Well my other comp got back underway after a break again tonight. This is the two man team with best of 7 sets per game. We played the team that has the coach's nephew in it. Boy is this kid good. He loops and loops and loops, and hits the sides of the table deep with his loops at an uncanny accuracy. He's all of 13 or 14 mind you. My mate played his partner first and went down 4-2. Not a bad effort, seeings as this guy played and won the final at my other club last night in the division above me.
Then I played the coach's nephew. First game was doing alright going neck and neck and lost it 11-9. Second game similar result 11-8 down. Third game I relinquished another point and lost 11-7. 4th game I lost it about 11-5. He was just way too good and I hadn't played someone of his style and looping consistency (from both wings) before.
Next I played the old guy who won the final in B2 at my other club. We started out and I won the first 5 points in a row with him sending a number of pushes long and I think I placed one so deep and near the edge he sent it back into the net. I was cruising! Oops. Oh-oh. He got a point. No problem, keep going. He got another, and another and another. How? He started pushing very consistently and I looped a few at him and he loved them, sending them back solidly. I messed this up a lot and he got 5-5. I went for a few smashes and sent them out of the park airmail! Not a landing in sight. My smashes were off the menu! And I was feeling the effects of so much TT from the night before. Anyway, he ended up taking the game 11-6. Yep, I got the first 5, then only got one more.
Second game very similar to the first (although I didn't get the first 5 points), went down 11-6 again. The third game again played out in similar fashion, and the score was 11-6 AGAIN! Well, I thought this guy has me on toast. He hadn't even noticed to this point I was using pips. He told me how its better to have smooth rubber on both sides, and I copped a bit of a lecture as if I was 15.
Fourth game I decided to try and out-push him, and also try my smashes again, but only when it felt very right to. Now I am a pretty natural pusher and it makes a big part of my normal game, but I am so sick of pushing in TT after 2 nights straight of nothing but pushing, its not funny. So I kept the pressure on and tried to increase my consistency. I started landing some smashes and the game turned. We had been about 5-5 and I got a few smashes in a row down his FH side, which he had absolutely no answer to. The kid I beat 2 weeks ago was sitting watching over the side back behind my opponent and was gasping and oohing and ahhing at the balls that were whizzing past his eyes. (Felt sorry for this kid, because his teammate let him down again and he didn't even get a game tonight). So anyway I ended up winning the game 11-7. I thought well at least I get a point. Only after this game did the guy make a comment about my bat saying "what is that red rubber (the 40s) you got, it's dead, and its s***". I took it as a joke, and thought good, something you don't like!
So the 5th game starts and I am playing back at the pushes and I am out-pushing him a bit and he's sending a few into the net and missing the table a bit, but only after umpteen hits each. I land a few smashes and even played a few half-smashes that I sent wide and won the points without having to exert myself too much and risk over-balancing. That all went well and I won the game 11-8. Once again he told me my rubber was s*** and I should be ashamed of it, this time more emphatically than jokingly.
In the 6th set he tried to tell me it was 2 all. I said no you have 3 and I have 2. Not sure if this was a ploy or not. Anyway we went on pushing and he got me to miss the table a few times, I got a few smashes, he sent one long on a push and we got to where I had 10-8. Beauty I thought. Just got to get one of the next 2. Missed a smash on the first, in an effort to grab the point. In the next one, he pushed me off the table. 10-10. Damn! On the next point, the guy sent down about his 3rd smash for the entire match and he went 11-10. In the next point I smashed on his FH after a few pushes each and went back to 11-11. He got the next point, I got the one after, and it repeated. So we got to 13-13. It felt like this could go on forever. I got the next point as he went for his 4th smash and missed. I thought I have to make the most of this. We got into another pushing stoush and I have to say I was pretty nervous. I got a tiny crack of light on one of his pushes and I smashed across the table from BH to FH with my FH and landed it. I let out a hige shout of joy, that was more pressure release than anything. Once again I got told I had s*** rubbers.
The 7th set was only what you could dream for, and then unrealistically. I served and he pushed both of them off the table, even though my spin serve hadn't bothered him to that point. 2-0, I thought to myself, use it. He served and when I returned he went for his 5th smash and missed. Same thing happened on the next point. This guy who had been winning with his push game, and exhibited no smashing almost at all, was suddenly doing what I did in the first game, and recklessly going for smashes. Suddenly I had 4-0. I remembered the first game and got a bit worried. My next serves he didn't miss the table but and he pushed again for a bit and went for a smash and missed. This went on, with a few pushes missing until I had him 9-0. I eased up a bit, and he got the next point. Not good I thought. Well he had an inch and went for a mile. Suddenly he turned the game and had me making mistakes again. I tried to gather my thoughts and settle down. Horrible feeling! He got it back to 9-6. Then on the next point I pushed it into him and he sent it back into the net! 10-6! Nerves, help me out! So the next point starts with me serving. I send down my standard tomahawk and he pushes it back. We push a few times each and I just can't stand it any more. I went for a smash that perhaps I shouldn't have. I landed it right in the middle of the table about a foot from the end and in a place where he could have put it back. But it was so fast his bat touched it and sent it flying off to my left. Game Over! 4-3. I had felt like I'd won a great battle and had stolen victory from the jaws of defeat.
I let out another huge joyful shout and pressure release. I went up and shook his hand, and he was a bit grumpy looking, but I thought he was ok.
He made some more comments about how s*** my rubbers were. I told him I was just happy to get a win tonight after losing the final last night. He told me I was nothing special. I said I know I'm not. He said in fact you're s***, and certainly no champion. At this point I said, hey fair go, why get this way? He said I started it by bragging. I said I wasn't bragging I was just happy. He wouldn't accept this, so I walked away wondering why it is I keep meeting these people that get nasty when they lose.
I lose often, and I just accept that it happens. I can't ever recall abusing someone for beating me. I lost a game tonight. Was I happy about it? No. In fact I got beaten by a kid who plays division 1 and plays in Div 3 just for the fun and practice. A part of me feels this is unfair, but I also know the comp would be one short if he didn't play too. And I also know it has to be good facing better players. And after all, if there was no losing, we would also not know winning. They go hand in hand. I just don't understand why when I beat people lately they end up cracking it on me. If I taunted them openly or something, well then I'd understand it. The only thing that could be seen as taunts tonight to this guy was my 2 shouts after winning the last 2 games. And this was nothing to do with him, it was me reacting to my own feelings.
Anyway I was so consumed by his attitude I completely forgot we had doubles still to play. I was buggered, and could barely raise my bat. My mate was far from on his game as well. So we went down 4-0. So my one little victory for the night against them winning all the other matches, was jaded by this guys attitude. Although I am still basking in the glory of beating one of the B2 premiers who will now be a B1 player, when I am still in B3, LOL.
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Beauty is only pimple deep! Beauty is in the eye of the pipholder!
