Both Extremes

Sorry my report is a bit late! Here it is.

After school on Friday, you would drive home right? We usually do that but today it was different. We drove up to Bendigo to play in the Association and Regional Challenge. I was playing for the second year in a row for the PTA. It took us three hours to drive up to our caravan park. The challenge started tomorrow. I was gearing up for an exciting three days of tennis.

Bendigo has hard courts. Thirty of them in fact so that means we could play singles, mixed doubles and straight doubles. First up we versed Barwon.  My brother and I played doubles first up. I didn’t play that well in the doubles,  but we won 6-1. I played my mixed next, but they had a really good girl player in their team and we lost. Then it was my singles. I served really well and my ground strokes were okay. I did enough to win. Our team lost the tie though.

Next we versed Goulburn. We started off with a really good doubles win. Then I played some really good singles with a couple of great passing shots and heaps of good rallies. I won 6-2. My mixed was a lot tougher. We came back from 5-1 down to lose 6-3. We saved four match points in the process.

We headed to the Hotel Shamrock for dinner. While we waited for our food, we saw some of the last quarter in the Gold Coast-St Kilda game. I saw Ahmed Saad’s sickening collision. I hoped he would be okay. Nick Riewoldt kicking set shots for the first time in months. Then our food came. A chicken parma was perfect. I won’t describe it to you because it was so delicious and I don’t want to make you hungry! Then Essendon came on to verse the Swannies. The Bombers kicked the opening goal then we left the hotel. We went back to our cabin to watch some of the game.

In between having showers and getting ready for bed I saw a belting. It wasn’t on the right side. Sydney were actually kicking straight and getting a clear run from defence. Essendon on the other hand were kicking shocking. Before I went to bed, we were two goals thirteen. Sydney was running rampant. I went to bed with mixed emotions.

When I got up early on Sunday, I asked Dad, “How much did we lose by?”

“Four points, Essendon kicked nine goals in the last quarter.” I did a quick calculation in my brain that we had kicked two goals for three quarters. It was terrible to say the least. Fortunately my tennis didn’t go as badly as the Bombers’ first three quarters. I won my singles against Eastern 6-2 and then against Mallee 6-0 and against Central Highlands 6-0. Overall my association finished 10th out of 12 regions. It was a pretty good result considering we were the smallest region there.  Ed and I came back late Monday afternoon stiff, sore but happy. We had played good tennis but most of all we had fun! Essendon has had its mid-season slump now. Let’s do it after the bye.

 

Comments

  1. Hey Max. Nice work! It reminded me of when I grew up playing a lot of tennis around regional Vic. I spent many weekends playing squad tennis and wondering how things were going with the Magpies. Tennis and footy were my two great loves growing up and still are – I’m an old 41 year old geezer now and write regularly for the Almanac. I also gave a talk last year in Bendigo and had a meal at the Shamrock, beautiful food there.

    The Bombers are still a pretty young side so they might have some improvement in them. Hope you keep writing about footy and tennis.

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