spring Doubles Racquetball Tournament
12 teams vied for King of the Club One Racquetball Mountain Saturday: the two divisions of six consisted of me and Dorian, Mark and Scott, Kevin and Ernesto, Lefty John and Harold from Club Sport, Tiger and Steve, and Ernie and Clydell. The other division consisted of Bill and Kent, Sidney and Marc, Rocky and the Commish from Club Sport, Ron and Xavier, Rod and August, and Byron and Glenn.
I was not very confident going into the tournament. I’d taken a week off and my shots weren’t there. Dorian’s signature shot was also noticeably absent throughout the week. But we always seem to play on tournament day. After all, we had won the tournament last year and I was sick with the flu.
I arrived at 7:05 and warmed up until 8. Our first match was with Scott and Mark. We took and early lead and controlled the match from beginning to end. The final score was 15-4.
Our second match was with Ernie and Clydell. This is a good team; however, Ernie plays too far back sometimes and leaves the front left corner exposed. We had a 10-2 lead on them when they started a comeback. Suddenly we were tied at 10. Then 13. We pulled this one out, but just barely, defeating them 15-13.
Then came the big match for two cases of wine between Kevin and Ernesto. For some strange reason, Kevin bet Dorian a case of wine that they could beat us if Dorian played the left side. Charley bet Dorian that Kevin and Ernesto would score more that 5 points. We beat them 15-1. It wasn’t even close. It was a total blowout.
Then came our hardest match, against Harold and Lefty John. Harold has a funky serve with lots of spin, and Dorian was having trouble with it. We were down 8-1 when I called a time out and told Dorian to relax. I was worried we were going down right here.
We got the serve and then mounted a comeback. We tied the game at 8. Then took the lead. Harold was having trouble with my Z serve. We kept the ball away from Lefty John.
The game was tied at 13 when they scored two quick points off unforced errors. We should have taken this one, but at least we kept it close. All we needed was 11 points to secure a playoff birth in our next match.
The last team we faced in our division was Tiger and Steve. We’ve played them many times and usually do well against them. Our strategy was to test Tiger’s accuracy. He makes a lot of unforced errors when he gets tired.
We took control of the match throughout and won 15-9. We ended up being the first seed in our division. Tiger and Steve were the other team, beating Ernie and Clydell in a tiebreaker.
In the other division, Sidney and Mark won all their matches and Byron and Glenn came in second. It was a morning crew playoff, which I loved.
We played Byron and Glenn and beat them 15-6. Byron was tired. The game got off to a slow start with neither team playing very well. Lots of mistakes on both sides, but also lots of good rallies.
Tiger and Steve beat Sidney and Mark, so the finals were set and we were the favorites.
We took an early lead in the first game, ahead 8-2, but somehow managed to blow our lead and the game, losing 10-11. (The finals were best of three, all games to 11). I was furious that we lost that game. I was so pissed I slammed every lob and lob Z Tiger served. We won the second game 11-2.
By the third game, Tiger was noticeably tired, and my right leg was beginning to cramp. But I had energy left and so did Dorian. Dorian’s signature shot also came out of the wood work and he started putting shots away. He controlled the game against and easily won 11-4. The game winning shot was a high plum for Dorian. I said “there is it,” and Dorian buried it. Sweet!
We took home the trophy (my 10th) and now have bragging rights at the club until September.