The Olympic Spirit

Avery Brundage, the long time head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) before money, corruption and scandal was a fervent believer in the Olympic Spirit which was as he defined "just taking part" and I do agree with him. I find the modern Olympics have transcended what I consider sport to be -- some exercise that I enjoy doing which someone years ago has turned into a game -- into little more than a mincing machine of ever increasing physical achievement, TV rights and therefore money, and regrettably poor behavior by people who really should know better.

Happily though the Olympic Spirit does live on for on the last 3 days we have enjoyed a wonderful tournament that brought 41 teams from many countries nearby as well as other clubs within Malaysia to Penang Sports Club which has been at its most beautiful. In all nearly 500 people, all in the masters division (40+). According to one of the guys at the club, this is the largest tournament of its type not only in the country but also in the Far East region! That's pretty darned good.

Over 500 people came to the gala dinner in the marquee next to the club house and grass courts

Obviously the host club has to have sufficient resources to be able to manage the logistics and the club does: 19 courts -- 10 omni synthetic 'grass' courts plus 9 truly lovely grass courts. Not many places have grass courts these days; the amount of time and attention needed makes them so costly but here in Penang labour costs are more reasonable and the groundsman, a 80 year old who has retired every year for the past 10 years and has successfully been persuaded back each year too, is a virtuoso. Grass courts are a really big attraction for people who rarely get to play on them. Factor in an army of volunteers, two hawker stands creating food for the throng and a generous sponsor who provided an ocean of cold beer and what could else would you need?

What a lovely sight that is. Grass courts with the club house in the background  and the Penang Hill way back

Last year there were 32 clubs competing so 41 is a big jump particularly when you consider that not all those clubs that wanted to take part were able to. Simply not enough room. So 12 ladies doubles, up from 8 last year. 5 in the over 65 group, the so-called Grand Masters, versus none last year, and 24 men's doubles.

I was in the 65+ group having reached that landmark a couple of weeks ago and was keen to take part as this year will be my best chance of being the most competitive, seeing as I am the youngest and presumably most mobile in the group. Viv was a volunteer but all my regular tennis buddies were there as the club had 6 teams entered, 2 in each group.

My team was called the Legends, something that I was very pleased about as my last cricket team in Bermuda was also called the Legends so this felt like completing the circle and according to everyone at the club, we had a real chance of winning our division. Annoyingly I had tweaked my achilles tendon a few days before the start but had iced it and had physio aplenty to give myself the best chance of recovery and it seemed to go OK as things felt fine. However this wasn't the case for everyone as it was really hot. This is the dry season so humidity is down but the heat gauge is up. On the day before, the reading reached 39 celsius (or 102 Fahrenheit) around 3 pm which of course is the prime time for playing tournament tennis.

The first match I played was against an Aussie team from Darwin (all the guys were comfortably in their 70's and were totally rock solid even if they weren't as mobile as before) and the pair I played had one guy with Parkinson's who unfortunately for him passed out on court during what was likely to be the match's final game (they were killing us and were 2 points from victory). So we won that one and then another and another and another and all of a sudden after 2 days we were 4-0 having lost only 1 tie (ours was considered a victory!!). So it was looking like we could in fact live up to the pre-tournament hype.

On the last day, we were due to play on grass and if I haven't said it before I'll say it again... the courts were absolutely lovely. My partner hated them and told me he'd do anything never to play on them but I thought they were just great and on this occasion we started off just fine moving without much effort to 5-2, 40-0 and multiple set points. Cruising, one may say.

Our final opponents in green before our last match with a couple of special coin tossers

However one may also say there is many a slip between cup and the lip and annoyingly that was the case here for as I turned to run back for a lob, I felt sharp pain in my ankle like I'd been hit with a bat or something and sadly that was my game over. It was also the match over for us. And even more annoyingly it was also the entire rubber over too as one of our other pairs proceeded to lose their tie.

My team... runners up, not winners. Grrrr....

I know, its the taking part that counts but it is really gutting to lose like that. Most of all it is letting the other guys down in that fashion. Mind you I hadn't exactly been the doyen of good taste myself as earlier I had found the trophy and well...

Don't you hate sayings? It seems that there's one for every occasion... both for and against any subject. 'Look before you leap' versus 'The early bird catches the worm'. 'Fools rush in' versus 'Faint heart never won fair lady.' The one that springs to mind here is that horrible one about pride coming before a fall. I'm sure you know that one. I do.